Business

Free Vista SP1 Support

Rob Foster — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:20:09 GMT

Free, unlimited installation and compatibility support is now available for all worldwide customers using Windows Vista SP1, until March 18, 2009. Telephone support is available worldwide. Chat and Email support in US and Canada only.

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Effective dates

From now until 18 March 2009.

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Location

Find out more and access the service at http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?rdpath=1&prid=11274&gprid=500921

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DreamSpark...it's about time!

Rob Foster — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:52:55 GMT

This morning, Microsoft Corp. announced that it will be giving away Visual Studio 2005 and 2008, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server Standard Edition, XNA Game Studio 2.0, and its Expression suite of products to college students worldwide -- and eventually to high school students.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the program, called DreamSpark, today on the company's Channel 8 site.

Does the "close door" button in an elevator REALLY work?

Rob Foster — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:27:43 GMT

This isn't really related to technology, but I'm just wondering...I was riding the elevator up to my hotel room tonight and noticed that I really don't think that the close door button is wired to anything. My current thinking is that it's a conspiricy for us to feel like we are in control of the elevator doors, but really aren't.

Silverlight....FINALLY!!!!!

Rob Foster — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:56:38 GMT

Ok, so I've been pretty hard on Silverlight here lately. Yes, a lot of my 'softie buddies have given me grief, but the truth is the truth: Microsoft doesn't dogfood Silverlight technologies enough right now for me to be comfortable.

BUT...I came across a site today that really has some potential. It is http://www.tafiti.com/. It is a freaking rocking front end for searching using the Live.com engine.

Well done!

Jott.com is cool!

Rob Foster — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:53:01 GMT

Check out Jott.com. It is a really cool transcribing service that you can call and have voice messages transcribed and emailed to your contacts.

It appears to work well with English, but not so well when you speak in Russian. :-)

Strong Authentication for your email

Rob Foster — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:10:59 GMT

It's called PhoneFactor and it's free! Not to mention, it is just flat out cool.

Get it here.

My soapbox item for today...

Rob Foster — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:53:19 GMT

It drives me crazy when people say blanket statements like:
"Well...I heard <insert some random crap here> from Microsoft"
or
"Microsoft says <insert more random crap here>"

So my question is this: Who IS MIcrosoft? Is it some person that you know that works there? It it a blog that you're reading? Is it something that you really want to exist but really doesn't?

Please find some other lame statement when you are trying to pass the buck.

</venting>

Are you an MVP in Nashville? Why don't I know you???

Rob Foster — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:56:15 GMT

Ok, so I just stumbled onto yet another MVP (Joe Webb) that's based here in Nashville.

My question is, WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS BEFORE??? I actually found Joe on a YouTube video from the MVP summit. So far, here is my list of MVP's that I know of that live here:

Rob Foster (that's me)
Greg Beamer
Kevin Kline
John Kellar
Joe Webb

Are there others? Probably....if you are an MVP in Nash-Vegas, let's meet for lunch or something to connect.

Go see Josh Holmes at eRubyCon on Wednesday

Rob Foster — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:49:47 GMT

I was lucky enough to see a preview of Josh's presentation on "Silverlight for the Ruby Programmer" that he will be presenting at eRubyCon on Wednesday.

If you are at the conference and want to learn about Silverlight, please check out Josh's presentation. It has one of the most entertaining introductions that i've EVER seen in a presentation!

DevLink is coming to Nashville!

Rob Foster — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:14:53 GMT

Do you want to win an XBox 360??? YOU CAN by blogging about devLink.

It's (past) time to start generating a buzz around the annual devLink conference in Nashville.

If you are remotely close to the show, it is something that you shouldn't miss. Register here.

See you at the show!