Windows Vista finally released in India at TAJ

In New York, they hired acrobats to display the Windows logo, In Australia, they had skywriters grab attention, while in Agra they had dancers perform in front of the Taj Mahal, and all this to try and get PC users the world over take notice of its latest offerings — Windows Vista and 2007 Office System. Redmond-based software maker Microsoft launched its latest version of Windows, called Vista, on Tuesday, ending one of the most challenging periods in its corporate history.

Says Microsoft India MD Neelam Dhawan: "We are expecting 1,500 outlets to sell Vista and train 1,800 resellers for Vista. The enterprise edition of the OS that was launched in November last year already has 885,000 users till the last count, in addition to 150,000 developers working on the Vista platform."

The company launched Vista for business users two months ago. Now Vista has been released to consumers, who can buy four home versions, namely Vista Starter, being the basic to Vista Ultimate, the high-end one. At the same time, its 2007 Office comes in two versions — Home and Student and Basic.

It is the world's largest software producer's first significant launch in the last six years after Windows XP in 2001. Microsoft had previously delayed the launch of its new OS, originally due in the second half of 2006 to 2007. Says Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan: "In the meantime, Microsoft also came up with Service Pack 2 for XP, which is as good as an OS itself.

In addition, efforts to improve security and building user interface from ground level took a long time for the launch of Vista." The OS required Microsoft to invest nearly $6 billion. However, upgrades from the existing OS to Vista still remain a concern for the software maker.

While Microsoft has pledged to continue support for XP users until 2011. But because only about 15% of existing computers have memory and graphics cards powerful enough to run premium versions of Vista, most users will have to buy a whole new computer if they want to upgrade.

Says Doug Hauger, COO, Microsoft India, "PCs which have been in the market for the last 3 years may be capable to run Vista but may not get all effects which the OS offers." Microsoft simultaneously rolled out its two flagship products in over 30 countries. The new operating system boasts an improved interface and security tools. Vista marks a complete overhaul of its previous OS - Windows XP.

The new OS boasts an improved interface and networking tools. Microsoft has also given the program a new design, with a glossy look. The new OS offers new elements like an aero glass (hardware based graphical user interface), more search options, new sound and networking technologies. Says Mr Hauger, "The Vista experience is not just limited to the PC, the OS also allows for interaction with HDTV and IPTV."

But not all PCs will be able to run Vista - Microsoft recommends machines have at least 512Mb of RAM, a 800Mhz processor, 15Gb of hard disk space and graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable. The company now has plans to launch a new mobile OS to interact with Vista.

While prices for Vista home basic is the same as compared to XP Home Edition, Genuine Vista loaded PCs in India will retail at prices starting from Rs 22,000. The pricing for the Office consumer editions will start at Rs 6,000.

Are You Hungry For PPC?

A recent post at the Yahoo Buzz Blog about popular menu searches contains some really good information for those in the restaurant business contemplating a PPC campaign. One of the knocks on some of the bigger conglomerates is they don’t really leverage paid search as well you’d expect and this criticism rings true for the chain restaurant business.

Well, these major players are running out of excuses, especially when they are presented with logistical search data that shows people actual do search for subjects related to these businesses. The post in question - What’s on the Menu - details what chain restaurant menus are being searched the most.

Normally, data like this has to be researched using logs and other analytical features. However, because of Yahoo’s intervention, this information is available at the click of a mouse… and this data can be leveraged to initiate a successful PPC campaign if an enterprising company chose to do so. The list for most popular menu searches is as follows:

1. Pizza Hut Menu
2. Taco Bell Menu
3. Olive Garden Menu
4. McDonald’s Menu
5. Outback Steakhouse Menu
6. Chili’s Menu
7. Jason’s Deli Menu
8. Jack in the Box Menu
9. Red Lobster Menu
10. Wendy’s Menu

As you can see, data like this should be very easy to leverage when it comes to a PPC campaigns. But what if you are a competitor to one of these companies. Does this list affect you as well? In short, yes it does for the simple fact you can bid on another company’s trademarks, something Mazda did when the Google/Pontiac television commercials launched.

