Microsoft Talk

Technology Companies Dominate Findings With Focus on Innovation, Localized Products and Regional R&D Presence

Once again, readers voted software giant Microsoft Corp. as Asia’s overall top company. It occupies first place for the 12th consecutive survey. Microsoft placed second in the innovation category, up from eighth place the in 2006. Readers again voted Microsoft No. 1 in two of the five categories: long-term vision and financial reputation.

Canon Inc. was selected No. 1 for quality of products and services, and BMW AG was voted tops for corporate reputation.

Toyota Motor Corp., Nokia Corp., and Intel Corp. round out the overall most-admired top five.

A total of 2,477 executives and professionals participated in the survey, which was conducted last year between May 11 and July 3. On behalf of The Wall Street Journal, market-research firm Colmar Brunton polled subscribers as well as other businesspeople in 12 Asia-Pacific countries.

Quest for Innovation

Asia now plays a key part in Microsoft’s global quest for innovation. Microsoft invests $7 billion annually in research and development, and today two of Microsoft Research’s five labs are in Asia — one in Bangalore, India, and one in Beijing. “Microsoft Research Asia has also achieved many technological breakthroughs. More than 200 innovations from the Beijing lab alone have been transferred to Microsoft products, including Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Xbox and Windows Live. In addition, the Microsoft India Development Centre in Hyderabad has filed over 220 patents over the last four years,” says Mr. Umeoka.

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At Photokina, the world’s largest photography trade show, Microsoft’s Kostas Mallios provides insight into how the company is sharpening its focus on photography to solve real problems for photographers.

In part, Kostas Mallios talks about:

It’s an exciting year for Microsoft in digital photography and we’re talking about a number of things this week at Photokina including some of our existing offerings for both enthusiasts and professional photographers as well as some of the cool new products we’ve been working on. For consumers, we’re talking about built-in tools like Windows Live Photo Gallery that give people a very intuitive way to view, manage, and refine their photos. And for pros and advanced enthusiasts, we’re showing applications like Expression Media 2 which, in partnership with Phase One, we’re offering as a product bundle with Capture One. This brings the best in RAW processing with world class digital asset management, helping photographers organize, preserve and share their photos. In addition to these products, we’re showcasing the investments we’re making in the future of digital photography. You’ll see a number of our new ideas featured at Photokina, including Photosynth, a service that allows you to experience digital photography in an entirely new 3 dimensional way.

You may have also heard, today we announced the Metadata Working Group (MWG), formed by Adobe, Apple, Canon, Microsoft and Nokia and, recently, Sony, each of whom embrace the goal to develop metadata guidelines that are compatible across all applications, devices and services. These guidelines will ultimately reduce interoperability problems that make finding, organizing and searching for digital photos a challenge.

Our focus is solving real problems whether they’re problems we’ve heard other photographers tell us they’ve had or those we’ve experienced ourselves. We have a blog and a Web site dedicated to serious photographers. We also have a program called the Icons of Imaging Program, where we get input from some of the top photographers in the industry who tell us what problems they’re hoping we can solve.

As an industry, digital photography is still in its infancy, so in addition to solving key problems that exist today, we’re also exploring the potential of digital photography for tomorrow. We’ve made big investments in research and are delivering products like Photosynth that are changing the way we think about and use digital photography. Our goal for our work today and our investments in tomorrow is to make it easier for photographers to organize, preserve and share digital images so photographers can be more efficient and spend more time behind the lens.

With Connected Services Drives Down Travel Costs and Eases Stressful Commutes

Microsoft Corp. launched Microsoft® Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services. The updated version of the program combines the No. 1 best-selling travel and mapping software1 for the United States and Canada, a sleek Global Positioning System (GPS) locator, and the inclusion of a new MSN® Direct receiver, providing drivers with current traffic updates and competitive gas prices without needing an Internet connection.2 Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services also integrates with Live Search Maps, allowing consumers to find up-to-date local information that can easily be saved to take on the road. This affordable full-navigation solution is a unique synergy of offerings that will keep drivers on track so they can travel with less stress while enabling them to save money by knowing what to expect along the way.

