Flying back in time
Filed under: Conversation, Microsoft, New Web Creations, New technology, Web services
There are some things you just have to write about.
For me the return of Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of them. Dreams of earlier days sitting at my wheezing desktop, landing my plane at a California airstrip, as the hard drive and the machine RAM spluttered like the propellor.
It’s going to return, it’s called Flight and you can see the campaign vision here.
Get your goggles and gloves ready, this time we are in high-def plasma and high speed broadband.
Microsoft, I can hardly wait!
Small Basic – big concept
Filed under: Community, Conversation, Microsoft, New technology, Web services
Microsoft’s Small Basic has reached version 0.9.
Microsoft say that many bugs have been fixed and the system now works faster than ever. To see the updates in this version you can visit the Small Basic archive here.
What’s it for? One thing is as a great entry level for young people into the world of coding and software creation.
Lynn Langit and Llewellyn Franco have put together a great web site for children and teachers – www.teachingkidsprogramming.org
You can find a great way, as a tutor, into the world of code here and for young people the site offers the tools to get to grips with programming too.
We have written about Small Basic a long time ago, but the latest version and the Langit/Franco concept makes it a great way to get started for young people to create their own programmes.
The Third Sector Web home page is here.
Microsoft Web Office – now live
Filed under: Community, Microsoft, New Web Creations, New technology, Web services
Microsoft have gone live with their new free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
You can access them thorugh your Windows Live desktop after signing in. The files are stored on your linked SkyDrive account and enable you to recall, share or edit files just as if they were on your laptop or PC.
The suite available offers a reduced set of functions from the full set of facilities available in Office 2010, but still includes enough to make creating documents a useful online experience.
We were pleased to see OneNote included. This is a powerful information management and note taking, action list driven tool and is a useful compliment to the other online services available.
Microsoft with Windows Live accounts, the revamped Hotmail and this new suite now offers a useful and intuitive package.
We think the road-warriors on our team will definitely be using it.
You can find our Third Sector Web home page here.
The future according to Microsoft
Filed under: Conversation, Microsoft, New Web Creations, New technology, Web services
Craig Mundie is the Chief Research and Strategy Officer for Microsoft. His job is to envision and explain how changes in software and hardware will have an effect on the computer user in the coming decades.
Use the Microsoft News link below to access the film archive and see a short film by Mundie which explains some of the key concepts in Microsoft future thinking. Not only will ‘cloud computing’ become more powerful and accessible, but the development of what Microsoft call natural user interfaces’ will dramatically affect present day users.
Our laptops and devices will also go on getting more powerful and, Mundie argues, enable the creation of ‘personal assistants’. Where our devices can render support and services in the way that a human support worker can offer at present.
Games and flat screen touch technology will also offer a paradigm shift in how we look at, interrogate and sort information.
Mundie’s film is good on featuring practical application change that will be recognisable to the computer user of today.
You can find the Third Sector Web home page here.
Apple reaches 25th birthday
Filed under: Conversation, New Web Creations, Web services
Apple reaches a quarter of a century of design, development and product innovation. The video above is the original Apple Mac advertisement from 1984. Not a keyboard in sight.
We have traditionally argued that we cleave to a PC based work environment because so many of our clients use Microsoft and Windows products.
Recent debate in the office has made us realise how redundant this argument is now. Macs have synchronicity with Windows and clearly, in our creative output as a business, being Mac based would be no drawback to efficiency.
We are rethinking our position this year as we review our technology needs for 2009.
Apple continue to be news makers, perhaps too strongly for their iPod and iPhone creations, whereas their core computing experience clearly and quietly goes from strength to strength. You seem not to hear such a debate about the failings of Mac OS, as opposed to WIndows Vista’s faltering or the hype surrounding the forthcoming Windows 7.
Apple as a company continue to be cutting edge, despite their principals being in their 50′s. (We think there’s still hope then for small outfits like Thirdsectorweb, where our team contribution is generated by practitioners from their early twenties to their fifties too).
Wired Magazine have recently published a great timeline review of Apple product history. There’s also a great graphic of the timeline too. Worth checking out if you are interested in seeing a great visual capture of Mac history.
You can find the latest Mac products on the Apple pages here.
You can find the Wired Magazine article here.
Our Third Sector Web home page is here.
