Antivirus Protection Test

Open Notepad and paste this string into it ( without double quotes )

“X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H* ”

#2 Save it and as soon as you do your antivirus real time protection should be able to detect it. In case you have disabled the real time protection run a scan for this file.

Upgrade to New Facebook Profile

From Facebook blog:

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150349956720484

Go to this link and upgrade your facebook profile

http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/

Bing Social Built on Windows Azure

We all know about Bing.com/Social, a website that provides social insights of the people. It allows us to search for a topic and it also shows top 10 shared items. I recently came across in the msdn blog that Bing social was built on Windows Azure. That's a great example for the power of cloud computing.

Bing Social was implemented using Windows Azure. There is code there that harvests the world's Twitter and Facebook status updates, counts the hits and serves up the “Hottest Social Topics”. It was something that was created by a Microsoft developer in a matter of a couple months after he wrote the prototype. He was able to go from idea to launch of one of the world’s largest cloud services (it updates 500 Mil+ status posts per day) in about 12 weeks. And, as the posts from Twitter and Facebook grow, Azure scales with it automatically. Go ahead, play with it. It's pretty cool.

I’m floored by that app, mostly by the way in which it was created. When people talk about “the power of the cloud” it now has real meaning to me. It means whatever worldwide internet-scale app I can think of can become a reality in a matter of weeks, not months or years.

Source: MSDN Blog

Microsoft’s New Research Project Stereoscopic 3D environment

Craig Mundie showed a demo of a stereoscopic 3D environment. He played a multiplayer game and showed a retail experience blending virtual and physical environments.I collected news on various sites regarding this matter,

Microsoft's Craig Mundie visited Duke University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this week to show off forthcoming NUIs (natural user interfaces), involving "a large stereoscopic 3D goggles that showed some of the possibilities of human-scale computer interaction," and company's soon-to-be-released Kinect controller.

He provided demonstrations that showed "what it might be like to interact with a computer ... the size of a room," the company says. Craig was able to "walk into a 3D world where he could shop and play games, interacting with people in both physical and virtual environment in a very natural way." from ditti.com

“Sadly, unless we send each of you a set of 3D glasses it’s hard to recreate the experience, so you’ll have to trust me on this one when I say it was pretty incredible. Craig was able to walk into a 3D world where he could shop and play games, interacting with people in both the physical and virtual environment in a very natural way. I hope to be showing you more of the short clip from “The Spy from the 2080s” video he used so stay tuned on that one.” from Microsoft Blog

No Zune HD for Europe–Confirms Steve Ballmer

Neowin reports that Steve Ballmer speaking at UK Tech Days Event on answering while Zune HD will be available in Europe told that

We need to focus on Windows Phone 7" said Ballmer when questioned if the Zune HD would arrive in the UK.

Also Microsoft confirmed that Zune marketplace will be available for Europe allowing people to buy and subscribe to digital content from various labels.

Windows Live Essentials inspired by Metro

Microsoft recently announced their final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011. There were no significant changes apart from Photo Gallery Navigation bar, Windows Live Sync renamed into Windows Live Mesh. All the applications of the suite have been Ribbonised. How about Metro Inspired theme for Windows Live Essentials? MML has posted few concepts found on Deviant Art. They are simply Awesome. Take a look at these..

The man who made all these.Even his profile display is inspired by metro..

Does Apple really own Coverflow and Time Machine Concepts?

Apple Insider recently posted about the patent trial which Apple lost recently. Coverflow and Time Machine are two visually appealing concepts in Mac OS X which Windows doesn't have. Though one can argue that these are not a most usable features. Coverflow doesn't make sense when you have 250 albums and you will swipe through album arts to find an album. Here is the info on patent trial,

Mirror Worlds LLC filed the lawsuit in 2008, alleging that Apple had infringed on patents for creating "streams" of documents sorted by time. According to Bloomberg, a federal jury sided with Mirror Worlds on Friday, although specific details of the ruling were unavailable.

Mirror Worlds' patents were based on research by Yale professor David Gelernter and then-doctoral student Eric Freeman. Gelernter emerged as a prominent computer scientist in the 1980s, eventually developing a time-based method of organizing data that he dubbed "lifestreaming." Patents for the concept date back as early as 1999 (1, 2, 3, 4).
In a March interview, Gelernter told Big Think that though he no longer held the patents for the suit, which he was told is the "largest lawsuit in patent history," he was still upset about not getting credit for the ideas.
Gelernter sees the Mac OS X features Spotlight and Time Machine, as well as the iTunes Cover Flow feature, as being taken from his ideas on "lifestreaming."

Android’s Weakest Part

Google started its Android efforts back in 2007. It partnered with several industry bigwigs for developing Android. The main driving force of Android at the time of launch was its open source,its free. Google combined its services into single package starting from Google Search, Maps, Mail, etc. Google said Android is based on Linux and it also supports Java language. Three years after the announcements Android have become formidable force in Mobile Operating System with about 25% with support from phone manufacturers such as HTC,Motorola,Sony Ericsson,Samsung,LG. Apple which was a leader in mobile space a year before first sued HTC for infringing its patents in phones powered by Windows Mobile and Android. Of 9 patents 7 were on Android alone and 2 on both the OS’s. Microsoft came to rescue HTC by licensing its patents to it. After some months as Sun was acquired by Oracle,Oracle sued Google for infringing its Java related patents.And now its Microsoft’s turn. Motorola which was once a Windows Mobile manufacturer now have turned into Android manufacturer. So Microsoft’s target was clear. What these companies want to tell about Android..Its below..

We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones.Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,"

I’m expecting Motorola Droid powered by Windows Phone 7..

Happy Birthday to Microsoft Security Essentials

I still remember the day when Microsoft Security Essentials was first released in beta through Microsoft Connect.I was pretty excited on that day because before the release ,my friends used to hunt for Anti-virus programs online. They were not willing to pay for the programs, so they usually search for Antivirus programs through Torrents,File sharing sites,etc. The funny part of their activity is they usually get viruses, malware,etc. with the file they download. Usually most of them report me that their PC is slow, it may be due to virus. There was no clear solution at that time for me to offer them. But then came MSE,the star. The number of people asking help from me for PC maintenance reduced folds. MSE was announced as a free alternative to consumers alone. But now Microsoft has announced MSE for SMB’s too. MSE team has shared some highlights of MSE from the past year.

· Originally introduced in 8 languages and 19 countries around the world, Microsoft Security Essentials is currently available and supported in 25 languages and 74 countries globally.

· Microsoft Security Essentials is certified by two of the industry’s leading independent certification authorities: International Computer Security Association Labs (ICSA) and West Coast Labs.  It also received the most recent VB100 Award and as well as certification from AV-Test.

· Beginning in October Microsoft Security Essentials will be made available to small businesses on up to 10 PCs for free.

· Microsoft Security Essentials was made available for online partner distribution, as a pre-install on OEM PCs and for distribution by publications as covermount software.

· Microsoft Security Essentials received the PC Advisor Awards 2010 - Best Free Software award and is rated by Consumer Reports as a “Best Buy”.

So what's in store for Enterprise customers? The solution is Forefront Suite of products. Here is a comparison of MSE with Forefront.