Microsoft sees end of Windows era

Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs.

It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.

It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing.

Tie breaking

Although Midori has been heard about before now, more details have now been published by Software Development Times after viewing internal Microsoft documents describing the technology.

Midori is believed to be under development because Windows is unlikely to be able to cope with the pace of change in future technology and the way people use it.

Windows worked well in an age when most people used one machine to do all their work. The operating system acted as the holder for the common elements Windows programs needed to call on.

"If you think about how an operating system is loaded," said Dave Austin, European director of products at Citrix, "it's loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine.

"The operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware," he said.

That, he said, created all kinds of dependencies that arose out of the collection of hardware in a particular machine.

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NBC Launches On-Demand Olympic Coverage In HD

NBChas launched its online video hub for the 2008 Olympics, which features free on-demand video for over 20 sports. In order to maximize quality, the videos are available as downloads (you can start watching before the download finishes) and will be in “up to HD” quality. Unfortunately, the video downloads will only be available on Windows machines running Windows Media Center - once again Mac users are left in the cold, likely because of DRM issues (and the fact that Lenovo and Microsoft are sponsors).

Whilethe Olympic ceremonies don’t kick off until August 8, NBC has already posted footage of Olympic trials. Once the games begin, NBC expects to have the footage available around 12 hours after each competition (which shouldn’t be too annoying given the time difference).

Microsoftis participating in the partnership, so access to the videos will be integrated into Media Center’s main panel. Users can also visit this TVTonic page, and the content will be available directly from NBCOlympics.com beginning next week. You can read more about the service at the TVTonic blog post here.

Create a Windows Live ID or Microsoft Passport ID with Your Non Hotmail or Windows Live E-mail Address

How to register your e-mail address that is not a Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address with Windows Live ID or Microsoft Passport ID. Doing this enables you to chat with friends on Live Messenger using your non Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address.

This guide shows you how to register your e-mail address that is not a Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address with Windows Live ID or Microsoft Passport ID.  Doing this enables you to chat with friends on Live Messenger using your non Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address.

Create Credentials

The first thing you need to do is sign your non Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address up with Microsoft’s Passport Network so that e-mail address has the proper credentials.

Visit Microsoft’s Create Credentials website to start the process.

Follow the instructions on the Create Credentials page to sign up your non Hotmail or Windows Live e-mail address with Microsoft’s Passport Network.

Verify Your E-mail Address

It is very important that you verify your e-mail address after signing up with Microsoft’s Passport Network by clicking the link that is e-mailed to you shortly after you sign up.

20+ Video Tutorials for Open Source Applications

 

There are tons of open source applications out there, from operating systems to word processors to graphics programs and more. But, it’s often hard to find manuals or other documentation beyond what the developers have written (which, while technically correct, doesn’t always cover the nuances of actually using the program). Here are more than 20 video tutorials to get you going with four of the most popular open source programs out there: Gimp, Linux, Open Office, and Nvu.

Whichtutorials are most helpful for you?

Gimp Video Tutorials

 

GimpTutorial: Pop Art - This tutorial shows how to take a regular photograph and turn it into a graphic piece of pop art.

The User Interface - This tutorial will give you a basic overview of Gimp’s user interface.

How to Change Hair Color - Ever wanted to try out a new hair color without actually dying your hair? Well, just use this Gimp tutorial to change your hair color in a photo.

Creating a Sketch Effect Using the Gimp - This tutorial goes over the basics of making a photo look like a hand-drawn sketch.

Transparent Glass Lettering - It’s great to know how to create transparent glass letters for website headers and banners, and to give your creations a more web 2.0 look.

 

Creating a Graduated Neutral Density Filter - Neutral density filters are a great tool for photography, and this tutorial will show you how to create the same effect in Gimp after you’ve taken the photo.

Full Flare Control with The Gimp - Flares can often be annoying in a photo, but sometimes they add that little extra something. This tutorial shows you how to take full control of flare creation.

Creating Water Drops - Adding water droplets to a leaf or a flower can be a cool effect in a photo, but is tricky to do. This tutorial explains exactly how to create realistic water droplets.

How to Create a Web 2.0 Logo Using the Gimp - Everyone needs a good web 2.0 logo, and this video will show you how.

Pr eparing an Image for the Web - This tutorial is the first in a series, and covers rotating, cropping, downscaling, pushing the colors, and sharpening an image.

