Instantiate Podcast #10 Show Notes: What's up at Redmond?

Date
06/07/2009
Podcasters
Sherif Mansour, John Masson, Nick Hodge



Interview with Nick Hodge - Geek at Microsoft

Microsoft Services + Products


Microsoft IE 8 Campaign:

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsMFyo8DWs4
  • http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/19/microsoft-tells-its-ie8-campaign-to-get-lost/
  • http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/browser-comparison.aspx  - Thoughts?
  • http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/null-pointer/soa/IE8-marketing-MS-takes-the-low-road/0,2001102868,339297024,00.htm?feed=rss
  • http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/06/17/microsoft-internet-explorer-8-at-the-height-of-cynicism/

Photsynth

  • http://photosynth.net/
  • From Microsoft Live Labs

Azure Services Platform

  • Similar to Google App Engine, Amazon WS
  • Using MS IDE: Visual Web Developer Express
  • http://www.microsoft.com/azure/

Office Live workspace

  • Recent announcement
  • http://workspace.officelive.com/
  • http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_live_workspace_vs_google_docs_feature_by_feature.php

Microsoft Telescope

  • http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Microsoft and Windows 7 RC

  • Release Candidate
  • What does this mean for MS?
  • What impact as Windows 7RC had?

Bing "Decision Engine"

  • http://www.bing.com/
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et0rUzRAXGE 
  • Search by category, Price comparisons, Bing travel sites 
  • Microsoft Bing Facebook App - Competition where winner gets their Photo in the background
    http://mashable.com/2009/07/01/bing-homepage-contest


Johns site of the week

Aardvark - http://vark.com


Sherif: asked Aaardvark about Aardvark!
Coleen from Syd: "I like that I can get immediate answers from a wide variety of people. I dislike it when people simply google or wikipedia their answers. I tend to use it more and more for opinion-based answers, or suggestions, rather than raw facts. I also love that I am communicating with people from all over the world. Aussie aussie aussie! ;D"

Andrew form NZ: "Aardvark is great for answering the questions that are not easy to Google, but that are simple for someone who's an expert on the topic. For example, I wanted to know if there were general principles that air traffic controllers follow and Aardvark found a trained pilot who was able to answer my questions"

Tim S./M/Melbourne,AU just responded to your question about **Aardvark**:
"I dislike that I reasonably frequently get asked questions that are solvable with a single google or wiki query."