Archive for the ‘Everything Else’ Category

While having a conversation on Windows Live Messenger with MJ Foley today, the subject of project Natal came up. If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically a camera and microphone device for your Xbox 360 that will track your movements, gestures, and voice commands all in real-time. If you *do* happen to know what Natal is, then you just read that last sentence for nothing! *ahem*… Anyway, I had a funny thought that came to mind after reading MJ’s latest short about Natal: Basically, since Steve Ballmer has been the primary candidate speaking about Natal at select conferences, I thought of something I hope Microsoft (and Steve) seriously considers when launching Natal… and that is to have Steve give a repeat performance of the following:

… except, the difference for Natal’s launch would be to have a fighting game up on the big screen in the background and see if Ballmer can win simply by Natal “watching” him run around the stage in a frenzy like that. How great would THAT be!? Pretty darn great if I say so myself! And I do. From a marketing standpoint, it would be a great way to have Natal go viral instantly on YouTube, I think. Anyway, please consider doing this, Steve/Microsoft! I think it would pretty much be the most awesome thing ever. The end.

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

If you’re like me, you’re as intrigued as the next person by the iPad. We’ve gone from desktops to laptops to small laptops to even smaller laptops (aka “netbooks”) and now, the iPad. The device looks great and if you love your iPod Touch as much as I do, it seems like playing your favorite games and using your favorite apps on a ginormous screen would be awesome. But is it $499 worth of awesome? Sadly, not for me. To determine if the iPad is for you, put the price aside for a second and ask yourself the following 3 questions:

1 – Do you read books/ebooks? One of the major selling points of the iPad is the convenience and beauty of reading books/comics/etc. but alas, I personally don’t read books. I like the idea of reading books! Unfortunately, I just don’t have the attention span to sit down and read a book. So, if you’re like me, this selling point is absolutely useless.

2 – Do you need a portable media player (movies, music, et al) the size of a magazine? Well, it would be cool to have a video player the size of the iPad screen, but apparently, they didn’t implement that capability. Also, my portable music bases are covered and the iPad just doesn’t quite fit the bill of portable even if my bases weren’t covered. I suppose there are some neighborhoods in this country where you could find people jogging down the street with their iPads, but not mine. Lastly, take into consideration the iPad’s form factor. If you’re going to watch a 2-hour-long movie, you won’t be doing it laying in bed. Not comfortably, at least. It would be like holding a magazine that whole time with nothing to prop it on except yourself or whatever you can creatively cook up.

3 – Going even broader here, where/how do you plan to utilize it if not the 2 ways above? See, I don’t even know for this one. I see myself starting off on my couch or maybe laying in bed, but even at that, I can’t see myself using $499-worth of this device. Browsing the internet? Okay, but my netbook does that perfectly and port-ably here at home. Games? Yes, definitely. Other apps? Nah.

I know people who say the iPad really is a game-changer. One of my friends is a former Microsoft-fan-gone-Apple-dev who said he has no idea how Windows users do it now that he’s got his iPad with him everywhere he goes. I guess if it’s *that* good, then the worst-case scenario for us burdened Windows users is having to wait for the HP Slate, huh?

In all honesty, though, I really would love to mess with an iPad, but even if I love the thing, I can’t justify the price tag based on my answers to the three questions above. Wanting one just to have one doesn’t quite compute here. If you want a really, really comprehensive review of the iPad noting both it’s shining qualities and biggest failures, check out Paul Thurrott’s iPad review here.

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

Back in 2005, Microsoft mentioned in a Thinkweek article the idea of an ad-driven Windows. Ina Fried summarized quite well what was discussed in that article in a section titled “Plan Extends to Windows.” Seemingly only an idea back then, new evidence shows that Microsoft has done more than simply *think* about placing ads in Windows.

While recently doing a bit of research, I ran across a Microsoft employee’s mention (screen shot below) of an incubation project they were involved with sometime between 2005-2008. Code named “Madison” (not to be confused with the SQL 2010 code name), it appears an actual prototype has been created for advertising in Windows. Prior to writing this article, I mentioned my findings to Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet and she quickly made an observation I hadn’t thought of — the code name “Madison” obviously stemming from “Madison Ave.” in Manhattan. To quote Wikipedia, “[s]ince the 1920s, the street’s name has been synonymous with the American advertising industry.”