According to a new Consumer Federation of America report, the average price of a gallon of gas escalated from $1.12 to $2.72 (U.S.) between 1998 and 2007. Americans can only expect this trend to continue and are looking for help to be more economical and efficient when traveling. And when, according to ABC,News, “220 million adults average an hour and a half a day in their cars,”3 it becomes painfully obvious that driving is expensive and time consuming. This year Microsoft Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services is packed full of useful tools to help consumers manage these concerning trends.

Traveling for the Budget Conscious

Road trips are a vacation tradition for many families, and despite increasing costs, Americans are still hitting the roads. Streets & Trips 2008 with Connected Services will arm consumers with all the tools they need to make the most out of their next road trip. Travelers will be able to easily locate and compare prices of nearby gas stations and plan their route accordingly to help them save even more money with the new MSN Direct gas feature. The program’s fuel consumption manager provides a cost estimate for the trip based on the car’s tank size and mileage per gallon and will alert travelers when it’s time to refuel. The new Automatic Re-routing feature will catch that inevitable wrong turn and get them back on track in no time.

Service update represents the first in a series, Microsoft’s rapid innovation.

The Internet marketing capabilities allow businesses to utilize the Internet as a revenue-generating marketing channel and an integral part of their CRM strategy, especially in conducting search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. The new Internet marketing functionality will enable organizations to do the following:

• Create and manage online and search engine campaigns

• Research and bid on key words using search engine optimization

• Gain insight into marketing return on investment according to click-through and conversion rates

• Capture sales leads from the Web using pages hosted by Microsoft or the organization’s own Web site

• Unify search engine intelligence with CRM analytics to optimize campaign performance

“This update will help customers maximize marketing returns from online advertising spending by allowing them to monitor and measure the effectiveness of online ad campaigns,” said David J. Buggy, vice president of Beringer Associates Inc., a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online’s automatic update means we’re able to take advantage of advances like this on a far quicker cycle, so we don’t have to worry about being left flat-footed by changes in business.”

The service update also will provide customers with increased scale for teams of multiple thousands of employees and provide a direct link from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Resource Center to the Microsoft Pinpoint marketplace, where they can connect with more than 200 Microsoft Dynamics partners and choose from approximately 250 products and services. Future service updates will provide enhanced enterprise integration, enterprise analytics and extended service benefits.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is an on-demand customer relationship service, hosted and managed by Microsoft, that comprises a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities.

Availability

The Internet marketing module will be available initially to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customers in the United States with a version extended to customers in Canada in a subsequent update. To learn about Microsoft Dynamics CRM and to sign up for the online service, customers can visit http://crm.dynamics.com or call (877) CRM CHOICE (276-2464).

Prototype Technologies Set in Workplace Scenarios Illustrate Vision For a More Productive Tomorrow

Microsoft Corp. today announced the opening of the Center for Information Work (CIW), an immersive setting that allows Microsoft to explore how productivity could be improved in the future. The CIW highlights advancements in prototype software, creating an evolving model for a highly productive working environment.

Located on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, the CIW represents a companywide effort to build a prototype of one view of what productivity technology could look like five years out. It uses familiar workplace situations to demonstrate concepts for improving how tomorrow’s workers will manage information overload, access important data to make decisions, and stay connected when away from the office. Sony Electronics Inc. Business Solutions and Systems Co., Intel Corp. and Acer Inc. have worked with CIW to create one look at how future technologies will work together to make information workers more efficient and productive.

“Over the course of the last century, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the formation of the global work force. The changes have been fueled in large part by improvements in technology and changes in business processes,” said Jeff Raikes, group vice president at Microsoft. “To help our customers remain competitive in the face of such changes, we continue to advance software in ways that will help them boost employee productivity and broaden options for mobility. Some of these innovations are represented as prototypes in the Center for Information Work.”

