Owners of analog TV sets can send off their application for a free converter box to prepare for the digital switch over that will happen in February 2009. Two coupons will be sent to each person who applies, worth $40 off a digital converter box each.
Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas brought the U.S. closer to becoming a biofuel economy, planting huge tracts of land for the first time with switchgrass and proving that it can deliver more than five times more energy than it takes to grow it.
TomTom, a maker of personal navigation devices, said Wednesday that customers can now use Google’s mapping service to find business addresses and then transfer them via a computer to a TomTom gadget.
It has been reported that Microsoft wants to acquire computer peripherals maker Logitech for $8 billion. The firm’s co-founder doesn’t want to sell. He only owns 6% of shares, but the deal could still be a problem with antitrust regulators.
Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. Two patients had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. They chewed too much gum.
Domain name registrar GoDaddy has increased its base price for .com domains to $9.99, plus an ICANN fee of $.20. It’s due to increases in the prices Verisign charges for all .coms. Good thing they keep having great discounts that I tell you about.
Microsoft reported quarterly earnings Thursday that beat analysts estimates, citing robust demand for its Vista operating system as well as its new video game “Halo 3.” Shares of the company were up nearly 10 percent after-hours. If only I kept my stock.
The Senate on Thursday night approved a seven-year extension of a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access. The two chambers will have to reach a compromise on the length of the ban and other differences.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a $27.5 billion buyout of Alltel Corp., the nation’s fifth-largest wireless carrier, to a private investment group.
Would-be technologists are turned off by the tech crash of the early ’00s, the shift of jobs overseas to outsourcing providers, and an overall perception of IT as a go-nowhere, nuts-and-bolts profession, observers say. Good thing I love my job.
Internet search leader Google is sharpening its focus on the television ad medium with demographic data from the Nielsen. Google will pay Nielsen an undisclosed amount to obtain detailed information about the kinds of people who watch specific TV shows.
Microsoft is investing $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. The investment values Facebook at $15 billion. As part of the deal, Microsoft will sell the banner ads on Facebook outside of the United States, splitting the revenue with them.
The Xbox has overtaken the Wii this month. But I doubt it’s sustainable. It was a Halo 3 pop. But the 360 can easily get a place in people’s homes with the PS3 being so unattractive, and the Wii being hard to come by.
Since I just posted a PS3 commercial, I thought I’d see if the commercial I saw recently for the Xbox 360 was online. You can see the 360 being put together with flying game cases, while playful music sets a happy tone. I think I might start posting commercials more often. Lookout Coolz0r, here I come.
So Microsoft has this cool new desktop application called Windows Live Writer. It makes blogging as easy as creating documents in Word, and incorporates a few unique features. I wasn’t going to be blogging about for a few days, but it appears the embargo was broken by an unprofessional blogger and I might as well add my two cents while the buzz is still building. First a few pictures of installation and configuration.
What interests me most is the ability to easily insert maps into your posts, and the SDK that lets you add support for other services to Windows Live Writer. With maps you can choose from road views, aerial views, or my favorite: bird’s eye views. Bird’s eye views are only available for certain locations.
Here you can see a resized part of the Microsoft campus in the bird’s eye view. You can then modify the layout by clicking on the map. You can specify whether or not text wraps around the map, you can set a caption, and you can set margins so that your text isn’t right up against the map. Another nice feature is being able to resize the maps, which crops the photo instead of distorting it with a real resize that keeps the current aspect ratio.
Adding images is a snap. You can set sizes, and add effects. You can even add watermarks like I have in the screenshots above.
I have to say that the nicest feature is being able to work on your posts in a What You See Is What You Get view. No longer will you have to keep saving your post updates in order to see how they will look. The Web Preview is supposed to be able to show you exactly how your post will look on your site. Though for me it it wasn’t working because it’s creating local copies of the blog’s files but they are all 0kb in file length.
Windows Live Writer is a welcome addition to the publishing arena, and will compete with Performancing for Firefox for my affection. Primarily because Microsoft has made publishing photos to my blog so easy. And I can always create an addon using their SDK to add any features I wish they had.
The Seattle Times has an article that says Microsoft really is working on a line of Xbox-branded digital-media products. The project code-named Argo is being developed by the Xbox group. Apparently it has Wi-Fi capability and will compete with the iPod and portable gaming devices.
This could be a big gamble to fight off the companies impeding on Microsoft’s territory with their pervasive technology that causes customers to use their software. Case in point: I use iTunes because I needed it to connect with my iPod. Now there are free software options that don’t require the use of iTunes to transfer music, like one I mentioned here, but I didn’t care so much to look for one at the time.
News of a Microsoft-branded iPod competitor has abounded for a while now. Microsoft consistently denies the rumors. So this article could be wrong, and it could be a product for other manufacturers to develop such as that portable tablet PC Microsoft released a few months ago that went by the name of Origami. Or it could be something else. Only time will tell, and of course I will tell you as soon as I find anything more concrete. But for now the article is an interesting read, and if correct could offer some new insight into Microsoft’s operations.
Microsoft is planning a wiki-like system that would allow its employees to work together to plot the company’s future. The tool will be based on Microsoft’s SharePoint portal technology and is part of an effort “to allow Microsoft to better distribute its strategic planning among its many technical leaders.”
This seems like an interesting move, though they will have to make sure good ideas don’t get buried in the efforts of their thousands of employees. There is an inherent risk involved with wikis that information can easily get lost or forgotten, though it is easier to find than it would be if the information wasn’t online.
Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed here are my personal opinions. They are not endorsed by any party and no party has anything to do with them. But I do love to par-tay!
subscribe
Posts (RSS)