More on SharePoint 2010

So the key difference from a technical point of view is the 64 bit architecture and the seeming necessity for 8 GB of RAM. This means that presently I can't run VMs of it on any machine I own.

Let me take a chance to talk about 64 bit. Few people who promote it really understand what it does. I have seen a number of 64 bit architectures with 4 GB or RAM. Actually you can managed 4 GB of RAM as well, if not better with 32 bit. The entire difference between 64 bit and 32 bit is how much RAM they can manage. 32 bit can manage, in theory, 4 GB of RAM but places a limit of 4 GB.

So far all the VMs of SharePoint 2010 I have heard about need that 8 GB, so there is going to be a problem getting a look at it.

It is called "20" "10".

There is a great deal of talk around expanding Social Networking and using Silverlight. People are talking a great deal about good stuff coming in Social Networking, that SharePoint will be pushing in that area.

Microsoft Courier Video

Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

BBC NEWS | Business | Online advertising 'overtakes TV'

Online advertising spending in the UK has overtaken television expenditure for the first time, a report has said.

BBC NEWS | Business | Online advertising 'overtakes TV'

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First problem with SharePoint 2010

Well I have already hit my first problem with SharePoint 2010. What I am hearing is that the VM can only run in 8 GB RAM as a minimum. I am hoping that this is NOT the case, and that a 64 bit VM on a single box that can run with 2 GB of RAM is possible. If not I see no way to really evaluate and test the server in anger.

I am planning on getting a 64 bit Linux server next year and installing VirtualBox from Sun. For those of you who don't know yet VirtualBox is a Open Source Virtual Platform. Virtualis such a standard thing in my opinion and I think Sun has a real excellent product here for creating VMs.

But I have yet to test 64 bit, I am hoping in the coming year I can establish a 64 bit Linux host with VMs of both x86 and 64 bit. Kind of a strange monster to have sitting on your desktop but I think Microsoft has made it necessary. I am simply not going to buy a 64 Windows 7 machines an install Hyper-V.

Hyper-V is sort of the ugly twin of SharePoint, and the two live in a kind of strange drama. Just as SharePoint has been raised to glory Hyper-V has become kind of a joke.

But the pont I think I am trying to make is that people simply won't use SharePoint 2010 if they have to go through all this just to provide dev boxes on virtual machines. I fear Microsoft has another XP vs. Vista or 2003 vs. 2008 here, with client electing to stay on established software.

Microsoft innovation model breaks down at a certain point where products become so mature people have no interest in the new. I think this may have happen with the OS and Office stack. Frankly I can't imagine more I want out of Windows than XP, I certainly don't want Vista. And as for Office, I have tried the Office 2007 at great length since its beta in 2006 and though I like it I don't need it and its terrible bloat ware. I find myself more and more using Open Office.

Yes I am a SharePoint consultant, but I do call them as I see them. I fear Microsoft has lost the plot before the play even began. And in this industry decisions about the fate of platforms are made in weeks. SharePoint 2010, if Microsoft does not work to make it access able and promote the clear advantages, could go the way of Vista.

StatShot: U.S. Web Users’ Time on Social Networks Has Tripled

U.S. web users tripled the amount of time they spent on social networks in August from the same month last year, according to Nielsen. And advertisers took note — estimated online advertising spending on social networks more than doubled over the same period.

Around 17 percent of all time spent on the web in August in the U.S. was on social networks, up from 6 percent during the same period a year ago, suggesting that sites like Twitter and Facebook have not only grown their audience size, but augmented user engagement. Meanwhile, advertising on social networks rose to $108 million last month from $49 million in August of 2008, an increase of 119 percent.

In the meantime, Facebook’s sale of self-serve ads has helped the social network become cash-flow positive, something to which Twitter — which doesn’t generate any significant revenue despite now being valued at $1 billion — may want to pay attention. A report from research firm Interpret found that Twitter users are twice as likely to click on advertisements or sponsors than people who belong to MySpace and Facebook. But while the San Francisco-based micromessaging site recently changed its terms of service to allow advertising, co-founder Biz Stone said earlier this week that Twitter won’t put ads on the site this year.

StatShot: U.S. Web Users’ Time on Social Networks Has Tripled

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Twitter confirms major cash boost

Social networking website Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a "significant round of funding".

Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms.

However, he did not confirm earlier reports that suggested the firm had managed to secure $100 million (£62m), which would value the firm at $1bn.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Twitter confirms major cash boost

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Masters of illusion: The great management consultancy swindle - Business Analysis & Features, Business - The Independent

In this respect, the problem of consulting is the problem of the "knowledge economy" in a nutshell. When you put forward the fiction that management is an exercise in calculus, you tend to assume that integrity is a cost of doing business rather than its foundation. When you stipulate that management is the province of experts, you lose sight of the fact that organising fruitful co-operation among human beings is principally a matter of building trust. And you forget the most elemental truth of political philosophy, that in any system that does not have the features of transparency and accountability, no one trusts anyone.