Engaging Customers

Approximately 1,000 customers are expected to tour the CIW each month. The tours provide customers with the opportunity to interact with technologies currently being examined by Microsoft and its CIW technology participants. Microsoft encourages feedback on the prototypes because it will help guide which technologies will move toward reality and which will need refining to better address real business problems customers face.

“Employees today use enterprise data to drive business strategy, integrate and create business processes, and collaborate with co-workers and partners,” said Thomas Gruver, group marketing manager for the Center for Information Work at Microsoft. “At the Center for Information Work, customers can see the kind of active thinking we are putting into productivity solutions and tools and how those solutions address the need for more productive, mobile and efficient business processes.”

Microsoft researcher Desney Tan led a team, including Greg Smith, Mary Czerwinski, Eric Horvitz and intern Michael Bernstein, to do just that. They developed a Facebook application called Collabio, a contraction of collaboration and biography, to explore a novel approach to gathering user meta-tags.

Trying to generate tags for people is not new. Because existing applications can use these tags in productive ways, many researchers have already been looking for how best to tag individual users. Systems have been built to automate the process by “scraping” email and Web pages. Another widely adopted method attempts to have people place tags on themselves.

But the results haven’t been stellar — Automated systems don’t work very well, and who’s going to write dozens of descriptive tags for him or herself?

Now, Facebook users can add the Collabio application and start slapping descriptive “tags” on their friends — lovely, Milwaukee, MIT, computer science, photography, mother, valedictorian, curly-haired, hamburgers, and so on. The tags range from geographic locations, to professional organizations and expertise, to hobbies and interests, to names of significant others or pets.

Collabio is designed to encourage small tags instead of sentences or paragraphs so that people make the hard choices, rather than relying on technology to distill the answers down. As such, having friends apply descriptive tags on one another is a simple approach to a problem that has been difficult to tackle. Collabio distributes that task to users on the network and makes it a fun social activity. Many participants in the game collect well over 100 tags. The highest is Bernstein, with 1,600.

In playing the game, users see a blanked out tag cloud for each friend and guess which tags have been applied. Each time two or more taggers agree on a tag, a little more of their tag cloud is revealed, and they get some points. Tags that have been placed on a person by multiple people are deemed to be more accurate. Scoreboards in the game keep track of who has the most points, tags and so on.

From a purely scientific standpoint, the game is a foray into exploring a new way to tap into knowledge contained within the social network and glean useful information for applications such as personalization or expert matching. Tan and team plan to analyze patterns of data to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

The hope is that this novel approach will prove complementary to existing methods, and will inspire others to design useful applications that take advantage of the tag data. In the end, Desney Tan and his researchers believe technologies like Collabio have the potential to help turn social networks from somewhat of a novelty, into a useful and productive tool.

And for Collabio gamers themselves, an interesting side effect of the project is already emerging — the reflection they see of their friends’ perceptions. Users are widely reporting the experience as an interesting tool for personal introspection.

For example, one user who wears khakis to work every day reports seeing “khaki” pop up as a descriptive tag, and has started to contemplate his wardrobe.

Q&A: Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, talks about how Microsoft Silverlight is helping the global broadcasting and media industry grow their presence – and viewership – on the Web.

Microsoft Silverlight has recently played a major role helping to shape some of the world’s biggest events in recent months. Silverlight – Microsoft’s cross-browser, cross-platform solution for delivering rich interactive applications and content experiences on the Web – helped viewers experience both the Olympic Games and the U.S. Democratic National Convention on the Web, providing an interactive, high-quality way for people to view both events.

Later this week, at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) 2008 in Amsterdam, Microsoft Corp. will demonstrate an important new capability for Silverlight - playback of H.264-based video. H264 is a standard video specification that delivers high-definition video over a variety of delivery channels. During the event, Microsoft will also highlight how customers in Europe are reaping the benefits of adopting Silverlight.