LinuxVideo Tutorials

Using Multiple Workspaces in Puppy Linux - This tutorial shows how to configure Puppy Linux to have multiple workspaces.

Run Linux Under Windows - This tutorial shows how to run Linux or another operating system as a virtual system under your Windows operating system.

Install Ubuntu Linux 7.10 - This tutorial spells out exactly how to install Ubuntu Linux on your PC.

Backup Linux Mandriva 2008 - Learn how to back up your users and system configuration with this video tutorial.

(Very) Basic CD Burning Linux Mint Tutorial - Here’s a really basic tutorial on how to burn CDs using Linux Mint.

OpenOffice Video Tutorials

< br>OpenOfficeTutorial - This tutorial is very complete, and covers installing, configuring and using OpenOffice.

Hidden Star Wars Game - This tutorial shows you how to access the hidden Star Wars game in OpenOffice.

How to Create a PDF with Open Office - This video shows how to create a PDF file from an OpenOffice file.

Open Office on Ubuntu Linux - This tutorial shows how to use Open Office on an Ubuntu Linux platform.

NvuVideo Tutorials

Howto Modify a Website Template Using Nvu - This video tutorial shows how to customize a website template to meet your needs.

Installing Free Editor Nvu - This tutorial shows you how to get Nvu up and running on your computer.

Getting Started with Nvu - This video covers the basics of using Nvu for designing web pages.

Using Tables in Nvu - This tutorial shows how to create tables using Nvu.

Browzmi: A Social Browser in Your Browser

Social bookmarking has become a pretty standard activity these days, with the likes of Mento, Delicious, Mister Wong, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon offering numerous variations on this theme. Browzmi is taking a different approach from these services by focusing on real-time, collaborative web browsing and bookmarking, with chat being one of its main features. What is especially noteworthy is that Browzmi is not an extension, but basically a browser in a browser.

Browzmi was founded by Travis Parsons in 2006 and is currently being developed by a five person team. Browzmi has not taken any venture funding yet. Registration for Browzmi is open.

Surf With Friends

Browzmi allows you to surf the web with your friends. The core of Browzmi is made up of its bookmarking and sharing function, as well as the built-in IM. The chat function, as well as the real-time updates on the site, are enabled through an XMPP and Jabber back-end.

It's important to note right away that Browzmi is not a screen sharing application. While you can follow your friends around the web, you are not sharing the exact same experience with them and you don't see their mouse cursors moving around etc. Browzmi instead focuses on real-time sharing and discussion.

This concept, of course, is somewhat similar to that of Me.dium or Yoono. However, the interesting aspect of Browzmi is that it does not rely on extentions at all.

Just Like a 'Real' Browser

The Browzmi interface mimics a regular browser, with a location bar and search form at the top, as well as sidebars on the left and right. Thanks to this, new users should feel right at home when opening up the application. There are also back and forth buttons, as well as a home button that takes you back to the Browzmi 'Everyone' page.

Once you surf to a site, you can comment on a page, bookmark it, and make your opinions about it known by voting up or down on it. You can also 'clip' pictures from a site, making Browzmi a photo sharing application as well. All your actions on the site are saved in a stream that you and your friends can access and which looks somewhat like a stream in Friendfeed.

Sidebars

The sidebar on the left side of the screen ("My Stuff") is mostly reserved for seeing where your friends on Browzmi are right now. Thanks to the "Surf with Friends" feature, you can follow them around the web and chat with them. This sidebar is also where you can access your favorites (which basically function as bookmarks), see your activity stream, and see your friends' online status.

The right sidebar is called "Explore More" and it allows you to see where other users are on the service right now, as well as related content on Flickr, YouTube. Here, you can also see what other users who are not in your network have said about any given site.

Thanks to the XMPP back-end, all of your friends actions are being pushed to you instantaneously .

Privacy

When we first reviewed Me.dium, which offers a number of features similar to Browzmi, we were worried about the privacy implications of the service. Browzmi allows you to make your stream public or private, but any of your online activity through Browzmi does, of course, show on Browzmi and is available for viewing by your friends or (if you don't set the privacy features right) anybody. Given that users are probably quite aware that what they are doing is public - that is, after all, the whole point of the service - we are not too concerned about this, but it is still worth pointing out.

