25 Years MS Windows

It’s now 25 years ago since the first version of that thing called MS Windows started to infest became available for the new IBM PCs.

When you think back - that long ago - we were sitting and trying out that new interface provided to us on a PC the price of a small car today. And yes it was only black and white and it crashed and crashed and crashed (could be the applications), so most of the time we went back to a green shimmering monitor running Lotus 123 - latest after 15 minutes.

Actually it’s only 23 years ago because it took quite some time between the announcement and becoming available for sale. We started using it when MS persuaded us with an Alpha version of MS Windows 3.0 / 3.1 a few years later. If I recall it right that Alpha arrived on about 20 of these new 3.5″ floppies (each costing about 10 times as much as a DVD today). As time goes by…hmmmmmm…

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Research: MS SecondLight

With the new Secondlight prototype Microsoft has added another dimension to its touchscreen technology called Surface.

The two build-in projectors allow to display different images in a way that looks simultaneous to the eye. Microsoft presented the new technology during the PDC and has provided some additional technical details earlier this month.

While one image is displayed onto the large screen and can be manipulated with gestures the second projector can create an independent image on a flat or 3D surface like a piece of paper or a Plexiglas cylinder.

Microsoft provided some very interesting sample applications like…

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Microsoft announces web based Office Applications

Finally the move from Microsoft we have been waiting for quite some time. MS is going to bring (parts of ) its Office Suite into the Browser.

As announced today MS Office Web Apps will run not only within IE but also with Firefox and Safari. The web apps will be “lightweight versions” of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, but Microsoft said at the MS PDC the functionality included should be comparable to Google’s online office suite…

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Microsoft: The transformation of the world’s largest campus

The “Seattle Times” has an interesting story today on how the “Microsoft” campus has expanded since 1989 and how the buildings are transformed from long hallways of closed door offices to “…flexible pleasant space that fosters collaboration…“.

It also includes an interactive map of the expansion over time and a video with images of the insides and design for the new building(s)…

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Microsoft provides free developer tools to students worldwide

If you’re a student of an university around the world Microsoft today is giving you a late Christmas present.

From today on Microsoft allows students worldwide to download developer tools including VS Professional 2008 and 2005, a copy of MS Server 2003, VirtualPC, SQL Server 2005 Dev. Edition, Expression Studio plus additional development tools free of charge.

All you have to do is to use your MS Live account (or a newly created one) to log into the site and provide the country and name of your university. The verification of your student status will then be done within about a minute via a web service ( we learned this from someone who has done it with an UK university, might take longer with others). The license key allows you to use the software for student projects and research. Teaching staff and commercial use is excluded…

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Video: BillyG’s last day at Microsoft

While we still prefer “D. Letterman’s goodbye to BillyG”, yesterday - during his last CES key note - Bill Gates has shown that he’s taken a humorous stand on leaving Microsoft’s day-to-day business…

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Live Labs: 3D photo worlds with Photosynth

A few months ago we have seen the prototype and some videos of Microsoft Research’s Photosynth application.
It was quite impressing and yesterday Photosynth has been released as a public technology preview on the Microsoft Live web site.

Live Labs is describing the software as:
Photosynth combines hundreds or thousands of regular digital photos of a scene to [...]

Microsoft / Novell: Are Windows and Linux becoming buddies?

Yesterday the two CEOs of Microsoft and Novell in a joint press conference told the public that they have agreed on a set of broad business and technical collaborations …to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft(R) products work better together…
The two companies also agreed to provide [...]

Microsoft releases Windows Defender

After beta testing the software since January 2005 today Microsoft has released its first version of Windows Defender. The free application is intended to protect MS Windows users from …pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software…
Windows Defender might raise the stakes for security vendors like Symantec and McAfee [...]

New MS Webcam: LifeCam NX-6000

The new LifeCam NX-6000 extends Microsoft’s existing series of webcams with a compact model designed specifically for notebook computers.
Key features:

High Definition video: 2.0 megapixel - (1280 × 1024 resolution)
Video effects
Still Image Resolution: 7.6 megapixel - (3200 × 2380 pixels, interpolated)
Wide-angle lens with 71 degree field of view
Automatic face tracking software
Built-in microphone
Digital Zoom: 3x
IM Compatibility: [...]