The company recently made a strategic investment in Move Networks Inc., as the two companies continue to work together to deliver high-quality, skip-free Internet television programming over HTTP-based networks.

To learn more about these and other Silverlight milestones, PressPass recently spoke with Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Developer Division and the head of the Silverlight design team.

PressPass: Will you be showing or announcing anything new at the IBC conference this week?

Guthrie: Yes. At IBC 2008 we will be demonstrating a technology preview of H.264 video and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) audio playback support in Silverlight, and H.264 authoring using Microsoft Expression Encoder and Windows Server 2008 for delivery. Until now, Silverlight has supported the SMPTE VC-1 and Windows Media formats, as well as MP3 for audio, enabling customers to take advantage of broad support across the Windows Media ecosystem, including third-party tools, service providers and content delivery networks.

We’ve always wanted Silverlight to support a variety of formats, so today we’re announcing that H.264 and AAC support will be available in a future version of Silverlight, which will offer content owners greater flexibility and choice to deliver video and audio.

PressPass: Historically, people have associated Microsoft with VC-1. Does this signal a change in direction?

Guthrie: No. Although we have been working with VC-1 for some time, it’s not widely recognized that Microsoft has also been an active participant in the standardization of H.264/MPEG AVC for many years, and we’ve included H.264 support in several Microsoft products. Microsoft’s Gary Sullivan was the chairman of the Joint Video Team (JVT), which developed the H.264 standard, and he recently accepted an Emmy Award on behalf of the JVT.

Click the above link to read more.

Efforts: One Year Later

Just over a year ago today, Microsoft and Cisco announced plans to deepen their technological collaboration to meet customer demand for improved interoperability between their respective software and networking products.

The initiative was jointly launched by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers, and is currently being spearheaded operationally by Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, and Kathy Hill, senior vice president of Access and Networking Services at Cisco.

Following the one-year anniversary of the announcement, PressPass spoke with Muglia and Hill to get a progress report on the collaboration, how customers are benefiting and where the relationship goes from here.

Q: When you originally embarked on this collaboration a year ago, what was your objective?

Hill: A year ago we announced a commitment to working together so that our customers can be successful regardless of whose solutions they choose. Our approach is based on a commitment that where we do compete, we will continue to address our customers’ needs for interoperability between our respective products.

Muglia: Yes, our customers were very clear in voicing their desire for greater interoperability between their Cisco networking gear and Microsoft software. Cisco and Microsoft have participated in many areas of customer-driven interoperability for more than a decade. In fact, prior to the 2007 announcement we accelerated many areas of collaboration to better address our customers’ needs - from IT architecture to security to management scenarios. Last year, we realized we needed to do a better job communicating to our customers about those areas of collaboration and how committed the companies are to providing highly interoperable solutions.

Q: What have been the chief accomplishments of Microsoft and Cisco’s interoperability work over the past year?

Muglia: Last year, we outlined the work we were doing across seven areas: IT architecture, security, management, wireless and mobile, unified communications, connected entertainment and small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).

While we continue to make progress in each of these areas, the three that stand out over the past year are network optimization, IT architecture and connected entertainment.

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Microsoft Equipt gives consumers powerful productivity and security protection technologies in a single package through Circuit City.

Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Microsoft Equipt, an all-in-one security and productivity software subscription service for consumers. In one easy installation, the service delivers award-winning anti-malware protection technology and features to simplify PC management and help improve performance, the productivity tools people use to organize their lives, and online services that help make it easy to keep in touch with friends and family.

Initially code-named “Albany,” Microsoft Equipt offers consumers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with people they care about most; and Office Live Workspace, a new service from Microsoft that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions.

Pricing and Availability

Microsoft Equipt is $69.99 (U.S.) estimated retail price for a one-year renewable subscription. Each subscription will be good for three home PCs, making Microsoft Equipt ideal for families and individuals with one or several computers.