Coming Soon

Browzmi is currently working on adding number of additional features to the site, including allowing users to sign into the site with their AOL, Yahoo, or MSN credentials, which would allow everybody to chat with their IM friends right from Browzmi and also to invite them to surf the web with them. Integration with AOL's IM system will be announced in the next few weeks and the others should follow relatively soon after that.

Browzmi is also planning on allowing its users to comment on specific items on a site. This is something a few other bookmarking services already allow, but without allowing for real-time sharing.

The Browzmi team is also going to release an API in the future, which will allow developers to add widgets and customize the Browzmi experience.

Verdict

We were skeptical of Browzmi at first. Why, after all, would you need a browser within my browser? However, with the IM integration, its various RSS feeds, and straightforward surfing experience, Browzmi is actually a lot of fun to use. If you used it with Fluid or Mozilla's Prism, you could even make it your standard browser interface if you were so inclined. While that is probably not even Browzmi's intention, it does open up some interesting possibilities for the future.

In our tests, Browzmi worked very well and we didn't come across any bugs. For some sites, where Browzmi might be problematic, you can download a Firefox extension, but in our tests, we never needed it.

Browzmi, like most similar services based on social interactions, is going to get more useful as more users start joining and as your list of friends growths. In many ways, it is complementary to other services like Friendfeed, in that it gives you an option for real-time sharing and discussion, while you can also import most of your Browzmi actions to other services through Browzmi's RSS feeds.

Once Browzmi adds more IM services, we think that it can grow quite rapidly and organically, as there will be zero friction for new sign-ups.

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Free Mobile download, the most desirable 'thing'

Ever thought that the money you spent to buy a hi-fi mobile phone is not being justified i.e. you are not getting anything out of what your phone offers. One possible reason is that we love to use FREE content, so here is the portal that offers thousands (yes thousands) of absolutely free software and games for your mobile phone including Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, BlackBerry and many more.

Another exciting thing about this portal (apart from being absolutely free) is that it doesn’t even ask to signup i.e. no signup required to download. When you download for the first time, you are automatically signed up … cute :P

Microsoft Pays You For Using Its Search (If You Live In The US)

Microsoft has a big announcement today, one that should show the world they’re capable of running a search business even without Yahoo: their Live Search CashBack program will enable you to use special savings “coupons” after you buy stuff you’ve found using Live Search.

The detailed explanation of how this works can be found on here; the lowdown is as follows: You search for deals using Live Search; when you find deals with a special coin shaped icon, it means you’ll receive a small amount of money after you’ve bought something. When your balance reaches $5, you can claim your cash.

If this sounds like those special customer cards your local store clerk has been bothering you with, you’re right. Personally, I don’t care for such deals, but I’m sure there are people who enjoy saving a buck here and there. However, there are several of problems with Microsoft’s cashback; after I list them all, many of you will find that the program simply isn’t for you.

First of all, according to the FAQ, you’re elligible for the program if you are a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and at least 18 years of age. Everyone else, forget about it. Secondly, Microsoft does not guarantee you’ll receive cashback bonuses if you use an alternative payment method when purchasing items, such as PayPal or Google Checkout.

On the merchant side of things, be aware that we’re not talking about cost-per-click advertising model; we’re talking about cost-per-acquisition, which means that the advertiser pays only when a customer clicks on the ad and actually completes a purchase. There are certain situations in which this works well, but we all know that AdWords are mainly CPC and that that’s one of the main reasons behind its success.

Will Microsoft lure more people into using Live Search? Definitely. But my guess is that they’ll only use it to find cheap deals, and use Google for general purpose search. Google is still the best global search engine, while the demographics Microsoft is aiming here is narrow in comparison: US-based surfers, older than 18, who like to shop online and are willing to switch from PayPal for certain payments. It’s a solid initiative, but it’s not enough to move from search engine number 3 to the second and first position anytime soon.

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Videophlow Makes YouTube a Group Experience

Imagine: you’ve found the next hit video on the web. Having just laughed yourself to tears, you regain your composure long enough to send a link of the video to your best friend, expecting to be praised for your extraordinary sense of humor. Then you wait. Five minutes go by, and still nothing. Did they like it? Did they even watch it? Finally, your efforts are rewarded with a hollow “LOL”.

It’s happened to all of us. The internet does a great job when it comes to sharing media, but it removes the human element from the viewing experience.

Oortle is trying to change that. In late 2007 they launched a webapp called Photophlow, currently in private beta, which at its core is a group chat centered around photographs (though it includes a number of other features as well). Users can browse through a Flickr photo album, and everyone will see the same thing at the same time, allowing for real-time reactions and discussion.

