IE8 Features explained by IE8 Team experts

Check out these series of Videos on Internet explorer 8 explaining various features by IE 8 Team experts-

IE8 Accelerators-

Learn about IE8's Accelerators from Jon Seitel, Program Manager on the IE team, IE8 Accelerators,

IE8 Search-

Sharon Cohen, Program Manager on the IE Team, on very interesting new Search features in IE8, IE8 Search,

 

IE8 Web Slices-

Jane Kim, Program Manager on the IE Team explains what Web Slices are, and what are changes to web slices since beta1.  IE8 Web Slices-

 

IE8 Dev Tools-

And the last video is about Dev tools, where John Hrvatin, Program Manager on the IE Team explains IE8's Developer Tools – IE8 DevTools

Check out these really helpful videos to know about various new features of IE8 which is almost ready to be RTMed. All these experts talks to Charles Torre, Sr. Technical Evangelist on Channel9.

Mumbai featured as Live Search background image

With Slumdog Millionaire sweeping Oscars, City of Mumbai also is in highlights. Few days back (11th Feb.‘09) city of Mumbai was shown as the background image in Live Search  also.

I hope many more background images of city of Mumbai and other images related to India will be shown in future also as background Image in Live search.

Its nice to see daily a new background Image with Hotspots being shown in Live Search . Using these Hotspots one can learn new things daily exploring the World with Live Search. If you have not yet seen these check out the Stunning Images provided as background and move the mouse over these images to discover Hotspots. But this is available only for US region, so you have to make use of http://www.live.com/?mkt=en-us link if you are outside of US.

Live Search, Google and the Oscar Awards

Now that the Oscar Awards have been announced yesterday, everyone everywhere is talking of the Awards only. Slumdog Millionaire which swept the Oscar Awards is everywhere, on the front pages of Newspaper and elsewhere. Its special for India, as many of the Indians are involved, the Story based on the Novel written by an Indian and city of Mumbai where the story is set around. And A.R. Rahman winning 2 Oscars and Resul Pookutty another one. So its the Indian connection making it more special.

Even these have been already depicted in Amul Ads:

(A.R. Rehman wins numerous awards for 'Slumdog Millionaire" ) 

(This was after Slumdog Millionaire winning 4 Golden Globe Awards and getting 10 Oscar Nominations)

(Amul Ad cartoons, courtesy Amul)

 

Now coming to Oscar Awards searches, I had posted yesterday  before the start of Oscars Awards,  Live Search and Oscar Awards , I now again checked as these awards have been announced and wanted to see how it provides results comparing it with Google. This is what Google front page shows:

 

And this is what Live Search front page showed: 

Live Search provided the results in a neater way, all the major winners being shown at a glance, while Google gave the results in a plain way with some description. I liked the way results presented by Live Search. Hope it keeps on improving. Now the only problem with Live Search is - to get Optimized results, one has to make use of US market Live Search Link http://www.live.com/?mkt=en-us if one is outside United states. AS here in India if I use the local Live Search link http://www.live.com/?mkt=en-in, one does not get the optimized results. Hope this will be looked into and all search results made uniform.

Live Search and Oscar Awards

In few hours, 81st Academy Awards - Oscars will be announced. Many of us will be searching more information about the nominee. In how many categories Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated ? Who else are there in those categories? A.R. Rahman is nominated against whom?  And many such questions. And you don’t have to waste time searching and scanning from bunch of site summaries. Just go to the Live Search  and type Oscars to get all the nominees related links. And after the awards you can again come back and search for Oscar winners and you will be given every information about the Oscar Winners.

Check out and find out all about Oscar nominations, winners etc.

But again these Live Search has been optimized for United States and you will not get the same results if you are searching from other countries. So make use of this link http://www.live.com/?mkt=en-us wherever you may be. I hope soon Live Search Team address this issue.

Free Microsoft Press E-Book:Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

In my last post I had posted about the Free E-Book Windows Vista Resource Kit, here’s another Microsoft Press E-Book being offered to celebrate its 25th Anniversary:

Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

By Patrice Pelland
ISBN: 9780735625426

It’s a hands-on book, and you can learn how to program with Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. All you need is a computer, and the Visual C# Express Edition is also Free to download. Get this Free E-Book now from here, Sign up to download the entire e-book (PDF, 7.8 MB)

EDIT: Some of the blog readers have raised doubt about the file being downloaded, because it downloads a file called ‘pdf_loader.pl’. So proceed with the download , once the download is complete, rename the file with the file extension of .pdf. And it will work.

It's a LIMITED OFFER, so get it while it lasts.

Free Microsoft Press E-Book: Windows Vista Resource Kit

To celebrate its 25th Anniversary, Microsoft Press is offering Free E-Books, One of the Book its offering is :

Windows Vista Resource Kit, Second Edition

By Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, and Jerry Honeycutt with the Windows Vista Team
ISBN: 9780735625969

In-depth, comprehensive, and fully updated for Service Pack 1, this Resource Kit delivers the information you need to administer Windows Vista. Sign up to download the entire book from here : (PDF, 44.8 MB).

EDIT: Some of the blog readers have raised doubt about the file being downloaded, because it downloads a file called ‘pdf_loader.pl’. So proceed with the download , once the download is complete, rename the file with the file extension of .pdf. And it will work.

Also its a LIMITED OFFER, so get it soon before it gets expired.

Show Menu bar in Windows7 Media Player

This is a small tip related to Windows Media Player in Windows 7. Many of us are used to having a menu bar while using the Windows Media Player. But in Windows 7, the menu bar is not displayed  by default. So how to show it:

Just right click on the empty area next to tabs as shown and you will be provided with menu options as context menu

And there you can also see option to show these options as Menu Bar, Press Ctrl+M or click to show and click again not to  show.

Get a daily tip on Windows 7

Want to get a smart tip about Windows 7 daily ? Throughout the month of February TechNet Magazine will be publishing a new Windows 7 beta 1 tip every day. So this is a good opportunity to know some of the new features and enhancements in Windows 7. Already Windows 7 is getting good feedback from all over. I have also installed it and just enjoying the new OS.

Here’s the link to TechNet magazines’ A Month of Windows 7 beta 1 Tips

What’s more, if you want, you can display the tip on your blog or site as I have done, and it will display daily a new Windows 7 tip. Just add this feed link Tips RSS feed to your blog.

You can see the ‘Windows 7- Tip of the day’ section at top of my blog. (EDIT: Windows 7 Tip of the Month will be dispalyed on my blog for the month of February as it is for that month only, after that I will remove the Tips RSS feed from my blog. To view the collection of tips anytime, please check: A Month of Windows 7 beta 1 Tips )

MVP status renewed

This post should have been there at the beginning of the year, as I received this great news on 1st Jan. It was the mail from Microsoft informing me about the 2009 MVP award.

It said:

“Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others…….”

So here I am, my MVP Status  renewed for Year 2009. So I continue to be a Windows Live MVP. Thanks Microsoft, Thanks to my MVP Lead- Abhishek and thanks to all. 

I will continue to be active with Windows Live and helping the community and also doing my bit with Windows 7.

Since I have started to twitter, my blog posting have taken a hit and sometimes my blog posts gets delayed as I twitter. And this post also got delayed as I had already twittered about this instantly. But I will not let micro-blogging overpower my blogging. :)