(Yes, that says “madision” but that’s almost certainly a grammatical error)

The implications of this prototype are staggering, but not necessarily all bad.

On one hand, this could be a way for Microsoft to offer Windows on-the-cheap for many individuals — namely, those who either can’t afford Windows or don’t want to pay for Windows in the first place (i.e. pirates, yarrr!). In theory, you could use a “Windows Ads Edition” or something where you’ve basically opted for ads to stream to you in exchange for your usage of Windows. Another possible scenario is for this prototype technology to perhaps replace (or maybe become a component of) Starter Edition. After all, with Microsoft’s recent job post looking to fill a position on the “Windows SKU team,” it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is planning Windows 8 SKUs — thus implying a SKU-secured future for Windows — so why not the possibility of a “Windows Ads Edition?” I don’t think too many people would use such a thing by choice, and for those who did choose to, Microsoft’s marketing would have to be crystal clear to spell out why you wouldn’t simply be using an ad-ridden version of Windows.

Also, when bringing ads into the equation, I can’t imagine they would riddle every SKU with ads, but how could Microsoft really expect to make a significant ROI based on a model where ads are being shown to people who are looking to circumvent – or simply cannot afford the cost of – Windows in the first place? With that in mind, perhaps it would have nothing to do with SKUs at all. Perhaps it would consist of a technology designed to run under certain variables in *any* SKU of Windows where the obvious candidates would lie amongst all unactivated, non-genuine, and pirated copies. The thought of that gets shaky when considering all the headaches Microsoft would face from those screaming “invasion of privacy” or “anti-trust measures!” They would have to be clever about monitoring ad traffic, of which there’s absolutely no way Microsoft could successfully convince businesses to fork over cash for ad views without being able to show some semblance of accurate numbers… unless it’s a PPC thing, and then Microsoft has to face dealing with potential click fraud amongst the other obvious deterrents, such as ad blocking software, host file modification to block ad servers, or even full-blow file modification/replacement to remove the ad-driven functionality in its totality.

Naturally, this all just boils down to Microsoft looking to cash in on a BIG money-making industry with the most visible product they have. The most popular application in the entire world. Potentially, every Windows user would be a lead just waiting to turn a profit for whoever pays to advertise in Windows. And if Microsoft went the route of making this a technology that wasn’t limited to any particular version of Windows, they could even scale it back to XP via a simple update (but I see XP being obsolete by the time ads ever make it into Windows).

Thinking even grander, imagine if Microsoft created an ad platform in Windows that was so successfully facile to the end user that the price of ALL versions of Windows was little to nothing at all. Now, that may sound ridiculous, but that’s the kind of forward-thinking that — if they could pull it off — would bring them many more users and drastically drop certain costs of developing Windows, such as the cost of anti-piracy measures. If they could figure out a way to make ads extremely relevant, non-evasive, yet have them yield high click-through rates — in a perfect world — that would be a version of Windows accessible to nearly everyone.

But I’m a realist. I don’t think such a scenario would ever come to fruition. Honestly, between unhappy users who want nothing to do with ads and potential legal woes that would inevitably face Microsoft, I see the headaches mounting for actually implementing ads in Windows. What do you think? Do you think Microsoft will ever bring such an effort to Windows? How would you feel about actually using an ad-implemented Windows? I don’t think I would mind too much, but the implementation of them would have to be nothing short of genius.

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

In Microsoft’s never-ending battle to stop piracy, it appears Microsoft is considering upping the ante in Windows 8 and other products by searching for a new candidate to help “shake hackers and crackers off Microsoft products” by designing and building “new anti-hacking mechanisms” and “hack detection.” The job ad says the job is “not for the faint of heart,” so I imagine things get pretty intense and technical on this team.