Effective PPC campaigns usually entail a great deal of research. Now, thanks to the Yahoo Buzz Blog, a lot of that work concerning chain restaurants has been done for you.

Microsoft & Nortel Unveil BizCom Roadmap

Last July, Microsoft and Nortel announced a strategic partnership in order to develop innovative methods of business communication by focusing on integrating voice, e-mail, instant messaging, multimedia conferencing and other forms of communication.

Today, the companies jointly unveiled a road map for 2007, which included plans for a unified desktop and soft phone for VoIP, e-mail, and instant messaging, as well as the Nortel Communication Server 2100, large scale telephony hardware which can support up to 200,000 users on a single system.

Microsoft and Nortel also rolled out three new solutions geared at helping businesses make the transition to VoIP and unified communications:

UC Integrated Branch. This new product from the alliance will incorporate Nortel and Microsoft technology on a single piece of hardware that delivers cost-effective, high-quality and easy-to-deploy VoIP and unified communications in remote offices. The UC Integrated Branch is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Unified Messaging. To simplify customer deployments, native session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability between the Nortel Communication Server 1000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging is planned to be available in the second quarter of 2007. The solution includes Nortel professional services for design, deployment and support.

Conferencing. This new solution will extend the rich feature set of Nortel Multimedia Conferencing to Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, delivering a single, familiar client experience consistent across applications such as voice, instant messaging, presence, and audio- and videoconferencing. The on-premise solution is planned to be available in the fourth quarter of 2007.

"We are executing forcefully on the vision of this alliance and have made tremendous progress," said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel CEO and President.

"We completed the planning stages and are now delivering unified communications solutions to businesses around the world. Our goal is to close the gap between the devices we use to communicate and the business applications we use to run our businesses, giving employees the power to use information more quickly and effectively."

"The average employee gets more than 50 messages every day1 on up to seven different devices or applications," added Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

"Software can and will help address the ongoing challenge of managing communications and this challenge is the driving idea behind our alliance with Nortel. Together, we will evolve VoIP and unified communications to integrate all the ways we contact each other in a simple environment, using a single identity across phones, PCs and other devices."

MIVA Launches New Ad Solutions

Publishers and bloggers, looking to monetize their site, have a new option to consider with today's launch of MIVA MC. Any publisher in the U.S. or U.K. can apply for a MIVA MC account, and if accepted into the program, can display a wide array of ads on their site, including:

• Content Ads: keyword or contextually targeted Pay-Per-Click Ads displayed in fully customized implementations beside site content.
• MIVA InLine Ads: Pay-Per-Click Ads that appear when users mouse over hyperlinked keywords within actual site content.
• Search Ads: Pay-Per-Click Ads displayed in response to specific typed-in search queries.

I spent some time today with MIVA, getting an in-depth look at the tools they provide to MIVA MC users, and I have to admit they're quick, easy to use and offer great customization of ads.


One of the most interesting ad options is the MIVA Inline Ads - those underlined text ads that often look like hyperlinks. Publishers can control the look, the pop-up window properties and even how many keywords to tag and which areas of a page to show the ads. It all works well, and very easy to add to any web site.

That being said, I'm still struggling to identify where you'll be able to use inline ads without annoying your readers. Maybe a publisher, that doesn't often link to external sources, may find more tolerance for them, but bloggers may discover a little more of a backlash - as most readers expect underlined links to go somewhere other than an ad.

In any event, there's enough ad options for MIVA MC to be a good compliment to a publisher's other ad units - MIVA does not require exclusivity - and MIVA can be commended for being transparent in sharing with publishers the revenue share amount.

If anyone signs-up for the service, and would like to write a review for Marketing Pilgrim, drop me a line.

