The Musings Of Jeff Chandler
Paying attention to my Twitter feed, I noticed a story on Gizmodo which showcased a number of 30 GB hard drive Zunes were freezing for no reason. Upon looking at my own, I noticed that mine froze as well. Here is a video for proof!
I’m currently in the middle of trying to perform a hard reset but it is not working.
*UPDATE*
After unplugging my Zune to let the battery die, I plugged it back in to recharge. This seems to have solved the issue.
Microsoft’s software engineers are “working hard” on a slimmed-down version of Windows XP for the One Laptop Per Child project, but company officials say there is still much work to be done. James Utzschneider, GM of Marketing and Communications of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, says in his blog that contrary to earlier media reports that XP doesn’t yet run on the OLPC, but adds that his team has been working on the operating system since the beginning of the year.
Here is an idea, just slap on Windows Vista Home Basic and you’re pretty much covered. Besides, Vista Basic is a glorified version of XP anyways so it shouldn’t be that difficult. Also, theres not much to slim down in Vista basic. The only reason I can think of for them not using Home Basic is that, it’s TOO stripped down and instead, they would have to ADD things to it.
It wasn’t too long ago that FireFox 2.0.0.10 was released to the public. Now, just a few short days later, Mozilla releases 2.0.0.11 to what can only be described as (A Patch To Fix A Patch) I’ve spent some time browsing around to try and figure out what it is they changed and I simply can’t find it.
Attenda Limited (www.attenda.net), the Always On Managed Services Company, today announced that it has signed a new 3 year contract to host and manage Miomi.com.
Recently named as one of Microsoft’s five UK tech companies to watch in 2008 and heralded as the UK’s answer to Skype and YouTube, Miomi.com has the ambition to democratise time and history by capturing the entire
world’s memories online.
Miomi is a new website that offers a completely new way of viewing and sharing content on the Internet by enabling users to browse through time and make a personal mark on history. Miomi is unique in that it allows people to make history by uploading details of their lives (including photos, videos, audio) as ‘moments’ which they can then link into timelines to tell a story. Featuring content from Microsoft Encarta(c), Wikipedia and multiple news sources, it provides historical and contemporary content that allows users to see their whole life in ‘real world’ context against a global backdrop of world events.
Attenda is implementing and managing the infrastructure to support Miomi’s business critical website applications. The solution is based upon Microsoft technologies with an architecture designed to rapidly scale and flex, in the future, as site usage increases.
Already named one of the UK’s top 25 Web 2.0 startups, Miomi is funded by Brightstation Ventures and is now heralded as the UK’s answer to Skype and YouTube.
Commenting on the contract with Attenda, Jonny Crowe, CEO, Miomi says,
“Our business has been founded on innovation and is set to grow rapidly, so we needed a partner that could support us as we grow.” He continues, “We chose Attenda as our strategic partner for their reputation as a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, with an impressive client list and proven ability to deliver highly available, highly secure web applications managed services against a business-led service level agreement.”
This is a video clip of John Battelle asking Steve Ballmer questions relating to search. Steve describes search the way he and Microsoft sees it. In his outline of a successful search strategy, he pretty much describes the way Google does it. Go figure! It’s an interesting interview that goes beyond search. For example, John asks Steve if they are making money through their deal with Facebook.
Just an FYI for those interested. Windows Home Server is now available to the public for purchase. Windows Home Server software, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, Buy.com, Circuit City.com and CompUSA.com. According to Microsoft, Windows Home Server will be shipped to customers and available via other leading retailer Web sites later in November. Additional Microsoft hardware and software partners are also delivering new consumer products and solutions designed to work with Windows Home Server.
“Digital devices and content are everywhere in our day-to-day lives and they are more important all the time,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “With the launch of Windows Home Server, Microsoft and its partners are creating a new consumer product category that will help people keep their digital media safe and make it easier for them to enjoy it with friends and family.”
HP is currently selling a Windows Home server solution in the HP MediaSmart Server, powered by AMD LIVE! The server is offered in 500GB version for $599(U.S) and a 1TB model for $749(U.S.) For those that don’t like HP, here are a list of alternatives coming out later this year and next.
Available in Europe in late 2007, the Fujitsu Siemens Computers SCALEO Home Server 1900 offers 1TB capacity across two hard drives, Gigabit Ethernet and advanced power management features.
Iomega Corp. today unveiled new details about its home server product due in early 2008, the Iomega HomeCenter Server, which will ship with one 500GB hard drive and four “easy-swap” drive bays for storage expansion.
