Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Of course, this is a happening week for all Microsoft .Net lovers. Today Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available for MSDN subscribers and as Microsoft says it’ll be available for everyone on Wednesday. Visual Studio and MSDN with very unique and beautiful logos. Not to forget the awesome splash screen of Visual Studio.


For more check out Scott Hanselman’s blog.

Happy Programming.. :)

Is Google really worried about Bing?

This is something I still cannot believe. I believe Microsoft is a great company which has some solid products. I know that because I work with many of those products. But will you ever believe that one of Microsoft’s recent product releases made Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page think twice. Microsoft released their new decision engine which is more than a typical search engine. Sergey Brin is concerned enough losing their market share to Bing. He has put together a team of top engineers [Yes, TOP ENGINEERS… cool…], to begin making vast improvements to the web service starting immediately. Brin is heading the team, and the project they will be working on is trying to determine how Bing's search algorithm is different from Google. Wow what will be the end result?

I know new search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but did Sergey or Larry ever concerned about those, I don’t think so. But Bing, Microsoft you really did something to keep Google open their eyes. That begins the competition.

Bing is powered with a 100 million budget just for advertising. Also it is said to be rare that the Google founders join on the daily operations of the company, so having one of them back leading a team there must be quite significant. The real search engine war has started!!

[Image courtesy of the NY Times]

Silverlight 3 on 10th July

Another cool product from Microsoft I like to work is Silverlight. Microsoft is planning to launch Silverlight 3 and its Expression Studio 3 designer tools on 10th July 2009.


Silverlight 3 introduces more than 50 new features, including 3D support, GPU acceleration, H.264 video support and out-of-the-browser capabilities to Silverlight. The out-of-browser support will enable developers to build applications that work like Adobe's AIR plugin. Dramatic video performance and quality improvements are also expected.

Time to be aware of Microsoft?

Are you an employee having a hard time with your employer? WARNING! You’ve been watched. Microsoft is on the process of developing a spy kind of software, which is capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence using wireless sensors connected to their computers. As they say, it’s a Big Brother style software.

The system is designed to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure.

As TIMES ONLINE say, Microsoft has submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.

The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.
HHHMMMM… Wanna be your own boss?

Source: TIMES ONLINE (Alexi Mostrous and David Brown)