To quote the job ad directly:

Our group is on a mission to build a rich, powerful platform to help protect Microsoft products against piracy. Here is your chance to join a team of exceptional developers as we build an extensible cross-company platform to support this vision. This is a fast-paced group that rewards smart and motivated individuals. We are looking for an experienced software developer to help us design and build new anti-hacking mechanisms, hack detection, and work on the security processor driver. The work touches many layers of the operating system and includes opportunities for partnership with MS Research and other security teams at Microsoft to productize exciting innovations and ideas that help shake hackers and crackers off Microsoft products. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the diversity of the problem space in this area is rich in growth opportunities just waiting for the right candidate. You will have ample opportunity to diversify your skill set and grow. In this position, you’ll get a chance to work on many aspects of the platform, starting with an assignment to drive the design of our application and Operating System (OS) virtualization support.

Regardless of how intense or involved, hackers and crackers always seem to be one step ahead of Microsoft where piracy is concerned. Naturally, they cannot account for every single scenario possible, but it’s a given that they must keep up and continue to innovate new security technologies. Some may consider anti-piracy measures a lost cause, but that’s certainly not the case. For every one product Microsoft sells purely based on theft prevention alone, it’s a win for them. What has me curious is the all-encompassing mention of “Microsoft products” in the job ad. Could Microsoft really be looking to put all of their eggs in one basket by employing a single anti-piracy platform across all applications? Probably not, but the thought of that doesn’t sit well with me insofar as if the platform were ever to be fully exploited.

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

First and foremost, Bing just doesn’t quite cut the mustard with the results regarding everything I’m about to go into, so the opportunity to evangelize for Bing will have to wait until another day (but if a Bing expert would like to contact me and show me how to leverage Bing in the same manner to yield quality results, I would love to do this same article with Bing as the catalyst).

Something I have people inquire with me about frequently (friends and family and sometimes even random strangers via email) is if I can find a Windows 7 ISO that they can’t find themselves. There are some applicable scenarios for this outside of pirating, such as if you want to honestly give something a trial run or if you’ve purchased a licensed physical or digital copy but you’ve lost the media (either digital or physical). If you can’t find the product on Microsoft’s web site and you don’t want to go the torrent/P2P/newsgroup/rapidshare/etc. route, you’re in luck. I just so happen to be a Google aficionado (via my 8+ years experience with advanced search queries on-the-fly and because I’m an internet marketer full-time now, which means I am practically married to Google) and though what I’m about to show you is a very basic query, it’s the thought processes and the terminology you will learn to apply to them that you’ll benefit the most from. And, hey, if you aren’t even familiar with using Google in this capacity, then you’ll gain that component from this post as well!

Remember: intitle:index.of

Learn it, love it, eat, sleep and drink it. That little prefix to your Google queries can land you a treasure trove of results — and I don’t just mean for the specific scenario I’m going to delve into in this post. Now, with that said, let’s say I need to find an x64 Professional Edition Windows 7 ISO. I’ve got a key but I don’t have the media, right? There are a number of ways to approach this but I’m giving you the keys to the best method right up-front:

• 1 – intitle:index of

 

• 2 – The name of the Windows 7 ISO as you would get it from Microsoft (think via MSDN or some similar avenue where software is distributed digitally, thus resulting in a file name you can search for). So, for our scenario, we could search Google for something like Windows 7 ISO MSDN to find out what Microsoft’s Windows 7 ISO name scheme is. Using that method, I discovered that Windows 7 Professional x64′s ISO name as it exists on MSDN is en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso.