• Available in early 2008, the Life|ware Life|storage will offer enterprise-class capabilities to consumers, including Life|ware Entertainment and Automation Server software for home management.
• The MAXDATA Belinea o.center, which will also be available in Europe soon, is energy-efficient, offers advanced management and media functions, and allows up to four hot plug SATA hard drives.
• Also available in Europe later this year, the Medion Home Server comes with up to 2 TB of storage capacity and will offer universal plug-and-play media streaming based on PacketVideo PVConnect software.
• Available now, the Tranquil PC T7-HSA Tranquil Harmony Home Server is a small, quiet and energy-efficient solution with 500GB and 1TB options.
• On sale today, the Velocity Micro NetMagix HomeServer is a small, sleek unit that can be situated in a horizontal or vertical position, starting with 1 TB of expandable storage capacity.
Third-party software developers have created more than 35 innovative add-in programs to run on the Windows Home Server platform. These solutions provide personal blogging and media sharing, home security, home automation, protection against viruses and malware, and more. Several software vendors today announced support for Windows Home Server:
• Avira GmbH in Germany today announced that its malware detection and removal technology will support Windows Home Server.
• Diskeeper Corporation today released a special edition of its Diskeeper 2008 defragmentation software for Windows Home Server.
• Embedded Automation Inc. released the mControl add-in for Windows Home Server, providing home automation functionality.
• Proxure Inc. announced the release of KeepVault for Windows Home Server, providing automatic, online backup and storage of data.
• SageTV LLC released SageTV Media Server for Windows Home Server, enabling media streaming from Windows Home Server to any PC or Macintosh, at home or over the Internet.
• SightSpeed Inc. announced SightSpeed 6.0 video chat service compatibility with Windows Home Server.
• Telligent Systems Graffiti CMS is compatible with Windows Home Server, enabling users to quickly create personal Web sites and blogs.
• WiLife Inc. announced the release of Command Center Software version 2.1 home security software for Windows Home Server.
I’m really considering picking up a copy of Windows Home Server. My family runs at least 3 Windows based machines so it would only make sense. Will you be picking up a copy of WHS or will you purchase a machine with it already pre-installed?
Wow. According to YOU, blogging is not dying.
Is Blogging Really Dying?
* No (77%, 27 Votes)
* Yes (23%, 8 Votes)
Total Voters: 35
I chose this particular question because at the beginning of October, Techmeme was launched which caused a bunch of bloggers to confirm that blogging will be killed off thanks to Techmeme. Not sure what sort of dope was going around the blogosphere at the time, but blogging seems to be doing just fine and will continue to do so, with or without Techmeme. Thanks goes out to everyone who participated in the poll. Now it’s time for another question.
This time, I want to know what operating system your using. The choices are Apple, Microsoft, or Linux and of course, Other which should take care of operating systems such as Lindows, Unix or a home grown OS.
Microsoft has updated is LIVE search engine today. The updates were focused around the core search technology as well as the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Collectively, these improvements mark a quality milestone based on the company’s focus on delivering a better search experience for consumers and advertisers.
Here are some of the updates which were covered.
Additional improvements to the service include a new, cleaner user interface that makes the results pages easier to read and use; a more robust Answers platform that provides instant access to information from trusted sources while increasing relevancy; and organization of results pages based on the high-interest search verticals of entertainment, shopping, local and health on one page.
According to AppScout, Microsoft has signed it’s first major deal involving Silverlight, Microsoft’s competitor to the Adobe Flash Player. The deal took place with Internap Network Services Corporation. The company will equip websites of several large radio groups with the Silverlight media player. Radio stations that will be participating in this deal include, Citadel Communications, Univision and Radio one.
This is great news for Microsoft as it could be the beginning of the end of the adobe flash player dominance. From everything I’ve read thus far, Silverlight is said to be the flash player of choice as it virtually eliminates the need to buffer before presenting the content. Between Silverlight and Adobe Flash, which one do you think is going to win?
After initially telling users that the downtime experienced last week was due to an authentication glitch, Skype is now blaming Microsoft for the downtime. Here is the supposedly real reason why their service went down:
“The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.” This is presumably the Windows updates that were sent out on Patch Tuesday last week, which required the PC to be restarted.
“The abnormally high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources,” the company adds. “This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.”
Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a lame excuse. Come on guys, Microsoft can’t be blamed for everything. This excuse sounds like something those guys from The Onion would cook up.
