Live

Live Framework

Martin Hinshelwood — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:12:22 GMT

I have been getting very interested in the new Azure Services Platform and how I can use it to facilitate WPF development.

Imagine being able to launch a ClickOnce application from anywhere and for it to have exactly the same configuration and settings in all locations, or imagine being able to chat with other users of the application while you are using it.

This things have been relegated to large companies who can afford to support the infrastructure that you would need to run this. In fact, the only industry that I can think of that currently does this with applications is the Gaming industry. If you look at the capabilities of Xbox Live and think of all the cool things your users could achieve if the same communication and collaboration tools were available within even the simplest application.

For example, if I was to think of a couple of simple things that I would like the TFS Sticky Buddy to be able to do:

Central storage for configuration (single setup across multiple computers)
Chat with members of your team to be identified by linking your Team System login and email with you Live ID.
Presence information on those team members, or anyone you might need to interact with.

Coool…..

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Live Services,.NET Services,SQL Services

SkyDrive: 25 GB of free online storage

Martin Hinshelwood — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:18:00 GMT

Some of the new Windows Live Wave 3 services have gone live over the last couple of days. One of the best IMO is the SkyDrive services, updated to 25GB and with complete integration with other services like Photo Share, Connect to people…

You can connect to your Facebook and LinkedIn contacts as well :)

A nice feature is the ability to link your live accounts so you can easily switch from your clever [yourname]@[yourdomain].com to your nasty [yourname]@live.com address.

As you can see from the menu structure, all of your services are all in one place, although some of those other services, OneCare for example, have not yet been updated as you can’t get back into the same bits… I am sure it will come…

The SkyDrive service has had a major overall and has a nice new home page as well as the integration with Live Photo and a whopping 25gb of space…

Here is a comprehensive list of all Windows Live services currently available with the exception of the fantastic Live Mesh which is still in beta.

Windows Live

Home
Get a quick view of your world—e-mail, invitations, and what’s new with your network.
Profile
Share your world online–your activities, your photos, and the people you know.
People
Manage your contacts from Hotmail, Messenger, and Profile, all in one place.
Mail
Get fast, easy, reliable e-mail from Hotmail, with more spam protection and plenty of storage.
Photos
Post your favourite shots online in beautiful slideshows that only the people you choose can see.
Calendar
Check your schedule, share calendars with others, and get reminders when you need them.
Events
Plan your next event with customized invitations, a guest list, RSVPs, and a place to share online.
SkyDrive
Store the files you need online and share them with the people you choose.
Groups
Bring your team, club, or other group together with a webpage, calendar, and more.
Spaces
Express yourself with your own customized webpage—add a blog, photos, videos, and more.
Family Safety
Help protect your kids online, with customizable web filters and contact management.
Mobile
Stay in sync from the road, with Windows Live on your web-enabled mobile device.
Downloads
Download Windows Live Essentials—free programs for your PC, including Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety.
Office Live
Store and share your business documents online—it’s quick, easy, and free.

Technorati Tags: Widnows Live,Live Services,Mesh,Skydrive

Windows Live ID and OpenID

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:41:30 GMT

It seams that Microsoft is making an attempt to integrate with OpenID. With the announcement that “Windows Live ID commits to support of OpenID” I thought a little investigation would be in order.

You need to setup a new Live ID on the Live-INT service, you can use any email, but make sure that you do not use your production password!

Go to https://login.live-INT.com/ and use the sign-up button to set up a Windows Live ID test account in the INT environment.

Go to https://login.live-int.com/beta/ManageOpenID.srf to set up your OpenID test alias.

You alias will be “http://openid.live-int.com/[yourAlias].

You can then associate an open ID with a site. Here is the experience with Plaxo:

From the Plaxo homepage, click “Settings”…

Then select “Identities” and “Manage your OpenID’s”.

You can then attach any number of OpenIDs to your Plaxo account. So lets click “Attach a new OpenID”.

And then “SignIn”.

This is where Windows Live takes over from the main sites, and you enter your password for your Live account.

I am hoping that they will be releasing a version that works for .NET applications and not just websites. This would allow application developers to join the ranks of interconnected authentication application with single sign-on.

It is a dream I have…

Technorati Tags: Windows Live,OpenID

Windows Live Wave 3

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:39:29 GMT

With the new Windows Live Wave 3 betas now available I am looking forward to many of the features I have already previewed in the beta of Windows Live Messenger 9.

These are the English installs, but other languages are available.

Web or partial install:

http://g.live.com/1rebeta3/en/wlsetup-web.exe

Full local install(recommended if you are behind a firewall):
http://g.live.com/1rebeta3/en/wlsetup-all.exe

I am only really interested in Messenger and Writer, but all the

application are there.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live,Windows Live Wave 3

Messenger United

Martin Hinshelwood — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:50:39 GMT

Although the site is a little skewed today…

…This is an excellent application. Role on the LinkedIn sync.

When you click the button (the big green one) you get taken to another site that has the actual application on it.

This it seams is part of Microsoft's Connected Systems initiative that Bill has been pushing for years. They are now starting to open up their services (recently with their Exchange and Messenger products) to allow better integration with third parties.

For those that do not use Hotmail (perish the thought) the only sync / import available is the Facebook one.

Technorati Tags: Connected Systems,Windows Live,Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Writer Beta 3 Hmm!