Google Joins Indian Police Against Orkut Abusers

The recent abuse of the social networking site, Orkut, of Google created lot of uproar in the country.

Tech2 reports this has led to Google to build a team that will work in close tandem with Delhi Cyber crime investigation cell for avoiding such kind of abuse of Orkut by anyone.

A Google spokesperson said "We take the misuse of Orkut very seriously and are reaching out to the appropriate authorities in India to address this." A special 'reporting tool' will be developed for Indian authorities. The reporting tool will help the police to be in contact with Google for removing any unacceptable material and help in prosecution and investigation."

According to Google the tool will be easy to use and no special training of the Indian police will be required. The spokesperson also said "This is part of Google continued efforts to collaborate with the authorities, doing so in a way that of course balances users' interests and the need for the proper legal process."

Outsourcing TV licensing to India: UK workers to strike

Workers of TV Licensing, the body responsible for the collection and enforcement of a television licence in Britain, have voted overwhelmingly to strike against plans to move the work to Mumbai.

The majority of TV Licensing's administration is contracted to Capita Business Services Ltd. Workers in the TV licence headquarters have overwhelmingly backed industrial action following Capita's decision to outsource the work to Mumbai.

In a Communication Workers Union-organised ballot, 94.6 per cent of employees voted 'Yes' to action, according to assistant secretary Andy Furey. The decision to outsource to India with the support of the BBC will result in the loss of hundreds of jobs in Bristol, he warned.

Around 124 employees are expected to take part in the official action in the near future. The CWU is also launching a public campaign to increase awareness of the risk to the public caused by the alleged lack of security of customer bank details in Indian call centres.

Furey said: "CWU condemns the cynical decision by Capita to offshore UK TV licence jobs to India This move, by a successful blue-chip company, is motivated entirely by greed.

"It will result not only in the loss of quality employment but will also leave customers' personal information and bank details open to abuse."

A licence is compulsory for the millions of television owners in Britain. A majority of the BBC's funding comes from the licence fee, which currently stands at 131.50 pounds every year for a colour television set and 44 pounds for a black and white one.

Capita, a BPO major, is also responsible for collecting the congestion charge from motorists in London, the Criminal Records Bureau and the teachers' pension scheme. The company plans to move television licensing work to Mumbai later this year.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: "This is the outsourcing of another British institution. The outsourcing of the TV licence administration will create unnecessary security fears for the British public and put hundreds of people in Bristol out of work."

CWU spokesman Kevin Slocombe said: "A lot of blue-chip companies are bringing work back to the UK from India because of concerns about security. But Capita is going in the opposite direction".

In a statement, the BBC said: "Capita's decision to move more back-office operations to India was made in the interest of providing the highest possible standards of service and value for money for licence fee payers."

A Capita spokesperson said: "All of our customer details are and will continue to be held in secure IT systems in the UK. There will be no immediate job losses."

Security tools ready for Vista launch

Microsoft is promoting Windows Vista as the most secure version of its operating system yet--but it's still recommending outside help to shield against common cyberthreats.

All major security software makers, as well as many smaller ones, will have products available for Vista when the operating system is launched to consumers on January 30, Microsoft said Wednesday. That's a different story from last November, when Vista was released for businesses. At that time, only one major security company, McAfee, was ready.

"Windows Vista is the most secure operating system we've ever built," Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of the security technology unit at Microsoft, said in a statement. "Our security partners continue to play a vital role in adding layers of protection onto the Microsoft Windows platform."

Microsoft is increasingly encroaching on the terrain of traditional security companies such as Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro. Included in Vista are two of the three protection technologies that security experts typically recommend for any Windows PC: a firewall and a spyware shield. The new operating system lacks the third: virus protection, but Microsoft now sells that as Windows Live OneCare.

In what could be good news for the security companies, some reviewers aren't enthusiastic about Windows Firewall, the Windows Defender spyware tool or Windows Live OneCare. The Microsoft software offers mostly basic protection and is not the best of its class, such critics have said.

