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Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Beta

Microsoft holding Vista SP1 Beta Install Fair Oct 27

Windows Vista SP1
If you're itching to install Windows Vista SP1 but haven't been one of the few thousand beta testers to get an invitation, October 27th could be your lucky day. If you live near Redmond Washington, that is.

Microsoft is holding a Vista SP1 Beta Install Fair. What does that mean? if you've got a PC running Windows Vista RTM and a little free time on your hands, Microsoft will install a beta of SP1 on your system. You'll need a PC with a 1GHz or higher processor, 512MB of RAM, a 4X or 8X AGP video adaptor with 64MB of RAM, 6GB of free hard drive space, and a DVD-ROM drive.

Microsoft is looking for at least 100 PCs with uncommon applications and configurations so they can gather better performance data on Vista SP1. In other words, you'd best back up your data, because there's no guarantee everything is going to work.

There's limited availability, so you should sign up by sending an e-mail to vsp1reg@microsoft.com. Microsoft is offering to install SP1 on 180 desktop PCs and 20 laptops between 9am and 3pm on October 27th.

Filed under: Audio, Business, Developer, Internet, Video, Office, Productivity, Social Software

Microsoft to buy Parlano for seamless communication experiences

Microsoft to buy Parlano for seamless communication experiences

The team in Redmond Washington has just announced that they will be acquiring Chicago based Parlano, developers of a cross functional group communication technology, that goes beyond your typical IM and email toolsets.

Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, but Microsoft is planning to integrate Parlano's technology in order to give its office programs a broader vision. For example, users would be able to see who is available only by IM as oppose to Phone or video chat. Then they would be able to transition seamlessly from email to an IM to a video chat.

This move by Microsoft marks a milestone in its Office Communications server due out late next year. An application that lets users find and communicate with the right person, immediately, through the applications that they use most.

[via NYTimes]

Filed under: Windows, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open Source

Microsoft invites Firefox developers to play

Firefox invited to RedmondLast week Sam Ramji, Director of Microsoft's Open Source Software Lab, has extended an invitation to the developers of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird to Redmond for the Windows Vista Readiness ISV Lab, a monthly event which provides independent software vendors (ISVs) with "secure office space for 4 people, hardware, VPN access, and 1:1 access to product team developers and support staff." In his invitation, posted to the Mozilla developers' list, Ramji says, "I'm committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects, so I went to the non-trivial effort of getting slots [at the event] for non-commercial open source projects." No word yet on whether the Mozilla team has accepted the offer.

[Via Ars Technica]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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