technical solutions and commentary

I came across this YouTube video a couple of weeks ago. After seeing it I wanted to know if this was real software or something that was being developed internally somewhere. It turned out Microsoft and MIT co-developed the software called “Physics Illustrator” which is demonstrated in the video.

The software is built for the TabletPC, and is freely available for download. If you have a TabletPC get the Physics Illustrator from Microsoft’s web site and try it out.

The source code is also available from Microsoft Research here.

Microsoft released a preview of Photosynth through Windows Live Labs. It combines regular digital photos of a scene to present a detailed 3D model. You can then soom in and browse the photos that feed the 3D model. It is VERY cool. Try the Photosynch Tech Preview!

1-800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411)

Google recently released the beta of Google Voice Local Search (aka GOOG 411). You can search by business category or name in a city and state. The service will provides business details — address, phone number — and even connect you via phone. If you call from a cell phone it can SMS text message you the details as well. This service is BETA and experimental at this time.

1-800-411-SAVE (800-411-7283)

This is an ad supported 411 service which has been around for a couple of years. It will provide the business phone number to you free of charge. 

1-800-FREE-411 (800-373-3411)

This is another ad supported 411 service which has been around for a couple of years. It will provide the business phone number to you free of charge. 

Microsoft has released the Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats. You can install this on your computer running Office 2000, XP, and 2003 and create/open/edit/save the new Office 2007 formats (aka EMCA Open XML formats).

If you are planning to phase in Office 2007 into your business, I would recommend that you install this onto your PC’s which are running pre-Office 2007 applications before or during the time you are going to start rolling in Office 2007. You can get more informaiton on the software pack from the Office Web Site or you can download it directly from Microsoft Downloads. You can deploy the software pack using Active Directory to push the software to PC’s or you can use SMS or a similar remote software deployment/management tool.  

MDOP is a suite of applications which Software Assurance customers can add-on to their agreements. MDOP consists of 4 primary solutions:

• SoftGrid Application Virtualization
• Asset Inventory Service
• Advanced Group Policy Management
• Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset

 More information:

• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack Datasheet- link to the pdf.
• Watch a Microsoft Webcast on MDOP and SoftGrid.
• Here is a TCO Whitepaper for MDOP as well.

Microsoft has released the new Office 2007 file formats to the standards community. The format will be backed and regulated by the ECMA. The new ”ECMA Open XML” format ha been submitted to the British Standards Institute for fast-track radification. You can give your upport to the radification process by signing the petition to support the ECMA OpenXML format.