Aside from the basic protection features, Microsoft has fitted Vista with several more features to thwart cyberattacks. For example, Internet Explorer 7 runs in a protected mode to prevent installation of malicious software through security holes. Also, User Account Control runs a Vista PC with fewer user privileges, in an effort to keep malicious code from doing as much damage as it would on a machine running in administrator mode--a typical setting on Windows XP.

In addition, Vista includes parental controls, and IE 7 has a filter to block phishing scams.

"There is no doubt that Vista will be Microsoft's most secure operating system. However, most secure is not equivalent to secure," said Natalie Lambert, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Users need to protect themselves."

Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and numerous others will have antivirus software and other protection tools available when Vista hits the market later this month. Microsoft, which has been pushing into the security market since last May, will also have a version of Windows Live OneCare ready for Vista buyers, the company said.

To distinguish itself from the pack, Symantec on Tuesday announced a new feature for Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus. The products, for Vista and Windows XP, will include a new detection mechanism called "Sonar" that looks at the behavior of code on a PC to determine whether it's malicious, rather than using the traditional signatures--a kind of "fingerprint" of known bad code.

"We're ensuring that customers remain fully protected on the new Vista operating system," Rowan Trollope, vice president for Symantec's consumer business unit, said in a statement.

Running security software is just part of the job to protect a Vista PC, Lambert said. "Customers should also make sure that they have good patch hygiene," she said. Also, simply clicking "yes" on any security warnings that the operating displays will negate the effect of the protection, she noted, specifically referring to User Account Control.

But one Vista user doesn't have protection beyond what's in the operating system: the 7-year-old son of Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Windows chief. Allchin clarified, though, that his boy's PC is locked down significantly, to the extent that he can access only certain Web sites and can't use e-mail or instant messaging.

"I want to be clear--most users will use some form of antivirus software," Allchin wrote on a corporate blog in November. "In fact, Windows Security Center, a great feature in Windows Vista, specifically encourages the use of antivirus software."

Toshiba launched high-definition DVD player

Toshiba has launched its new high-definition DVD player in Europe, marking the start of a battle for living room domination.

The electronics firm wants consumers to use their HD-E1 DVD system rather than the rival Blu-Ray format.

Blu-Ray is being backed by electronics firms Sony, Samsung and Panasonic as well as a number of film studios.

The tussle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is similar to the 1980s war between VHS and Betamax video, analysts said.

Toshiba has forecast 500,000 worldwide sales of its HD-DVD player by March 2007.

Its system will retail for about £450, roughly half the price of Blu-ray.

A more feature-laden HD DVD player from Toshiba - the HD-XE1 - is planned to launch from late January 2007 for around £649.

Despite differences, both of the new DVD formats offer greater storage capacity than traditional players to cope with the increased size of encoded images needed for high-definition televisions.

And both players have an internet connection, which adds further possibilities of downloadable extras and film teasers.

HD-DVD discs contain up to 30 gigabytes (GB) of data, compared with 50 GB for Blu-ray.

Disney and 20th Century Fox are backing Blu-ray, while Universal is supporting HD-DVD.

Warner Bros and Viacom have said they will support both.

With no agreement between studios, both formats may continue to exist side-by-side for a while, analysts said, adding that many consumers may put off buying a system until a clear winner emerges.

Skype founders move into net TV

The founders of the Skype internet telephony service are launching what they describe as the world's first broadcast quality internet TV service.

Following speculation about a service dubbed The Venice Project, the online television software is now being unveiled under the name Joost.

It is designed to enable broadcasters to get their programmes in front of a global internet audience.

It will allow viewers to access all kinds of television over the internet.

Trial period

The chief executive, Frederik de Wahl, showing off the service in Joost's London offices, claimed that it provided a different experience from other internet television ventures.

"We are trying to replicate the complete television experience," he explained as he flicked through channels using the Joost interface on a widescreen television.

