Here I follow-up on my last post about what our lives would be like without Windows. Initial reactions would be a world full of rainbows and butterflies, but everything might not be as great as you would expect.

Significant changes in developer tools: Here’s an area where I think Microsoft does good work. The amount of resources I have available to me to both use and learn Microsoft applications and developer more solutions on the Windows platform. Similar to the changes with client applications, there would be changes to developer expectations as well. This impact would probably be less those …read more

I’ve been reading an interesting article on the PC World website titled "What Would Life Be like Without Windows". I’ll admit, I’m a fan of Microsoft. Don’t jump to conclusions though, I think there are plenty of areas for them to work harder and deliver a better product to their users.

Of course there’s the initial knee-jerk reaction that life would be fantastic without this giant monolithic software elephant in the room. After all, everything they make is crap and they strong-arm competition and their business partners to do what they want. Right?
It’s not that easy, the article discusses these …read more

When I found these screenshots, the first thing I thought was “these are really cool!” and then I saw it was for something called “Halo Reach” and I had no idea what the heck that was.
Apparently, if you have Halo ODST, you already have an invitation into the Beta for Reach. Who knew?
What you have to do is sit on your hands until the Fall of this year. You can check out Bungie’s site for all the details along with a video or two.
If you don’t want to click the pretty little link, know you MUST have an Xbox Live …read more

If you’re thinking about getting a 360 this year, your best bet is to not buy one via Craig’s List or eBay.
At the time of me writing this, there are 5,753 360s for sale on eBay alone and I’m sure the number is only going to grow since Microsoft’s announcement of 600k+ system bans for modding and violations of terms of service. Adjusted numbers according to Daily Tech and CNN/CNET, put the ban at about a million.
The reason for this influx of systems to Craig’s List and eBay is consoles are being banned from Xbox Live but not GamerTags – …read more

November 2010, for less than $100. Is it possible the holy grail of gaming peripherals known as Project Natal will be available at such a low price?
The November ‘10 release date lines up with information that’s been making the rounds since the device was first announced, but this is the first time a price has been mentioned.

This information comes from a spy report published by gaming trade mag MCV. The report goes on to say that Microsoft is readying 5 million units to meet the demand when Natal goes on sale November 2010, and that at least 14 game titles …read more

I have been working on digital collaboration for the last five years and I would continue on working on this field for the years to come. The main technology or platform I use is Microsoft SharePoint which is an enterprise class platform for developing applications across portals & collaboration, documents library, business process and workflows, etc.

The digital collaboration space is growing and the enterprise keeps on implementing and improving their collaboration capability across the whole organization. Google knows this as such they have released Google Wave technology to be able to complete in a vertical market. I have signed up …read more

Amazon has been at the forefront of cloud computing for the longest time and they have offered various cloud computing products like storage services & database services to the enterprise.

Another additional product on the Amazon web services is the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) which Amazon feels would help streamline processes of settings up, scaling and operating relational data over the internet.
Amazon vice president of web services, Adam Selipsky, have noted that they have been working on the relational database for the last two years since many of their Amazon web service customers have given feedback that they require relational …read more

I was just encountering a problem with my Windows 7 operating system wherein my DVD drive gets undetected every now and then depending on the kind of DVD I put. As such, I was searching online for solutions and updates but instead I found a recent update on the Windows Vista platform. That was frustrating because Windows Vista should already go away and Microsoft spend its time perfecting Windows 7 because as the user base grow then problems would start popping up as I am currently experiencing.

Anyways, it seems that even with the release of Windows 7, the platform update …read more

Advertising was the safety net that Google had when they launched their search engine. Initially they wanted to have their search engine technology licensed to the enterprise and at the back of their mind advertising would be a contingency plan. As it turned out, advertising became their primary option turning billions of dollars in revenues.

Desktop applications on the other hand were purchased through licenses and advertisements downloaded from the net through desktop applications were deemed security issues that security firms like Symantec blocked through their anti-spyware or anti-adware programs.
Steve Jobs is on the other side of the bed as he …read more

I am very happy with my Windows 7 Ultimate edition and one of the key features is the Bitlocker technology. In summary, BitLocker Drive Encryption helps you protect all your files stored on the drive where Windows is installed and also on internal data drives on your computer. This works similar to EFS or the Encrypting File System but the EFS only encrypts individual files while the BitLocker technology encrypts the entire drive. As a user, you would not encounter problems while using your Windows 7 computer and you can go ahead on your normal operations. Unauthorized users are the …read more