Microsoft Equipt will be sold in nearly 700 Circuit City stores in the U.S. starting mid-July 2008.

“With Microsoft Equipt we’re improving our customers’ computing experience by giving them essential software in a package that offers an easy install and setup experience, as well as a convenient and affordable way to stay updated with the latest versions of Office and Windows Live OneCare,” said Bryson Gordon, group product manager, Microsoft Office.

“We are very pleased to be the first partner to offer Microsoft Equipt through nearly 700 Circuit City retail outlets throughout the U.S.,” said Elliot Becker, vice president, general merchandise manager technology, Circuit City. “Microsoft Equipt delivers on an unmet customer need for an easy way to get the essential productivity and security software in an all-in-one package. And with the added benefit of getting the latest software as part of the Microsoft Equipt subscription, we expect this service to be a runaway hit.”

Check out BOK Center Opens on Labor Day Weekend on the tulsa, ok blog here on 451 Press.

Tool will focus on its tech sites, MSDN, TechNet and Expression

Microsoft, which released a preview version of its social bookmarking application in May, is adding new features to the first version, such as the ability to subscribe to bookmarking tags via RSS and to import bookmarks from other bookmarking sites like Delicious.

Microsoft is focusing its application on its sites that provide forums and support for developers and designers. Since releasing a preview version of the application for new MSDN, TechNet and Expression sites, thousands of users in IT have begun using the application to “save their Web favorites online, share them with others, see what other technical pros are favoriting and connecting with others,” noted Microsoft’s John Martin in a blog post. Martin is the lead evangelist for server and tools online at Microsoft.

In the early September release, Microsoft will add:

The ability to subscribe to tags or people: Users can follow a tag or a fellow bookmarker through an RSS feed subscription. The ability to search for people by username and other criteria. Import tools: The new application will provide a tool to allow users to import their favorite bookmarks from Microsoft Internet Explorer and Delicious. A bookmarking widget: Users who have their own blog or Web site can post the bookmarking widget to make it easy for other users to bookmark the blog or personal Web site directly to their social bookmarks on MSDN, TechNet and Expression. Those who have posted the widget will then get traffic on their sites when a bookmarked page is published in the social feeds on Microsoft’s global site, Martin said.

Check out My Friendly Pets here on the 451 Press network, written by Susan Mead.

An overview of the features and benefits of Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 is the next version of the world’s most popular browser that optimizes developer and end-user experiences to provide a window to the Web of online services. Moreover, Internet Explorer 8 offers new features and functionality that enable customers to reach beyond the page in more secure, easier and faster ways than ever. Following are brief descriptions of the key new and enhanced features in Internet Explorer 8. Features that are new in beta 2 or have been significantly improved since beta 1 are noted with an asterisk (*).

Faster, Easier Web Browsing

Internet Explorer 8 makes great strides in both features and performance improvements that provide faster day-to-day browsing. Many ways in which Internet Explorer 8 makes browsing faster and easier include these:

• Smart Address Bar*. In addition to matching URLs in the user’s site history, the Smart Address Bar in Internet Explorer 8 matches what a user types in the Address Bar with titles in the history as well as content in their favorites and feeds, making it easier to locate sites the user wants to visit.

• Enhanced Find On Page. Find On Page functionality has been enhanced to improve how users search for text on Web pages.

• Find On Page. Find On Page now appears as a toolbar activated by pressing Ctrl-F or choosing Find On Page from the Edit menu or Instant Search Box. The toolbar appears below the user’s tab so it doesn’t obscure any of the text on the page.

• Result count. The enhanced Find On Page functionality shows the user how many places the search text appears on the page.

• Result highlighting. The enhanced Find On Page functionality highlights all places on the page where the search text appears so users can locate them at a glance.