"It's full-screen, broadcast quality, you've got instant channel flipping, and interactivity - a viewer can come to us and get all their TV needs."

The service is still undergoing trials, but thousands of people have taken up an invitation to download the software and try it out.

But the big question is what is there to watch?

So far, it is hard to see a compelling reason to switch on to Joost, which will be a free service supported by advertising.

Competitive market

There is a line-up of sports, documentaries and music programming, but nothing that is going to tempt many away from their existing television diet.

But Mr De Wahl insists this is just trial programming and when the full launch takes place in the next few months there will be much more impressive content on offer.

Joost is backed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Skype, while Frederik de Wahl previously ran a business whose peer-to-peer software was used in Skype.

He says a version of that software is key to the appeal of Joost, with new peer-to-peer technology, backed up by the firm's own servers, making it possible to stream video on demand.

But rival services are already casting doubt on the claim that Joost represents a new frontier for internet television.

BT Vision, launched in December, offers video-on-demand via broadband, and Channel Four Television says its 4OD service promises DVD-quality programmes to download to your computer.

Meanwhile another company calling itself Babelgum contacted the BBC to insist that its service, launching in March, would also use peer-to-peer technology to stream video at "near-TV resolution".

A spokesman said "the Venice Project hasn't got this to itself."

The battle to broadcast over the internet is hotting up and the Venice Project - or Joost as we now must call it - will have to make plenty of noise to make itself heard.

Film fans get permanent downloads

King Kong will be among the first films available on the service

Film fans in the UK will soon be able to legally download and keep blockbuster movies for the first time, according to film studio Universal.

King Kong and Pride and Prejudice will be among the first films available from the new service on the AOL website.

Fans will pay £19.99 for a DVD of their chosen film plus two digital copies to keep indefinitely - one for their home computer and one for a portable device.

Universal said it could "completely revolutionise" how people watch movies.

However users will not be able to burn copies of the films to DVD themselves and the files will be compatible only with PCs and Windows software.

That means they cannot be viewed on Apple iPods or Macs.

Last month, another UK website, Wippit, started offering permanent downloads - but only independent movies are currently available.

Other sites offer Hollywood movies - but only allow customers to keep the digital files for a set time, from one day to a month.

Universal Pictures UK chairman Eddie Cunningham said this would be the first of many such announcements and digital films would become available in many different ways.

"I think what you're seeing here is the beginning of a revolution in terms of how we can distribute digitally and I would expect you'll see a lot more news of this type over the next few months," he said.

He said his company just wanted to get its movies out to the widest possible audience.

Consumers felt "much more comfortable" if a DVD was included in the package as well as the downloads, he said.

"The statistics said people were three times as likely to pick up on this service if the physical copy was included as part of the bundle, and that astonished us."

The service is not compatible with iPods

Arash Amel, senior analyst at industry journal Screen Digest, told the BBC News website the Universal move was "excellent" for the consumer.

"I think download-to-own is possibly one of the most exciting developments for digital movie downloads over the PC," he said.

The UK movie download market is expected to be worth £200m by 2010, he said - with 40% of that coming from permanent downloads, he said.

The fact that films can be watched on a portable device is also a "major breakthrough", he said. "This is not the norm. This is quite a major step forward."

But studios must allow fans to burn films to DVDs themselves to allow greater flexibility and let prices come down, he added.

'A good move'

"I honestly think that the market won't grow to the same degree if they don't start offering that also.

"It's an exciting time but there are still issues that have to be addressed if this is going to really take off."

Paul Jackson, principal analyst for technology research company Forrester Research, said it was "overall a good move".

"I can see those portable video player consumers taking to this as an easy (and inexpensive, if they were going to buy the DVD anyway) way to get legitimate content onto their devices," he said.

But he added that because the service uses Windows Media Player 10, "it won't work with the video iPod or Sony's PSP, top contenders for portable video playback, or with a Mac PC for that matter".