 

• 3 – With points 1 and 2 in mind, your search query will look like this (click it to see it in Google): intitle:index.of en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso

And for quick reference, here is a list of all the Windows 7 ISO names (excluding VLK and OEM versions, and I was going to hyperlink them, but the point of this post is to give you a new tool to leverage, so to make you copy/paste these into a new query is by design):

• Windows 7 ISO Enterprise x64 English: en_windows_7_enterprise_x64_dvd_x15-70749.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Enterprise x86 English: en_windows_7_enterprise_x86_dvd_x15-70745.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Ultimate x64 English: en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Ultimate x86 English: en_windows_7_ultimate_x86_dvd_x15-65921.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Professional x64 English: en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Professional x86 English: en_windows_7_professional_x86_dvd_x15-65804.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Home Premium x64 English: en_windows_7_home_premium_x64_dvd_x15-65733.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Home Premium x86 English: en_windows_7_home_premium_x86_dvd_x15-65732.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Home Basic x86 English: en_windows_7_home_basic_x86_dvd_x15-65654.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Starter x86 English: en_windows_7_starter_x86_dvd_x15-68956.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Language Pack x64 Multilingual: mu_windows_7_language_pack_x64_dvd_x15-73276.iso
• Windows 7 ISO Language Pack x86 Multilingual: mu_windows_7_language_pack_x86_dvd_x15-73272.iso

Remember: You can use this method for *anything*! Office, XP, Vista, Expression, SQL; you name it, you can apply this method to find it.

Now, while that particular approach works 8 times out of 10, for the 2 times it doesn’t work, you may need to get a bit more creative. Sometimes, all the links will be dead or maybe you won’t land a single result. Sometimes, you may find a link that’s live one day but then dead the next, or you might try a query one day only to find nothing, then try it again tomorrow and see that Google has indexed 3 new pages for your search term! Also some factors to take into consideration are thinking what someone else might name the file or you may need to find out the name of a scene release (if you don’t know what that means, basically, it’s when an internet group gets a hold of something and they release it to the general public — of which, they usually change the file name and release it in some kind of archived format like .zip, .rar, .7z, etc.) and search for the file name of the release to see if someone else downloaded it and stored it on their server.

Be creative and don’t get discouraged if you’re not successful! Have a formula and I guarantee you, you’ll never have to worry about how to get a hold of any Microsoft media ever again (unless you’re looking for the latest leaked build of Windows or if you’re searching for something that’s quite obscure or not truly utilized by the public, such as Microsoft MultiPoint Server or Windows 7 Enterprise, etc.).

I hope you found this post useful! Please feel free to comment and spread the word. =)

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

While sitting here this morning randomly surfing around some netbook ratings and reviews after considering picking up one of Alienware’s m11x gaming monsters (I know, it’s not really a netbook, per se, but it has the form factor of one which is very appealing to me), I noticed a news headline that said, “new richest man in the world!” Normally, I wouldn’t have cared about that, but seeing it as I’m a Microsoft fan, I knew who *WAS* number 1, so my interest was piqued. The “billionaire’s club,” as I’ll call it, seems to shift a bit every year in Forbes, but they all generally keep the same company overall. However, Bill Gates has remained the top dog on the list for some 14 years or so (with some fluctuations here and there, I believe, but none-the-less)… that is until now.

At the helm of “richest person in the world,” edging Bill out by a measly .5 billion (or 500 million — or, in other words, “chump change” when you’re worth in excess of 50 billion), is Carlos Slim Helu. Who the heck is that? Yeah, I wondered the same thing. From the article I’m sourcing:

Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil (AMX), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires

Slim’s fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world’s richest 14 of the past 15 years.

Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates’ holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade (CAE) also soared with the rest of the markets.

So, what is Bill Gates to do now that he’s not technically the richest man in the world? If I’m not mistaking, Mr. Gates probably couldn’t care less about his all-too-familiar “richest man in the world” title. He’s clearly focusing his worth on issues that will benefit the world and those who are suffering within it. If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out Bill’s blog — notably, the “Infrequently Asked Questions” section which contains some really great questions you’ll certainly want to read Bill’s opinion of.

Bill Gates: No longer the richest man in the world. So what? What has Mr. Helu done for the world lately?

Source: Yahoo! Finance

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

After posting a short time ago about the Windows Mobile 7 UX flow prototypes, I thought I would post a couple of other findings from UX/UI design company Jeremiah referenced named, SectionSeven (who has one of the coolest portfolio sites I’ve ever seen). These projects are fairly vague in reference, but this post is all about the visuals, so I’ll let them speak for themselves. Feel free to discuss!

