Microsoft

1, 2, 3, 7!

Victor Hurdugaci — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:10:29 GMT

Office Live Apps

Victor Hurdugaci — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:57:17 GMT

I wrote on my main blog a small review for Office Live Apps - the Google Docs alternative from Microsoft.
Read the review

Microsoft unveils new controller

Victor Hurdugaci — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:49:37 GMT

Microsoft has unveiled its new control system for the Xbox 360 console, at E3 in Los Angeles.

Project Natal is a fully hands-free control system that will use face recognition and motion sensors to allow users to play games. Film director Steven Spielberg, attending the launch, said it was “a window into what the future holds”.

Basically it allows you to interact with the virtual world without using any controller at all. There is probably one or more webcams that capture movement and other sensors for voice and other forms of interaction. This is just a prototype and I don’t know if it will be possible to interact freely with the system or just under some constrains (light, body position, movement speed, correct language, etc); remains to be seen but it is fascinating.

It is so hard to describe it in words. You must see what it can do to convince yourself that this might be a revolution:

Read the rest of this entry >>

Windows Mobile 6.5 on Toshiba G900

Victor Hurdugaci — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:46:38 GMT

Before writing anything else I must warn all readers that changing the operating systems on your mobile will void the warranty. If the upgrade process fails the phone might be damaged and no service will fix that for free. Do it on your own risk and make sure the following list is satisfied:

Ask people about the ROM you want to install. Make sure it did not broke any phone.
The phone's battery must be at least 50% charged (better 100%)
Make sure you have and UPS. Or a laptop with good battery because if you cancel the process after it started the results might be unexpected.
Make sure the USB cable is firmly connect and is not broken!

I cannot be made responsible for any damages caused directly or indirectly by this article.

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Software + Services. A Modern Approach. Part 2

Victor Hurdugaci — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:46:22 GMT

Part 2 - The idea

< Part 1 (Intro)

Contents:

A little more Live Mesh (CTP)
The Actors
The Modern Approach

1. A little more Live Mesh (CTP)

Today, online and offline tend to be two different approaches for building software. Most software companies offer either online or offline versions of their software.

If they somehow offer both then mostly sure one is a limited (reduced functionality) version of the other. Moreover companies tend to create a gap between the time when the offline and the online version gets updated. You always hear thing like "the online version does not yet support feature X that is available in the desktop version. Will be available soon". The bad thing is the soon might mean a couple of months.

Creating software that works the same way both online and offline is not a new idea but until not it would require a lot of overhead. There was the need to simulate either the offline environment online or the reverse.

Now, with Live Mesh, the online environment is simulated on the local machine with no overhead for the developer. The guys from Microsoft resolved this problem and they've simplified our lives.

There are some aspects that need to be clarified as pointed in Part 1 about online services and applications:

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Software + Services. A Modern Approach. Part 1

Victor Hurdugaci — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:01:42 GMT

Part 1 - Intro

Contents:

What is Software + Services
Azure Services Platform
Live Mesh

1. What is Software + Services

Over the past decade, the world we live in has been transformed by the Web. More and more people gain Internet access, services become more accessible and the experience is improving. There are a lot of advantages of using Internet services:

Low hardware requirements: services use the resources provided by the vendor and not the local ones. We only need devices capable of displaying the information that the service is sending. Most of the time no processing is done locally.
Device independence: a service can be accessed from any device connected the Internet. It does not require special privileges on the local machine and no installation is required.
No maintenance: services are maintained and updated by the service provider, the client must do nothing to configure it. The service is an out of the box solution.
Flexibility: we can change the service provider whenever we want. This capability creates new opportunities for businesses that can dynamically swap services and choose the one that matches their needs.

However there are still some limitations [...] Read the rest of the article >>