And Ian Fogg, broadband analyst from Jupiter Research, said the service would only be successful if the price, release date and viewing experience could compete with other ways of watching the same films.

The service will be offered by Universal Pictures UK and DVD rental company Lovefilm via the AOL.co.uk website from 10 April.

Love life & advertisement lines

Love life & Indian advertisement lines

Want to propose a girl
Just do it - Nike

Before going to propose to a girl
Believe in the best - BPL.

If you are hesitating before proposing to a girl
Vicks ki goli lo kich kich door karo - Vicks.

If you are going to propose to a girl
Chances are 50-50 - Britannia.

If a girl slapped you when you proposed to her
Take it easy - Limca.

Girl says NO !
Jor ka jhatka dhire se lage - Mirinda.

Those who succeed in love always say
We dream because we do - Daewoo.

If some one wants to write a love letter to his girlfriend
Likho script apna apna.- Rotomac.

If you love someone
Go get it - Visa power.

Boy riding a bike with neighbor’s girl
Neighbors envy owner’s pride - Onida.

Not satisfied with your date
Yeh dil mangey more - Pepsi.

A guy having a number of girl friends
The Complete Man - Raymonds.

A smart girl having a number of boyfriends
Yeh hai hamara suraksha chakra - Colgate.

For those lost in love
Har shaam ka sathi main aur mera - Bagpiper Whisky.

For a guy ‘r gal who hasn’t yet found one
Dhoondte rehe jayo ge - Surf Exel

Top 10 “Secret” Ways for website promotion

1. Update content.
Create and maintain actual content on your Web site. If you’re trying to sell
something, it helps if you have articles and information about it. If you’re providing information, make sure that you have more than just lists of links for your customers to browse. Having high quality content that is updated regularly will keep
your customers coming back.

2. Write and send a newsletter regularly.
Newsletters remind your customers that your site is still there. E-mail is easy for
your readers to send on to their friends, thus increasing your potential customer base.

3. Post to related newsgroups.
Groups like Yahoo groups, Google groups or the About forums have many topics, there is sure to be one related to your nWeb site.

4. Post to related mailing lists.
Just like the newsgroups, you should find
related lists and get involved with them.
You can find lists at www.topica.com and
www.list-universe.com.

5. Run a contest.
Contests get people interested in your site. Be sure to include an official rules page, and you’ll want to find out if there are any rules in your state our country regarding contests.

6. Invite a guest speaker to your site.
If there is someone in your field who is fairly prestigious, ask them if they might
come and chat with your readers. If you have a chat room, you can hold the event
there. If they don’t want to chat, perhaps they would be willing to write a short note for your site.

7. Advertise online and off.
Banner ads and text links are important, but offline advertising works too. Radio ads, ads in trade journals and so on all helpm to generate interest in your site.

8. Give away free items.
Purchase things like pens or stress balls with your Web site name and URL on them and give them away to your customers.

9. Copy winners.
If there are sites in your topic area that already get lots of hits, visit them to see what they do that is different from your site. If possible, mimic what they do to
add the same value on your site.

10. Watch your page views.
Use your site tracking software to stay informed with what is working and what
isn’t. It doesn’t do any good to purchase a new ad and then never determine if it
actually worked.

How I Work: Bill Gates

Today I was reading about new software updates and found this interesting story by Bill Gates. How The Richest Man of this planet,Bill Gates Works ?

Bill Gates: It's pretty incredible to look back 30 years to when Microsoft (Research) was starting and realize how work has been transformed. We're finally getting close to what I call the digital workstyle.

If you look at this office, there isn't much paper in it. On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you'll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity.In the digital age, Microsoft chair Bill Gates uses a lot of electricity, but not as much paper.

The screen on the left has my list of e-mails. On the center screen is usually the specific e-mail I'm reading and responding to. And my browser is on the right-hand screen. This setup gives me the ability to glance and see what new has come in while I'm working on something, and to bring up a link that's related to an e-mail and look at it while the e-mail is still in front of me.