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:57:47 GMT

I submitted a trouble ticket about my previous post on http://support.live.com and got a prompt reply from Microsoft support giving me some directions for cleaning up beta bits of my system, and a URL for a direct download:

Windows Live Writer 2008: http://g.msn.com/4SAWLWENUS/WriterMSI

Now, this looks good. But when you try to download it you get the "WLMail.exe" install... Dough!

Guess someone along the line messed up ;)

When I get the correct link I will post it...

UPDATE:

Windows Live Writer 2008 Direct Download: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/c/1ecbf3be-298b-467c-84d8-6f86f01478d7/en-us/Install_WLWriter.exe

UPDATE:

But not Beta 3: dough!

Technorati Tags: Windows Live, WLW, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Writer Beta 3

Martin Hinshelwood — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:38:40 GMT

Well, a new version of WLW, Windows Live Writer Beta 3, is available. Its just a pity that I can't install it. Why do Microsoft insist on writing these bundle application for installing many products at once? I can see the point for home users, but at work you always get something blocked. They should provide the choice of using the bulk installer or using a direct download link. This would allow companies to unblock a specific URL without allowing users to download and install one of the other, banned, applications.

As it is, if even one of the applications in the installer is banned, then they have to block the whole thing. This is what has happened in my company with "WLInstaller.exe", because it installs Messenger. This punishes the rest of us who want to use one of the other pieces of software...

As it is, I had to install Windows Live Writer Beta 2, from a direct link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/c/1ecbf3be-298b-467c-84d8-6f86f01478d7/en-us/Install_WLWriter.exe

It took me about a week, after getting authorization, to get my download capability un-restricted in SurfControl. The Infrastructure team spent a while going back a fourth testing changes to get it working, all the while saying "It must be IE7!" or, "Do you have Office 2007, ah, that's why! If you uninstall it it will work!" and other assorted rubbish.

What did it boiler down to? What did they have to do to get it working? Was it permissions? No! Was it IE7? No! Was it Office 2007? No!

They rebooted the server!

Technorati Tags: SurfControl, WLW, Windows Live, Windows Live Writer, Microsoft, Reboot

Search just got better

Martin Hinshelwood — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:57:07 GMT

I just had to pick my jaw up off the floor. What made me gawk! Tafiti that's what.

Tafiti is a new search front end from Microsoft, it is still in beta, but what a beta. I think you would need a reasonably good computer to run it, but from a dyslexic persons point of view it is revolutionary. Although it does not give you the complete ability to search visually, it goes a long way to achieving it. Hopefully many other people will find it as equally usefully as I do...

What do I like so much about it you may ask... Well...

I love the way you can select what type of data to view from the search, there is a little spinning widget at the bottom left of the screen that you can use to view only feeds or web among other things. It is easy to use and extremely obvious what each button does (I think some hallway usability testing went on here).

I love the way you can pile up search terms on top of each other and then get back to your previous search with ease. Although it could do with a way to flip between them...There is a way to filter your searches even further to tweak the results.

I love the way that you can save searches in your never ending search for what you are looking for. You can even add labels, although I have not worked out what they are for yet, but I am sure that it will be cool.

All that in itself would be good, but the best is yet to come. This is the bit that makes this a must use for all dyslexic people all over the world (well in English speaking countries so far).

The screen shot does not really do it justice, but this is an fantastic way to search the web. I have been doing some searching and, so far, I have been able to find exactly what I was looking for very quickly. Even obscure things we easy to find. This gets the thumbs up from a Scottish dyslexic software developer, and I can't wait to email the link to everyone. I have to thank Larry Larsen for pointing this out to me, and I hope the Tafiti team have even more cool search help up their sleeves.

I will be keeping my eye on this and I hope that even after continued use I am still using it as my main search engine: Oh, I just thought, we have Virtual Workstations in the office and I will need to see if it even works on them: I know that video, flash and big Powerpoint presentations do not.

Technorati Tags: Dyslexic, Silverlight, Search, Tafiti

Windows Live SkyDrive Beta

Martin Hinshelwood — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:01:19 GMT

I was reading Mike Tautly's post on SkyDrive so I thought I should have a look.

I found it extremely easy to use and solves the problem of my blog not supporting file uploads.

I have a link to my SkyDrive on the left of my blog and I have uploaded my first public file, my CV. I will add more files in the future...

What I would like to see on the SkyDrive is more Sharepoint style interaction so I can edit my files directly on the online drive.

Technorati Tags: CV, Resume, SkyDrive, Windows Live, Personal

MSN Cartoon (Beta)

Martin Hinshelwood — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 22:20:46 GMT

I just got a comment from Reto Winter to let me know about a post regarding a new Microsoft Avatar service on MSN China, so as I am sitting here writing some posts anyway, I will have a look. It is in the same vain as the Southparkify and Simpsonize me options that I have blogged before.

Here is how it works

First, learn Chinese...or just click buttons until it works, like me..

Click the start button

You will need to install an application called MSN Cartoons Beta (which is the middle button) and then click next (the bottom button) and install the active-x component.

The next task is to upload a picture to create the avatar from. To do this chick the folder on the right.

Once you have a picture uploaded, and you have highlighted your face, as you can see I am not photogenic!

You need to click the build picture button.

You will then be presented with a "select your face type" option

and once you have selected this you get a partial cartoon

To move onto the next stage you click the next button again

You can then select your emotion, hair and glass from the options

and the next button again

You can then save either in 98x98 or 252x252

An you are done!

Here are my pictures, but I am not sure how much they look like me!

Technorati Tags: Personal, Windows Live, Avatar, Microsoft China, Microsoft Cartoon, Southparkify, Simpsonizeme