Starforce = pure evil?
Starfoce, the so-called “anti-copying malware” has done it again. This time, not with crappy software or bully tactics against their critics. No, now they’re apparently linking to illegal downloads of games that doesn’t use their so-called “protection.” It seems like some kind of extortion scheme (use our shit or we’ll ruin you). Should be interesting to see how this develops.
New Windows Desktop Search Beta!
Today we released a new version of WDS! It’s a beta of our 2.6.5 release, and you can get it here, or as an optional component to the Windows Live Toolbar Beta.
Unofficial change list:
-All the features of the 2.6 Enterprise version (Search Pane on XP/2003, Outlook Integrated Results when used with the MSN/WinLive Toolbar).
-WDS can now be installed over the MSN Toolbar Suite 2.5. This will remove your MSN Toolbar, but preserve your settings. You can then install the standalone toolbar or the 3.0 Beta and it will remember your settings from the 2.5 installation. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the Toolbar 3.0 Beta (which includes WDS 2.6.5 Beta as an optional component).
-The WDS Indexer has undergone some major changes to reduce disk I/O while indexing.
-Shutdown times have been improved significantly (we think we’ve nailed the “End Now” dialog problem).
-New group policies.
-Bug fixes and other general improvements (such as a cleaner Deskbar loading mechanism).
Let us know what you think!
Windows Live announcements!
New Live.com! – New UI! New First-run experience! New Gadgets! Multiple pages/tabs! FASTER!
New Live Search! – Infinite scrolling (no paging!), adjustable detail level, Search-within-site, and the best image search ever.
Onfolio acquisition and beta of the Windows Live Toolbar! (available tomorrow)
The new Live.com site is in the process of coming online, and might be slower than usual as they ramp up the servers. By morning it should be snappier than ever.
This is just the beginning… There’s a lot more to come from Windows Live!
I’ll be posting more tomorrow. Right now, I need sleep!
Recently a new tech news/blog site has popped by the name of LiveSide. They’ve been getting all kinds of scoops about upcoming Windows Live services. It appears their goal it to track everything that’s happening with Windows/Office/Xbox Live.
Check them out at www.liveside.net
It currently only supports the Seattle and San Francisco areas, but damned if it’s not cool.
http://preview.local.live.com/
Interesting preview of what mapping sites could do in the future.
VW Strikes again: Unpimp My Ride
Check out these new VW ads for the mark 5 GTI. The first one is my favorite.
Seriously, they have the best Ad agency in the business.
WDS Developer Forums
One of the many great resources we offer for developers that are interested in WDS is the MSDN Developer Forum for Windows Desktop Search.
We’ve recently begun an effort to improve the forum (along with our Channel 9 wiki site). The forum is first-and-foremost a developer community, focused on providing an atmosphere where developers can share their ideas and help each other out. However, we do have engineers from the WDS product team (including myself) drop by frequently to answer questions. We aren’t support personnel, and we can’t promise a timely response. But we’re happy to help out when we can.
You can find the forum here:
HDCP and your graphics card.
DailyTech has a report that ATI has been misleading consumers with their claims that their video cards are “HDCP-ready.”
True or not, one thing has been made clear: The entertainment industry doesn’t have a clue.
They claim that rampant piracy is hurting their bottom line, and that despite thier best efforts (suing customers, installing viruses and rootkits on your PC, enforcing anti-consumer DRM policies) – consumers still download movies, TV shows, and music from illegitimate sources.
So what’s there next brilliant move? Make it so that your computer will be forced to down-scale High Definition content that you paid for. Meanwhile, pirated copies will be available that play in full resolution on any PC.
Does this sound backwards to anyone else?
Seriously… what genious came up with the idea that they could beat piracy by making pirated copies better quality than what you can buy at the store? You can’t encourage piracy and then complain about it. But that’s exactly what they’re doing.
I think it’s time consumers started looking out for their own interests. Speak up against the HDCP requirements. Don’t pay for crippled content. Don’t let them hold your content hostage and extort you for more money to buy new “approved” HD hardware. It’s wrong, and it’s up to consumers to fight it.
Playstation 3 to cost Sony $900???
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or simply aren’t a geek at all, this should come as no surprise…
It looks like Sony is either going to have a very high priced console (I’ve been predicting $600-800 range), or take a bath on each unit sold…
Engadget has the scoop on a Merrill Lynch analysis that predicts the console will cost Sony about $900 to build per unit. This apparently takes into account every detail of the system’s production (including the mass quantities Sony will undoubtedly be buying parts in).
This should come as no surprise, when standalone Blu-Ray players are already $1000 or higher (and they don’t have expensive RAM chips or Cell processors or GPUs).
Also worth noting is that this price does not include the price of an optional Hard Drive.
Today Dan Warne from APC asked if Microsoft is listening. In fact, he mentioned my team specifically!
The answer, of course, is a resounding YES! We want to hear everything you’re saying about our product. We want to know what features you like, what bugs you hate, and you think we could be doing better.
Unfortunately, Dan Warne was right when he said that the Desktop Search Wiki on Channel 9 had become rather dormant. What’s interesting to me is the timing. About two weeks ago we began talking about getting our team involved in some new community-focused efforts. In fact, we have someone working with our team now whose sole purpose is to make sure we can foster conversation with and within our user and developer communities. Just last week I was telling him about the C9 wiki and how great I thought it was during the original WDS beta and the first release. I also mentioned that I was planning to go update it and sort through some things very soon.
That effort began today. I moved the WDS wiki out of the “MSN Search” section (don’t know why it was there in the first place), and updated a few links. There’s a lot of information on there, but I and other team members will be visiting there regularly and responding to users. I’ll post more about it later in the week. But why wait? Jump in, and join the conversation!