Masters of illusion: The great management consultancy swindle - Business Analysis & Features, Business - The Independent

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Future is TV-shaped, says Intel

The world's biggest chip maker predicts that by 2015 there will be 12 billion devices capable of connecting to 500 billion hours of TV and video content.

Intel said its vision of TV everywhere will be more personal, social, ubiquitous and informative.

"TV is out of the box and off the wall," Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner told BBC News.

"TV will remain at the centre of our lives and you will be able to watch what you want where you want.

"We are talking about more than one TV capable device for every man and woman on the planet. People are going to feel connected to the screen in ways they haven't in the past," said Mr Rattner.

Intel's developer forum in San Francisco was told that the success of TV is down to the fact there are a growing number of ways to consume content.

Today that includes everything from the traditional box in the corner of the living room to smartphones, laptops, netbooks, desktops and mobile internet devices.

Attendees were also told to get set for an explosion of content by Cisco's vice president of video product strategy, Malachy Moynihan.

"We are seeing an amazing move of video to IP (internet) networks. By 2013 90% of all IP traffic will be video. 60% of all video will be consumed by consumers over IP networks," said Mr Moynihan.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Future is TV-shaped, says Intel

People have been pushing a TV fronted future for some time, I have my doubts.

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Survey: Half of businesses don't secure personal data | Security - CNET News

Survey: Half of businesses don't secure personal data | Security - CNET News

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Intel show that Moore's law in a law of man not a law of nature

"Moore's Law is not a law of physics, it's a law of human inventiveness," Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini told BBC News.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Intel shows chips can get smaller

Well that seems to be resolved.  I had long suspected that Moore's Law worked because the few chip producers, for a long time one, went by it to insure they had the right match of stability and innovation so that business would buy now while confidently knowing when to buy in the future.

This gets back to my ongoing discussion on Open Source and Linux.  I hold that an Open Source model will produce more innovation faster than a top down model like Microsoft.  But a Microsoft model can produce innovations in a knowable pattern like a SP the first 6 months and a new release every 3 years.  This ability to know what Microsoft will be doing, roughly, as far as the need to purchase new technology, new licenses, and provide new training that makes Microsoft fit so well in to businesses efforts at accumulation over time.  And it is this "fit" between how Microsoft manages technology innovation and what Capitalist interests want that makes Microsoft such a powerful brand.

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BBC NEWS | Business | Yahoo's new web portal goes live

BBC NEWS | Business | Yahoo's new web portal goes live

I tried it, dull, just a way to get Yahoo to get your logins in my opinion.  Anyone who didn't have this set up years ago is not much of an Internet user.

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Microsoft to buy EA????????

We have no idea where this meshugaas is coming from, but Reuters is reporting unsubstantiated rumors that Microsoft is interested in purchasing the second place third-party software publisher, Electronic Arts. Shares of EA are up today (around eight percent as of this writing) on the speculative purchase.

Rumor: Microsoft looking to take over EA

Linux and Microsft in bed on my desktop and I love it

Facebook | My Photos - KDE KIPI Import/Export Plugin Photos WSS 2 image running in VirtualBox on Linux machine.

I hope this does not get me flamed again by the Linux community. Strangely that when I write about Linux, which I love, I sometimes get flamed by Linux users. Its a rather "different" kind of community that the much more low key Microsoft community. I do envy their dedication to Open Source and I will leave that there.

As for this post, the requirement I had was to make use of some older hardware I had. The stuff was not cheap and I would like to use it.

My work is in SharePoint so I need virtual machines to run through installation and configuration tests on my desktop. Essentially my job is working on VMs of Winodws 2003 and 2008 running different installaions of SharePoint and writing about it and talking about it to the team.

Frankly the Micrsoft options for a Pentium 4 Dua Core with 1GB of RAM is pretty ugly. This box I am working on will not run Vista, and probably forget Windows 7.

So that leaves XP or Windows 2003. I have built the box previously using Windows 2003. Windows Sever 2003 is the best OS Microsoft ever made, it is stable and easy to work with.

Problem is that it is a server, you can't run all your everday fun stuff. For me that is a chess game, Second Life, Flock, and some video games.

Well the answer I have found is to install the Linux Ubuntu 9.04 with Sun VirtualBox. VirtualBox is an excellent tool on my install and I am finding that the Virtual machines run better than on the Windows XP 2GB ram Centrino machine I try to work with.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft increases search share

Microsoft's Bing search engine is making inroads into Google's dominance of the search market according to data from US net measurement firm ComScore.