At Microsoft, e-mail is the medium of choice, more than phone calls, documents, blogs, bulletin boards, or even meetings (voicemails and faxes are actually integrated into our e-mail in-boxes).

I get about 100 e-mails a day. We apply filtering to keep it to that level—e-mail comes straight to me from anyone I've ever corresponded with, anyone from Microsoft, Intel, HP, and all the other partner companies, and anyone I know. And I always see a write-up from my assistant of any other e-mail, from companies that aren't on my permission list or individuals I don't know. That way I know what people are praising us for, what they are complaining about, and what they are asking.

We're at the point now where the challenge isn't how to communicate effectively with e-mail, it's ensuring that you spend your time on the e-mail that matters most. I use tools like "in-box rules" and search folders to mark and group messages based on their content and importance.

I'm not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I've flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.

Outlook also has a little notification box that comes up in the lower right whenever a new e-mail comes in. We call it the toast. I'm very disciplined about ignoring that unless I see that it's a high-priority topic.

Staying focused is one issue; that's the problem of information overload. The other problem is information underload. Being flooded with information doesn't mean we have the right information or that we're in touch with the right people.

I deal with this by using SharePoint, a tool that creates websites for collaboration on specific projects. These sites contain plans, schedules, discussion boards, and other information, and they can be created by just about anyone in the company with a couple of clicks.

Right now, I'm getting ready for Think Week. In May, I'll go off for a week and read 100 or more papers from Microsoft employees that examine issues related to the company and the future of technology. I've been doing this for over 12 years. It used to be an all-paper process in which I was the only one doing the reading and commenting. Today the whole process is digital and open to the entire company.

I'm now far more efficient in picking the right papers to read, and I can add electronic comments that everyone sees in real time.

Microsoft has more than 50,000 people, so when I'm thinking, "Hey, what's the future of the online payment system?" or "What's a great way to keep track of your memories of your kid?" or any neat new thing, I write it down. Then people can see it and say, "No, you're wrong" or "Did you know about this work being done at such-and-such a place?"

SharePoint puts me in touch with lots of people deep in the organization. It's like having a super-website that lets many people edit and discuss—far more than the standard practice of sending e-mails with enclosures. And it notifies you if anything comes up in an area you're interested in.

Another digital tool that has had a big effect on my productivity is desktop search. It has transformed the way I access information on my PC, on servers, and on the Internet. With larger hard drives and increasing bandwidth, I now have gigabytes of information on my PC and servers in the form of e-mails, documents, media files, contact databases, and so on.

Instead of having to navigate through folders to find that one document where I think a piece of information might be, I simply type search terms into a toolbar and all the e-mails and documents that contain that information are at my fingertips. The same goes for phone numbers and email addresses.

Paper is no longer a big part of my day. I get 90% of my news online, and when I go to a meeting and want to jot things down, I bring my Tablet PC. It's fully synchronized with my office machine so I have all the files I need. It also has a note-taking piece of software called OneNote, so all my notes are in digital form.

The one low-tech piece of equipment still in my office is my whiteboard. I always have nice color pens, and it's great for brainstorming when I'm with other people, and even sometimes by myself.

The whiteboards in some Microsoft offices have the ability to capture an image and send it up to the computer, almost like a huge Tablet PC. I don't have that right now, but probably I'll get a digital whiteboard in the next year. Today, if there's something up there that's brilliant, I just get out my pen and my Tablet PC and recreate it.

Days are often filled with meetings. It's a nice luxury to get some time to go write up my thoughts or follow up on meetings during the day. But sometimes that doesn't happen. So then it's great after the kids go to bed to be able to just sit at home and go through whatever e-mail I didn't get to. If the entire week is very busy, it's the weekend when I'll send the long, thoughtful pieces of e-mail. When people come in Monday morning, they'll see that I've been quite busy— they'll have a lot of e-mail.

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1.8 MB in size.

