.NET Architecture Center: Software Factories

Microsoft's .NET Architecture Center have collected together some articles on Software Factories.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit has been released.

Hello BloggerBot

Hello has been around for a while, but I was unaware that it could be used to host pictures directly on a Blogspot blog. See Hello BloggerBot for more information.

The primary function of Hello - a sort of P2P for photos - is also pretty cool and worth checking out.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows

Microsoft have released Photo Story 3 for Windows

Monad (MSH) Wiki on Channel 9

MSHWiki

Google buy Keyhole

Google have bought Keyhole and immediately dropped the price to $29.95 for personal use.

Check out the tour of the Athens Olympic venues and the Longhorn real estate videos.

iPod Photo and U2 iPod

I'm not a big fan of the iPod due its relatively poor sound quality and limited, proprietary features, but Apple have finally released the iPod Photo and U2 iPod. The iPod Photo looks okay, but U2 seems to have been short-changed in the style department.

Whidbey Update

Scott Guthrie gives a Whidbey Update. His team develops ASP.NET 2.0.

In addition to the news about the beta 2 release, it lists some interesting testing techniques includng ZBB (Zero Bug Bounce). Note that his team has 102,000 test cases!

Tom's Hardware review the iRiver's H320

Tom's Hardware Guide review iRiver's H320 and seem impressed. I have the iRiver H340, which includes a docking cradle in addition to the accessories mentioned in the review.



I'd recommend getting the LCD remote which gives full control of the device.



I'd also recommend getting the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter for listening to your audio collection in the car.

Virtual PC and Command & Conquer

My favourite game of all time is Command & Conquer, but I could never get it to work on Windows XP. I tried it in Virtual PC without any luck until now. Ben Armstrong (aka Virtual PC Guy) explains why it does not work, and how to get it to work: Virtual PC and Command & Conquer. He has also got Dune and Dune II working. Excellent! I'm really enjoying his blog, and look forward to more information.

Also check out his Operating System Nostalgia and More Operating System Nostalgia entries.

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows is a collection of free games and utilities for Windows XP.

Archos

The Archos Gmini 400 is fairly feature packed. It can play movies on the colour LCD display. It is also not too large at 10.6cm x 6.0cm x 1.7cm. It also has a CompactFlash reader built in so must have good expansion potential.

Expanded multi-user controls, QuickTime sharing spotted in new Tiger builds

Apple Developer Connection have a new technical article on Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger

AppleInsider reveal more details: Expanded multi-user controls, QuickTime sharing spotted in new Tiger builds.

X1

A number of bloggers (for example, Jim Blizzard) have written about an alternative to Google Desktop Search called X1. Having played with the trial version, I agree; it is much better with a clean, standalone UI. There is a downside: it costs $74.95, but in the long-run I think it'll be worthwhile.



A comment pointed me to Copernic, who produce a free Desktop Search Engine. It is still indexing my disks, but I really like what I see so far. Notice how well integrated into Windows it is with a search text box appearing in the task bar.

Froogle UK

Froogle UK is now in beta.

Visual Studio 2005 Express October CTP

Following on from the earlier release of SQL Server 2005 Express, Microsoft have updated the Express editions of Visual Basic 2005, Visual C# 2005, Visual C++ 2005, Visual J# 2005 and Visual Web Developer 2005.

KDiff3

Craig Andera blogs about a new favorite diff and merge tool, KDiff3.

OQO Photos and Reviews

The coolest thing about the OQO is you can use the same computer running Windows XP Professional at work or while mobile. It is true that you can do the same thing with a notebook comuter, but the OQO takes the mobility aspect a lot further. The next two screenshots show the OQO in handheld and docked modes.





For more photos, see the Engadget hardware.

Here is a batch of reviews:

    New York Times
    Wall Street Journal
    CNET
    PC World
    PC Stats

Monad Demonstration Videos

Jeffrey Snover, Monad (Windows Command Shell) architect, demonstrates and discusses Monad here

SQL Server 2005 Express October CTP

Microsoft have refreshed the beta of SQL Server 2005 Express. Download the October CTP here.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile Review

Paul Thurrott also has a reivew of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Review

See Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows for a review of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

There is a basic streaming demo here.



Also see the Media Center Extender Review.

For Windows Media Connect see here.

Google Desktop Search Beta

Google Desktop Search is now available for download. This is still in beta, but seems very stable.

Google Desktop Search supports the following:

    Outlook / Outlook Express
    Word
    AOL Instant Messenger
    Excel
    Internet Explorer
    PowerPoint
    Text

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise and Standard Editions are now available on MSDN Subscriber downloads.

TechNet have a Script Repository for Virtual Server 2005.

Microsoft are beta testing the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit. This is really cool. Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit is an add-on to Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and creates images of physical computers; allowing them to be deployed as virtual machines running within Virtual Server 2005. See the FAQ for more information.

OQO model 01

The amazing OQO model 01 is now available to order. It looks to cost around £1,100.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 has just been released.

Groovy, Java's New Scripting Language

Groovy is Java's New Scripting Language. Quoting from the FAQ:

"Think of Groovy as a Ruby- or Python-like language that is tightly integrated with the Java platform (as opposed to the UNIX/Posix command shell and C-libraries), allowing you the same powerful and concise coding syntax as Ruby or Python, but allowing you to stay on the JVM and protect your investment in J2SE, J2EE, and all the plethora of great useful Java code out there without any adapter layers or parallel API sets ..."

Microsoft Time Zone

The Microsoft Time Zone Utility is a cool little utility that sits in the system tray and allows you to easily view the data and time in various locations around the world.

Amazing Mount St. Helens pictures

Steve Makofsky blogs about some amazing Mount St. Helens pictures. You can see some more from USGS here.

iPodder - podcast downloader

iPodder is a cool little application implemented in Python. It sits in your system tray and downloads media files to your computer or portable device. It uses RSS feeds and works in a similar way to blog aggregators such as NewsGator. Downloded files are automatically added to the My Playlist section of Windows Media Player. It is available for Windows, Mac and (soon) Linux.

A list of podcast feeds is here.

Update: HOW-TO: Getting Podcasts on a Portable Media Center (and other Windows Media Devices).

Desktop Sidebar

One of the new features of Windows "Longhorn" is the sidebar. This is a usability enhancement that displays a panel docked to the side of the screen. This panel can host a number of functions including an analogue clock and picture slideshow. It shows great potential. However, "Longhorn" is unlikely to be released before 2007 (late 2006 is the current plan).

In the meantime, Desktop Sidebar is a great application that delivers, and goes beyond, the functionality of "Longhorn" sidebar. Best of all: it is available today for Windows XP.

Desktop Sidebar includes lots of pre-installed plug-ins including an analogue clock similar to that installed with "Longhorn". It includes a RSS newsroom (which adds a "Subscribe" button into Internet Explorer), integration with MSN Messenger and Microsoft Outlook and Windows Media Player. There is also a vibrant community developing skins and other plug-ins.

Desktop Sidebar is definitely worth an install.