Its latest figures show Microsoft's share of the search market has grown from 8.9% in July to 9.3% in August.

The news saw Microsoft's shares rise while Google's dipped slightly.

Microsoft's modest 9.3% share of the US search market is small but is a significant increase for a new entrant, say analysts.

The Bing search engine was launched by Microsoft in June 2009 and was followed in July by a search tie-up with rival Yahoo.

Google is still far and away the search leader, with 65% of the US market.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft increases search share

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook grows and makes money

BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook grows and makes money

The world's largest social networking site just got bigger with the announcement it has 300 million active monthly users from around the globe.

Facebook also revealed that it had started making money ahead of schedule.

The company had not expected to start turning a profit until sometime in 2010.

"This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"We are succeeding at building Facebook in a sustainable way. We are just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone.

"We face a lot of fun and important challenges that require rethinking the current systems for enabling information flow across the web," Mr Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

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SUczp.jpg (JPEG Image, 480x604 pixels)

SUczp.jpg (JPEG Image, 480x604 pixels)

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Sun offers processing by the hour

Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Sun offers processing by the hour

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SecuriTeam - Vulnerability in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 Elevation of Privilege (MS07-059)

This is a scripting vulnerability in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to run arbitrary script that can result in elevation of privilege within the SharePoint site, as opposed to elevation of privilege within the workstation or server environment. The vulnerability could also allow an attacker to run arbitrary script to modify a user s cache, resulting in information disclosure at the workstation. However, user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability

SecuriTeam - Vulnerability in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 Elevation of Privilege (MS07-059)

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Xbox speeds up research results

BBC NEWS | Technology | Xbox speeds up research results

Researchers have harnessed the powerful silicon chips used in the Xbox 360 console to solve scientific conundrums.

Academics at the University of Warwick believe they are the first to use the processors as a cheap way to conduct "parallel processing".

Parallel computing is where a number of processors are run in tandem, allowing a system to rapidly crunch data.

Researchers traditionally have to book time on a dedicated "cluster" system or splash out setting up a network of PCs.

Instead, the Warwick team harnessed a single Xbox 360 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). The chip was able to perform parallel processing functions at a fraction of the cost a traditional systems.

Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher on the team, built the system to help him model how electrical signals in the heart moved around damaged cardiac cells.

Dr Scarle, who previously worked as a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, had first hand experience of tapping into the power of GPU technology.

Speaking to BBC News, Dr Scarle said that the the code controlling the chip was modified, so instead of working out graphical calculations, it could perform other ones instead.

"You don't quite get the full whammy of a cluster, but its close," he said.

"Instead of pumping out stunning graphics, it's reworked; in the case of my research, rather than calculating the position of a structure and texture it's now working out the different chemical levels in a cell."

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft's Bing.com goes visual

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft's Bing.com goes visual

Software giant Microsoft has introduced visual search to further set itself apart from market leader Google.

The new feature for its 90-day-old search engine Bing.com will let users browse results using pictures instead of text.

Visual search will concentrate on four main areas: travel, health, leisure and shopping.

"The whole concept is that the world of search is going to change," said Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi.

"There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search," said Mr Mehdi, the firm's senior vice president of online services.

Microsoft also claimed "Visual Search" allows users to conduct certain searches faster than the "traditional image search offered by rival Google and other search engines.

In a blog post, the company said a study it conducted found that consumers can process results with images 20% faster than text only results.

"It's like searching through a large online catalogue," Microsoft said.

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BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook strips down to Lite site

The world's biggest social networking site has launched a slimmed-down version for people with slow or poor internet connections.

Facebook has said the Lite site will be faster and simpler because it offers fewer services than the main site.

Initially it is meant to support users in developing countries and where bandwidth constraints make the current version too slow to use.

At the moment it is only available in India and the US.

The company said around 70% of its more than 250 million users were from outside America. Countries in Southeast Asia and Europe are seeing a massive increase in growth where fast internet connections are more common.

News that Facebook was testing the Lite site was first leaked in August.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook strips down to Lite site

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Thank you tuxmachines.org

I would like to thank tuxmachines.org (referral) for driving a brief summer blip to this normally rather limited appeal blog

I think I should blog more about Microsoft vs. Linux

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Google trick tracks extinctions

Google's algorithm for ranking web pages can be adapted to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems, say researchers.

According to a paper in PLoS Computational Biology, "PageRank" can be applied to the study of food webs.

These are the complex networks of who eats whom in an ecosystem.

The scientists say their version of PageRank could be a simple way of working out which extinctions would lead to ecosystem collapse.

Every species is embedded in a complex network of relationships with others. So a single extinction can cascade into the loss of seemingly unrelated species.