The following indicative download speeds can be expected :
56 Kbps Dial-up connections : Approx 8 minutes
256 Kbps Broadband Connection : Approx 1 minute

type organism - Convert Photograph into a Text Portrait

Ascii-o-Matic is a Flash application that reads your JPG image and creates an interesting plain text portrait filled with just ASCII characters [like you see in the example above, the picture in the inset is the original image]

You also get an HTML version of the image meaning you can copy-paste that code on any webpage. Or just save the generated ASCII image as a standard graphic using any screen-capture tool.

ASCII-o-Matic is faster than most other ASCII conversion tools out there but you are limited to uploaded only JPEG images with a standard 60x50 size.

ASCII-O-Matic.com - probably a good place to convert those MyBlogLog Avatars into text images.

iPhone Skins for Windows Mobile Phones & PalmOS

"Creative designers" have created iPhone skins for Palm Treo and other smartphones that anyone can download from the web to make their phone look like the iPhone.

Though these skins don't add iPhone like features to your mobile device, Apple is unhappy because the iPhony themes use the actual iPhone icons made from the screenshots available on the Apple website.

Therefore, Apple lawyers are having a very busy time typing cease-&-desist letters to skin developers and websites that are hosting the iPhone skins.

Apple's lawyers also sent letters to journalists who simply reported on the fact that the skins were available.

We are not jumping into any debate here but this iPhone skin story does prove two things about the web:

1. It is virtually impossible to remove anything from the web. The more you try to police a thing, the more popular it gets and new clones surface video clips on Youtube that . [Remember Daniela Cicarellilater surfaced on Google Videos]

2. Linking to sites that host unauthorized copyrighted content may be considered illegal. We have seen that with Fox and now Apple is also following the same path. Their legal team is after bloggers who are trying to spread the word about iPhone skins.

One of the letters from the law firm hired by Apple says - "While we appreciate your interest in the iPhone, the icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple" - would that mean using iPhone screenshots on blogs is illegal ?

Nokia 7373 - L'Amour Collection

• Innovative swivel design
• Vibrant QVGA display with up to 262,144 colors
• Integrated 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and video recorder
• Stereo music player and FM Radio
• Up to 2GB microSD card support
• Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging function
• Display
  262K colours QVGA 320 x 240 pixels 2" display
  Adjustable brightness and contrast
• User Interface
  S40 user interface
  Separate key for camera and for zoom
  Full screen viewfinder
• Imaging
  Integrated 2 megapixel camera with up to 8x digital zoom
  3GPP Streaming
• Multimedia
  Visual Radio: Listen to music and interact with your favourite radio stations
  Find out what song is playing, who it's by and other artist information
  Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favourite songs
  Download the songs you buy directly into your phone
  Integrated FM radio
  Integrated music player with enhanced user interface and play list for MP3/AAC/M4A/eAAC+/AAC+/WMA formats
  Music library with sort by Artist, Genre and Album
• Memory Functions
  128 MB built-in memory
  Option to expand memory up to 2GB with microSD card slot
• Ringing Tones
  Supported file formats: MP3, SpMidim AAC, AAC+, enhanced AAC+
  64-chord/voice polyphonic MIDI ringing tones
  Video ringtones
• Connectivity
  Pop-Port connector
  Bluetooth
• Data Transfer
  EDGE*: Class B, multislot class 10
  GPRS: Class B, multislot class 10
  HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data)* / CSD (Circuit-Switched Data)

Size:

• Weight: 104 g
• Dimensions: 88 x 43 x 23 mm

Network:

• Triband GSM 900/1800/1900

Quick Links

• Operating Frequency
• Dimensions
• Display
• User Interface
• Imaging
• Multimedia
• Memory Functions
• Messaging
• Games
• Java™ Applications
• Ringing Tones
• Connectivity
• Browsing
• Data Transfer
• Digital Services
• Voice Features
• Personal Information Management (PIM)
• Other Features
• Sales Package Contents
• Power Management