Team Vista Squad

Microsoft Blue Track

ravinar — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:30:00 GMT

Here is a sneak preview of some new technology from Microsoft that lets you use a mouse on any surface...

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/

Live Mesh Videos

ravinar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:49:00 GMT

Guys,

Paolo Barone, who delivered a great session on Live Mesh at our last meeting has published a list of cool Live Mesh videos.

http://blogs.msdn.com/pblog/archive/2008/08/21/live-mesh-videos.aspx

Have a look!

PC Power Management

ravinar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:48:00 GMT

Courtesy of Vista Squad Buddy, James Senior (read his blog "Views on Windows Vista" http://blogs.technet.com/james/default.aspx)

The Microsoft Environment Sustainability Blog mentions a cool new app which is FREE that allows you to control power consumption on PCs. The tool is called Edison and is developed by Verdiem.

Link to tool: http://www.verdiem.com/edison/

Essential Downloads for Vista

ravinar — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:25:00 GMT

Hey all,

Came across this list of essential downloads for Vista via Channel 10 (and Steve Clayton)

http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Essential-Downloads-for-Vista/

Windows Live – the Windows Live Suite upgrades Vista’s built-in programs like Photo Gallery and Mail to give you the newer versions – Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail. It also included Windows Live Writer, Live Messenger, and Family Safety. You can pick and choose which of these you want after downloading the installer.
Vista Codec Pack – lets you play nearly any video or audio file you come across.
Windows Search 4.0 – upgrades Vista’s built-in search with the latest version for faster and more accurate results.
Windows Steady State – Lets you easily restore your computer back to its same condition before someone (like your kids) mucked around with it.
5 recommended add-ons for IE7 – this page has five of the best add-ons to enhance Internet Explorer.
Windows Gallery – the Windows Gallery itself isn’t a download, but is where you can find tons of downloads for your desktop and sidebar.

The Vista Squad message reaches Twitter!

Gavin Osborn — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:08:00 GMT

It was a proud night for us at Vista Squad HQ when we heard news of our first members to join by way of Twitter!

For those of you who don't know Twitter is a relatively new player in the social networking revolution. Often described as micro-blogging, Twitter allows you to share your thoughts or let everyone know what you are doing. Think of it as as your Facebook status on heat! Other users "follow" your updates (or "tweets" as the cool kids would say) via the web but twitter's power only really takes off when you integrate it with your phone via SMS and your favourite IM client!

I only recently signed up to Twitter and it took me a while to "get it", those of you that appreciate Facebook and use it regularly will probably wonder what else it gives you.... but give it a while, integrate it with your mobile and IM and then I think you'll begin to appreciate it's appeal.

For those of you with twitter accounts my handle is ~~Osbornaldo~~ GavinOsborn, hook me up on there and I'll be sure to keep you all up to date about everything Vista Squad related!

[Edit: Told ya I was new to twitter: Didn't even get my handle right!]

FEST08

Ray Booysen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:53:16 GMT

FEST08 the annual NxtGenUG one-day event takes place at Microsoft Reading on Thursday 12th June. As ever it's going to be an action packed day with great content from the likes of Mike Taulty ,Oliver Sturm , Dave Sussman and other top speakers.

No doubt there will be bundles of 'swag' and prizes and Pizza somewhere down the line - there always is when the nxtGenUG Boyz are around. There seems to be a few more of them this year with the Cambridge and Southampton crews joining in the mix.

So got to http://www.nxtgenug.net/fest08/ for details and to register your place. It's free to all NxtGenUG members and a mere £49.99 to non-members - bargain! Oh and also if you're around the night before there is a G(r)eek dinner to toast Daniel Moth, "The Greek Wonder" on his way to the states. http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=140 is the link to signup to."

Sneak Future Session Preview

ravinar — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:59:00 GMT

The boys at Vista Squad have been scouring the earth (ok the UK) for talented and interesting sessions to show the masses so here's a sneak preview of what we have confirmed for the rest of the year:

16th July		Mike Taulty - LINQ to XML
20th August		Mike Ormond - Silverlight Paolo Barone - Live Mesh
17th September		Richard Godfrey - WPF / Silverlight App Walkthough & Deep Dive James Senior - XBox After Dark
15th October		Paul Foster - Software. Services. Robots: Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio
19th November (date tbc)		Paolo Barone - Game Programming with XNA

Next Vista Squad Meeting

ravinar — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:46:00 GMT

Thanks to the guys that attended our last meeting it was fantastic! We had nearly 35 attendees, lots of good banter, 2 stonking presentations (videos to be up soon) and a copy of Vista Ultimate given away :)

So the next meeting Vista Squad "The Wrath Of Khan" is scheduled in for Wednesday 18th June at Cardinal Place. The line up is Stephen Lambo back after a some time away from us giving us some "Security" advice and the Developer session is yet to be confirmed. More of the same in terms of banter etc... keep an look out for more information!

We look forward to seeing you!

50 Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 Screencasts

ravinar — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:35:00 GMT

Mikes Taulty and Ormond have put together a bunch of 50 screencasts on Silverlight 2 Beta 1 dealing with a range of topics inc.

"Hello World" with VS and Blend

Anatomy of a Silverlight Application

The <asp:Silverlight> Control

Controls - What's In the Box?

Why Controls have a Content Property

Width, Height, Margin, Padding, Alignment

Laying out Content with Grid

How To Use a GridSplitter

Laying out Content with StackPanel

Laying out Content with Canvas

Embedding Video and Audio

Go to his blog here: http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2008/05/15/10402.aspx

Or directly to the screencasts here: http://www.miketaulty.com/SLVideos.html

Have fun!

Introducing the Team Blog and Vista being "greener"

ravinar — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:17:00 GMT

Hey everyone!

So we decided that it would be good if there was a Team Blog where we could share cool stuff with you. So here we are... we are looking to use this blog to help:

drop in blog posts on Vista, .NET 3.5 etc.
to share with the group our plans/ideas for the future and growth of Vista Squad
probably some pointless stuff too

So here is some useful information on the power saving ability of Vista we have gleaned from a close pal of the Vista Squad team, James Senior:

1. Windows Vista can reduce electricity costs. Businesses can save up to $11 per system, per year by switching to Windows Vista, due to the default power management settings. For a company with 5000 users, this means up to $47,000 of bottom line dollars can be saved annually.

2. The Vista Sleep state is more reliable than XP. Computers resume from Sleep in two seconds, which is about the same time it takes a screen to resume from Idle mode in Windows XP.

3. Power consumption reduction translates into direct CO2 savings. Carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by up to 67 kg of carbon dioxide per desktop PC, per year. For a company with 5000 users, this is 288 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions reduced.

4. Aero graphics have no effect on overall power consumption. Organizations should take advantage of Aero since it does not have a significant impact on electricity usage.

Look at the post and link to the full case study here: http://blogs.technet.com/james/archive/2008/04/28/vista-power-saving-stats.aspx

On the "green" theme here are "50 Ways to Save the Planet"
http://www.50waystohelp.com/