Investigating when this might happen using more conventional methods is complicated as even in simple ecosystems, the number of combinations exceeds the number of atoms in the universe. So it would be impossible to try them all.

Co-author Dr Stefano Allesina realised he could apply PageRank to the problem when he stumbled across an article in a journal of applied mathematics describing the Google algorithm.

The researchers say they had to make minor changes to it to adapt it for ecology.

Dr Allesina, of the University of Chicago's department of ecology and Evolution, told BBC News: "First of all we had to reverse the definition of the algorithm.

"In PageRank, a web page is important if important pages point to it. In our approach a species is important if it points to important species."

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Google trick tracks extinctions

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Ban on Word Overturned

Microsoft has overturned a ban on it selling its flagship Word software, imposed after a patent dispute.

The block was imposed by a Texan court following a ruling that its use of formatting language XML in Word 2003 and 2005 infringed patents.

Under the ruling Microsoft was ordered to pay Canadian patent owner i4i $290m (£177m) damages and also told to stop sales of the relevant versions of Word.

The ban on sales was due to come in to force in mid-October.

The ruling was made on 12 August in a Texas court following a long-running dispute between i4i and Microsoft.

I4i's patent was filed in 1998 and outlines ways for "manipulating the architecture and the content of a document separately from each other" and invokes XML as a way to let people format text documents.

XML, or Extensible Markup Language, is a formatting system that preserves the structure of information, such as that in a spreadsheet, as it is passed around and handled by different programs.

Following the 12 August ruling Microsoft filed a request to stay the injunction and also asked for the case to be put on a fast track so its appeal could be heard quickly.

The US court said Microsoft had met the conditions needed to grant the stay. Arguments in Microsoft's appeal against the earlier ruling are due to be heard on 23 September.

"We are happy with the result and look forward to presenting our arguments on the main issues on September 23," said Kevin Kutz, a Microsoft spokesman, in a statement.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft overturns Word sale ban

First-ever calculation performed on optical quantum computer chip

(PhysOrg.com) -- A primitive quantum computer that uses single particles of light (photons) whizzing through a silicon chip has performed its first mathematical calculation. This is the first time a calculation has been performed on a photonic chip and it is major step forward in the quest to realise a super-powerful quantum computer.

First-ever calculation performed on optical quantum computer chip

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Introducing fast Winodws 7

Intel and Microsoft say the Windows 7 operating system (OS) will give "better battery life and quicker boot times".

The firms made the claim at a press event in San Francisco where engineers put the new OS through its paces.

Microsoft is hoping its new system will perform as promised and avoid a repeat of the negative publicity associated with Windows Vista.

Both firms said they had collaborated more closely than ever before to deliver a product "they are proud of".

"We both made a larger investment than ever before on the engineer side to improve on the hardware and software," Microsoft's Mike Angiulo told the BBC.

The two firms, colloquially known as Wintel, said that the partnership involved hundreds of engineers and was started the day after Windows Vista was released more than two years ago.

"We have spent 20 years getting to know each other and have businesses that are very well aligned," said Steve Smith, vice-president of Intel's digital enterprise group.

Dean Takahashi of technology blog VentureBeat said that Microsoft's previous OS - the heavily criticised Windows Vista - had to be improved upon.

"The collaboration was in the name of making Windows 7 better and more bug-free than the January 2007 launch of Windows Vista, which was broadly criticised in the industry and was one of the best advertisements for buying a Mac in history," he said.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft shows 'faster' Windows

BBC NEWS | Technology | Intel boss sees end to PC slump

The PC industry is coming out of the recession, the boss of the world's biggest chipmaker has told the BBC.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Intel boss sees end to PC slump

Here is a guess for you, Microsoft is holding off somewhat on Windows 7 until the PC recession ends so it can roll it out at the start of return to large PC and laptop sales.

Just a cynical guess on my part.

Facebook group Inglourious Basterds

Facebook | Inglourious Basterds

Web 2.0 has changed how we can consume media in deep ways. I loved Inglorious Bastards like I love Pulp Fiction. Back in the day I talked to my friends and engaged in flame wars on usenet about the movie.

Today I can join the facebook group and potentially make contacts with people who like the movie. I have already done some work on the Wikipedia entry and when I have from free time I was planning on expanding that. And of course you can Twitter follow.

Bruno was suppose to be the big movie of the summer and personally I laughed my ass off through Bruno, but the "masses" on Twitter had something else to say and the movie was quickly culled by the new electronic community. Word of mouth would have done the same thing, just a bit slower.

But maybe with a complex thoughtful movie like this one, which I am sure I will watch over and over again, the social networks might be a place to explore the meaning and develop productive networks. My academic work is around Culture and Identity, so this kind of stuff could be very cool.