• Redesigned New Tab Page. The New Tab Page in Internet Explorer 8 has been redesigned to allow the user to perform common tasks by clicking links on the New Tab Page.

• Tab Groups*. When one tab is opened from another, the new tab is placed next to the originating tab, and both are marked with a colored tab, so users can quickly discern which tabs have related content.

• Reopen last browsing session*. Internet Explorer 8 enables users to reopen their last browsing session from the most recently closed instance of Internet Explorer, which is useful if the user accidentally closes the browser.

Check out the Albuquerque, NMBlog here on the 451 Press Network, then click below for more on Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.

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for Nation’s Top Home-Based Businesses for Second Annual “Home-Based 100”

StartupNation (http://www.startupnation.com) and Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://www.smallbusiness.officelive.com) have launched the second annual “Home-Based 100” to find the top home-based businesses in the country. Home-based businesses interested in making the list can submit their business profile at http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100, with results to be announced in November.

According to the Small Business Administration, over half of all U.S. businesses are based out of an owner’s home, and home-based businesses contribute more than $530 billion to the U.S. economy each year. With more than 19 million entrepreneurs currently running a business from home, most experts believe this trend is at an all-time high.

“2008 is the year of the home-based business. While home businesses have long been the backbone of the U.S. economy — surpassing more than half of all businesses — this year’s economic pressures have accelerated this trend and fueled a new crop of home-based entrepreneurs,” said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation LLC and one of the country’s leading small-business experts. “Our 2008 ranking of home-based businesses will showcase these unsung heroes of entrepreneurship and demonstrate that home is not only where the heart is, but also where passion, drive and tomorrow’s business success stories live.”

The StartupNation Home-Based 100 is composed of 10 top-10 lists making it not just an ordinary business list. Including the grungiest, the most innovative and the best financial performers, the unique and diverse list highlights the home-based businesses that are often unrecognized, but which still play a vital role in the economy today. The 10 categories for 2008 follow:

• Best Financial Performers

• Most Innovative

• Boomers Back in Business

• Greenest

• Yummiest

• Wackiest

• Grungiest

• Recession Busters

• Most Slacker-Friendly

• Most Glamorous

Check out fellow blog Dealing with Headaches.

First-of-its-kind partnership creates new ways to register to vote and jump into 2008 election.

A leading gaming and entertainment platform just became a leading platform for change. Microsoft Corp. and Rock the Vote today announced a groundbreaking partnership that will allow Xbox 360 owners to register to vote, participate in presidential polls and voice their opinions to the presidential candidates. It will all happen through Xbox LIVE starting Monday, Aug. 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

“Xbox is a natural partner to help us reach out to youth voters,” said Heather Smith, executive director, Rock the Vote. “To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE.”

This is the first time that Rock the Vote has joined forces with an entertainment partner such as Xbox to reach voters under 30. Xbox LIVE is the largest online social network connected to the television, with membership totaling 12 million — if Xbox LIVE were a state, it would rank as the country’s seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes.

“The Xbox LIVE community is active, vocal and passionate,” said Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox LIVE. “We’re thrilled to partner with Rock the Vote to make it easier than ever for youth voters — and our members — to register and be heard.”

Through the Rock the Vote partnership, Xbox LIVE members will be able to register to vote, voice their opinions to the candidates through an exclusive forum and participate in potentially election-predicting polls. They will also be able to download Rock the Vote public service announcements.

Xbox also will have a presence at both the Democratic and Republican conventions, promoting the Rock the Vote partnership and educating delegates about creating a safer entertainment environment on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE using the built-in parental controls known as Family Settings. These industry-leading settings allow parents to limit their children’s access to video games and movies and manage their activity and communications on Xbox LIVE. For more information on Family Settings and other safety-enhancing gaming tools and resources, delegates can stop by the Xbox on-site kiosk or visit http://www.xbox.com/isyourfamilyset.

Visit Copyright Talk and learn about youtube and copyright law.