Now, they’re taking the next step with Videophlow, which takes the same dynamic community experience and applies it to YouTube. Groups of friends watch the same videos simultaneously as they interact with chat, emoticons, and gestures - viewers can even throw virtual tomatoes at the screen, complete with an animated splat.

All users will see the same portion of a video at the same time, even if they skip to a different scene. And best of all, groups can seamlessly transition to new videos. This has the chance to be a big hit - I can easily imagine groups of friends swapping (and watching) their favorite videos during late night viewing marathons.

Oortle is showing Videophlow to the public for the first time this afternoon at the Web 2.0 Launchpad, and will be opening in private beta in two weeks. We’ll let you know when that happens, and will have at least 100 invites to give out when the time comes.

We should note that a very similar application is available from SeeToo, which allows for simultaneous viewing of video content from a user’s computer rather than YouTube.

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Facebook Chat Now Works For Everyone

I’m not an avid Facebook user, but I have been checking it every now and then for the promised chat application, and as of today it seems to finally be available for everyone. And, although I have certain reservations about yet another web based chat application, I must say I love it.

The chat is integrated into Facebook well - all of its components are displayed in a minibar that’s always at the bottom of your screen. It’s practical, yet unobtrusive. My Facebook friends seem to have embraced it really well, since most of them have started chatting like crazy right away. The whole thing simply makes sense; you’re there to communicate with your friends anyway, so chat is the logical extension to Facebook’s functionality.

Options and features wise, Facebook chat doesn’t really offer all that much; the settings tab hides exactly four options: Show Mini-Feed Stories in Chat, Play Sound for New Messages, Keep Online Friends Open, and Show Only Names in Online Friends. The chat history is remembered even after you close the chat, and even after you log out and log back in. It would be nice if you could extract the entire log and save it somewhere as backup, though. I’d also like to see the standard, one click status updates: I’m busy, I’m AFK, etc. The Facebook folks are aware that features are scarce, and they promise more in the future.

All in all, Facebook chat is a great addition to the service. To paraphrase one of our commenters put, Facebook chat maybe won’t replace your other chat applications, but it’ll do just fine for chatting with people who you usually don’t chat with.

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Live Mesh - The Version You Can Understand

I’ve been reading the coverage of Microsoft Live Mesh, Microsoft’s latest project uncovered at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, and I get the feeling that after all the buzzwords being thrown around, most people still won’t understand what the hell this thing is really about. So, I’ve decided to make it as simple as possible.

What - Live Mesh is a service that lets you synchronize your settings, files, feeds and applications on several computers.

What’s the big deal - there are already ways to synchronize stuff on the net. Foxmarks is a good example: you install it in Firefox on several computers, and your bookmarks sync seamlessly. Live Mesh, however, is a single platform that will make it easier for 3rd party app developers to do this. If Microsoft does this right, you’ll get used to using the Live Mesh for syncing all your devices, files as well as most or all of your applications.

Is this like a WebOS (Webdesktop, Webtop?) - yes, although everyone seems to be avoiding the term, this is a lot like all those WebOS apps you’ve seen. You get a virtual desktop with 5GB of storage and you can access it from anywhere. It’s integrated with Windows’ Remote Desktop, so it’s really simple to set up.

How will it look and feel in practice (we’re talking about the future here) - Let’s say that you and three other coworkers have a shared Mesh desktop. You fire it up, check out the log to see who changed what. Great, Mike added the graphics you needed. You add some notes to the graphics and drop them into the Mesh, but you share it only with your devices; they’re not ready to be seen by everyone just yet. On the way to work, you want to start some downloads on your computer at work, so you remotely connect to it through your iPhone. The rest of the trip you read your feeds; the ones you read at home are marked read so you can just keep reading where you left of.

To put it really simple: the promise of the Mesh is that you won’t have to care where you are or which device you’re using - your data will always be there. You’ll only have to care about which data you want to share with whom.

Which devices - Right now, we’re talking only about Windows XP and Vista computers; in the future, it will work with Mac, mobiles, etc.

Who built it - Microsoft’s CTO Ray Ozzie, and a team of about a hundred other engineers at Microsoft.

Here’s a couple of links for those who want to go in-depth. Mesh’s official home page and its accompanying blog might be of interest. A hands on preview of Mesh is here.

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