(Click for a larger image)

 

 

(Click for a larger image)

A few things to note about the image above, there are a couple of comment bubbles that provide some relevant information:

“A set of 9 prototype CD sleeves for a Microsoft product group … each principle is illustrated using only a pile of pebbles. Pebbles represent all the little pieces of a person’s life [and] these pebbles were all placed and arranged by hand – pebble by pebble.”

Ouch, that last part sounds like a real painstaking process. They sure did produce some great-looking results, though!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Here’s an interesting Microsoft Education project I ran across. Created for Microsoft by Daniele Monti, UX/UI designer at Zerofiftyfive Interactive, the Microsoft Electronic Textbook appears to be quite an ambitious concept. Possible Courier application? Maybe not, but in a world where the Courier is cost-effective enough, I could certainly see this application running on one in an educational capacity. Imagine, every student with their very own Courier and an application like this to store all of their reading materials, assignments, homework, in-class recordings, and more. In theory, this could be like OneNote on steroids for the classroom. Pretty cool idea! Anyway, on to the screen shots (click the smaller ones for larger versions of them):

Microsoft Electronic Textbook Concept

Please feel free to chime in on what you think of this concept. Speculation is always fun. =)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

iThink the iPad is the perfect breeding ground for iNspiration! The testing bed for this theory (we’ll call it my… iTheory, if you will) of mine is apparently my Twitter account, where iHave seemingly taken a liking to posting one pun after another (we’ll call them… iPuns) in regards to the iPad. Yes, the iPad has become a “magical and revolutionary” device (Steve Jobs’ words, not mine)… but not in the sense of actually using the darn thing! In fact, iHave had so much fun with this, iThought iWould share some of my favorites the iPad has allowed me to brainstorm on Twitter. Minor additions will follow:

“iPad… Is that Apple’s attempt at Thai cuisine?” – Yes, indeed! There are treasures of tasty morsels to behold in Apple’s iPad Thai and iPad See Ew (pronounced, “see you,” which is what the iPad will NOT be doing since it doesn’t even have a built-in camera)!

“iPun on the iPad while listening to my iPod” – That one’s self-explanatory and really, really stupid, but… it was funny in the moment!

“iPad Thai, iPadma Lakshmi, Lilly iPad. Why don’t you crash at my iPad, San Diego iPadres… These doing anything for anyone? lol.” – @seraph_ben on Twitter made a good suggestion with this one, “change ‘my pad’ to MiPad.” Indeed, sir!

“I love how Steve Jobs called the iPad “revolutionary.” There’s nothing revolutionary about a big-ass iPhone! *EV*olutionary, maybe…” which I then followed up with, “[a]ctually, it’s not even an oversized iPhone… it’s a ginormous iPod Touch! iPad Touch, iPod Touch… who’s keeping track of these things?” – This one actually brings me to a good point. This thing really is just a ginormous iPod touch… and from what iCan tell so far, it’s not even as functional as one! Time will tell.

And last but not least, my favorite revelation the iPad allowed my brain to observe:

“iPad iPed iPid iPod iPud – The vowels recited in Apple’s iLanguage, 2 out of 5 are actual products! (Oh, and sometimes iPyd)” – That says it all!

And that, my friends, is how the iPad — this new “magical and revolutionary” device (Steve Jobs’ words, not mine) — is truly a breeding ground for iNspiration! =) And one more thing iPointed out on Twitter, iThink this guy had it right all along:

The iPad: Just a Big-Ass iPod Touch
(or, in the case of this picture, iPhone)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Ron George is once again putting out a product of his innovation, but this one isn’t just informational or theoretical, it’s something you can play with… and it’s free. They’re called Gesturcons and, in the words of Ron from an email to me, “[t]hey are helpful to any designer that is attempting to get into this space.” I don’t want to say too much about them here, because his explanation of his creation is far superior to what I could say (just short of completely copying his whole blog entry), so check out the image below, then visit the link below it to read more and download the Gesturcons Touch Pack:

 

More about Gesturcons and the Gesturcons Touch Pack 1.0 on Ron’s blog: Ron George

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com