Microsoft teamed up with HGTV Designer Genevieve Gorder to help provide college students with some tips and tricks for outfitting the ultimate digital dorm room.

As parents send their kids back to school this fall, many families will be spending less on their annual back to school purchases. With current economic conditions putting a damper on spending, people are looking for the best value on everything from clothes to computers.

On Aug. 14, Microsoft teamed up with designer Genevieve Gordor of HGTV’s “Dear Genevieve” in New York to provide some useful tips and tricks on designing a dorm room that can strike the right balance between value and style.

Genevieve’s Digital Dorm Room Tips:

• A Windows PC can provide all the functionality college students need for as little as $860. The PC can serve multiple functions, from recording a recent episode of your favorite TV show to helping write a history paper.

• Layer the bed with sheets, a coverlet, a duvet, and a throw. All of these pieces add texture, dimension, color and function. The bed will determine your whole color palette. Remember, keep it light, keep it simple and add color and pattern with accent pillows.

• Use oversize box pillows against the walls to act as a couch during the day; a bolster at either side can serve as armrests.

• Utilize the space under the bed by lifting it up on wood posts cut at your local home improvement store. You can then put sliding drawers beneath the bed; the wood ones are best and last the longest.

• Like the bed, the floor is all about layering. Nobody loves industrial carpet. Buying several inexpensive floor mats and layering them creates a look that’s more luxurious than just one carpet.

• Turn off the fluorescents! Instead, bring in task and mood lighting. A desk lamp or a floor lamp will give you control of the environment instead of it controlling you.

• Once students are settled, they can keep in touch with friends and family back home using Windows Live services. With Windows Live, you can share your favorite photos with friends, send and receive e-mail from your Web-enabled mobile phone, even talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger video features.

Read how Medicare gap leaves elderly to skip mediication.

On July 24th, Microsoft announced that it intends to acquire DATAllegro Inc., a provider of breakthrough data warehouse appliances. The acquisition will extend the capabilities of Microsoft’s mission-critical data platform, making it easier and more cost-effective for customers of all sizes to manage and glean insight from the ever-expanding amount of data generated by and for businesses, employees and consumers.

“DATAllegro is a tremendously innovative company that has started to redefine the data warehouse market,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft. “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers enterprise-class capabilities in business intelligence and data warehousing, and the addition of the DATAllegro team and its technology will take our data platform to the highest scale of data warehousing.”

“Integrating DATAllegro’s nonproprietary hardware platform and flexible software architecture into Microsoft SQL Server will provide customers with the strongest offering in the market,” said Stuart Frost, CEO of DATAllegro. “We are excited to join forces with Microsoft and continue the innovation this company was founded on.”

Unlike most data warehouse appliance vendors targeting the 1–25 terabyte range, DATAllegro has specialized in large-volume, high-performance data warehouses. DATAllegro’s data warehouse appliance installations boast some of the largest data volume capacities in the industry — up to hundreds of terabytes on a single system. DATAllegro clients span such markets as retail, telecommunications and manufacturing.

According to a report by Donald Feinberg of Gartner Inc., “As data warehouses are becoming more strategic to organizations and as data warehouse appliances mature, the adoption rate of the data warehouse appliance is increasing rapidly.” (“Data Warehouse Appliances Are More Than Just Plug-And-Play,” July 13, 2007.)

In addition to offering large capacities, DATAllegro’s patent-pending technology is designed for complex workloads including high concurrency and mixed queries. DATAllegro is one of the few data warehouse appliances built on a nonproprietary hardware platform including Dell and Bull servers and EMC storage. This flexible architecture makes it ideally suited to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server.

After completing the acquisition, Microsoft will retain most of DATAllegro’s team as well as its headquarters in Aliso Viejo, Calif., making it a Center of Excellence for data warehousing. Existing DATAllegro customers will continue to be supported.

What this means for you and me, is faster and more effecient service from any company.

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