OpenOffice 3.0 candidate now available
As regular readers will know, we use OpenOffice as our default system in the office and on our laptops.
We cannot exist, like everyone else now, without access to Microsoft and Google products, as well as a host of other on-line services that support our work.
However, for ease of use, for a better integrated experience when moving images and data across applications – in our opinion nothing can beat OpenOffice.
Version 3 has a new interface, loading a bit quicker than before and offering direct access to templates and existing documents.
The suite now supports Office 2007 documents, with users being able to add MS Access files to Writer. Multiple users can also collaborate on the same spreadsheet.
A useful upgrade to this versatile and easy to use suite.
You can download the new version from the OpenOffice download page.
As this is a release candidate, prior to a formal version launch, we recommend that you do not rely on it entirely for production purposes. For those interested OpenOffice users it’s a great insight into the future of OO.
You can see the Thirdsector web home page here…
Directed Edge – a new take on ‘pedia’ searches…
Filed under: Conversation, New Web Creations, Web services
Directions
Directed Edge isn’t a totally new resource any more, but we have been using it for research purposes and find the depth, clarity and subtlety of the results very good indeed.
A prototype service from Directed Edge a company involved in developing recommendation engines for social and e-commerce networks.
The ‘Wikipedia’ search tool is a demonstration of their technology. We think it stands up pretty well as a distinctive service too. Helping to draw users to their site and to show how it can work for your data.
(We don’t have shares in Directed Edge …honest)
See a Directed Edge search result for Microsoft here. We like the core information, but also the useful links to other articles, people and additional resources.
We think it can provide a great jumping off point for a web research or writing project.
You can visit the Thirdsectorweb home page here….
Enjoy multiple desktops from Microsoft
Filed under: Conversation, New Web Creations, Thirdsector Systems
The Sysinternals team at Microsoft have this month lanched Desktops v.1.0 – a neat desktop utility that allows you to organise your software and services into up to four separate vrtual desktops.
The software, when loaded, appears to have a small footprint, sitting neatly in your task bar. This is an early version that is sure to be added to by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell.
You can find Desktops at Microsoft here – we use Sysinternal utilities on our office set-ups and value greatly the innovation and energy the team put into creating these no-cost system add-ons.
You can visit the Sysinternals home page for a whole range of Windows system utilities here.
You can visit the Thirdsectorweb home page here.
Using NetBooks – we give them a try
We have recently purchased a netbook, the Asus Eee 9” screen version – running Windows, to be precise.
Our partners felt that lugging a suitcase of kit to every meeting was non-productive, not to say hard on the back and the feet.
We have coupled a large laptop, as a base unit, to the Asus using a direct transfer cable and sync our files using Microsoft SyncToy. Being able to drag and drop files between units and to sync a Windows Suitcase of working files was the best option for us.
We did discuss other storage options, such as drop box services for remote back-up and access. However, in client meetings we cannot always guarantee mobile internet access, so a physical cable sync, post meeting, was right for us.
Deploying the drivers to the Asus, which does not have an optical drive, involved some imaginative use of memory sticks, but once all loaded the dual file tree display came up straight away on both units, allowing us to drag and drop files between machines. We use Open Office as a our default partnership production software.
The software and cable linkage appear to work well – as for the weight saving…we’ll let you know when we’ve run for the 5.10 at Kings Cross a few times.
The breathess Thirdsector team
Visit the Thirdsectoweb homepage here.
We are connected together by only six people after all…
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The technology correspondent of The Observer, David Smith, has published an interesting article on a piece of Microsoft research that claims to show, as web users, we are all only separated from each other by about six individuals.
This ‘six degrees of separation’ theory is not new, but Microsoft have examined 30 billion electronic messages from 180 million people across the globe. The average set of unique connections between message senders was 6.6 hops. Amazing.
Read the full article by David Smith at The Guardian by using the link below…
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About our business
Very mobile friendly
Tech news from CNN
- Google Instant feeds real-time addiction
Google this week released its Instant Search feature, which displays live search results as soon as you begin typing. - Video game piracy: Is it good for business?
Although as old as gaming itself, software piracy has been making headlines lately, seen by many as a growing danger to a business just coming to grips with the transition to digital.
- Google Instant feeds real-time addiction
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