Archive for Video
May 16, 2008 at 12:54 pm ·
Filed under Video, Technology, Live Services
National Geographic Magazine is partnering with Microsoft to bring Stonehenge to life using the super cool PhotoSynth tool. The idea was to take a series of photographs and jigsaw them together in a 3D environment. Photosynth combines hundreds of high quality digital images and lets you browse them in a smooth way, so you can zoom in on details or zoom out to have a situational overview. The National Geographic Magazine team made a video about their collection and they’ve put it online on their site:
Video link
May 15, 2008 at 12:31 pm ·
Filed under Video, Digital Life
Even though internally we use another version of this clip, this is the clip I show at events whenever I need to show something about ‘digital lifestyle’. I was a bit surprized to find it on MSN Soapbox and YouTube, but since it’s out there, I’ll post it here as well. In the clip, we follow ’some guy’ who’s on his way to a party. What we see is a bunch of services and products working together to help him out. The point is that we do have a load of cool apps and services that make sense, and that we try very hard to make them work together. And if they do, it’s great fun. :)
The song in the catchy soundtrack is called “Girl From Mars”, and it is covered by a band named Magneta Lane. The original song was released in 1995 by a band named Ash from their album named “1977″. Enjoy.
May 9, 2008 at 12:50 pm ·
Filed under Video, Fun
Yes, it’s Friday, it’s sunny outside and it’s time to glance back at a cool Microsoft clip from a few years ago. This one is called “Extreme Makeover: Server Room Edition” and it’s about Phil. It’s ALL about Phil. Quote: “Phil began his IT career with just one NT Server that we, of course, just destroyed.” :)
May 6, 2008 at 8:26 am ·
Filed under Video, Mix Event
For those of you who attended the event in Louvain La Neuve, and also for those who weren’t there or couldn’t make it, all the sessions have been recorded and put online on the ChopSticks pages. Tune in for the breakout sessions you missed or to see those ones again you attended. All there, all free - All you need is a Windows Live ID. To start off the goodness, here’s the closing keynote of SteveB (you’ll need Silverlight to see the clips):
Thanks, Katrien
April 29, 2008 at 2:14 pm ·
Filed under Video, Community
Hah! Here’s something I didn’t know yet. Apparently we have an online Office community! All you need to do to start using it, is have a Windows Live ID. Plain and simple. So what exactly is this? Well, there’s a site called Office Labs and that’s a proving ground for ideas that come from regular employees and interns who work anywhere in Microsoft. Most of the code prototypes are developed by the Office Labs team in partnership with the teams that make the products. After all, they produce most of the ideas. Some of the things you find here will be web-based, others are downloads. Some will be a combination, something we call “software + services.”
So, one of those projects is Community Clips, a portal for viewing, sharing, and discussing informal “how-to” videos (screencasts) on Microsoft Office products. It also includes a client application for easy recording of screen views and voice. Think of it as a dedicated MSN Video for Office tips and tricks. I’ve been checking out some of the clips and already I’ve learned some small things that make me master the Office products even better.
Here’s an overview of how Community Clips works:
Check out the tutorials and how-to’s
April 26, 2008 at 10:47 am ·
Filed under Video, Fun
I stumbled upon this very old commercial that announced Windows95. Hah! I remember the day my dad got rid of our 3.11 and I was really pissed about it. Then we got a new computer with 95 on it, and all of the sudden I was exchanging PC games with my class mates, in a time where viruses were still something you wrote yourself starting with ‘echo on’, and the baddest thing to do was adding a line of text that said: deleting all files, then when they pressed a key it would read ‘ha ha fooled you’ :) Those were the days. Long story short: here is an old school commercial:
April 25, 2008 at 9:16 am ·
Filed under Video, Technology, Releases
On April 21st, Microsoft unveiled RoboChamps (www.robochamps.com), a simulated robotics league that is open to academics, hobbyists and developers from around the world, that demonstrates the power of the Microsoft platform to enable a broad range of developers to explore new ways to use .NET for robotics programming.
RoboChamps is built on top of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio(MSRDS) 2008 CTP, and uses that product’s robust, physics enabled simulation environment to remove the barriers of entry that exist for many today. This simulated league provides individuals with immersive 3-d environments, simulated versions of robots, and compelling scenario-specific challenges where they can win real robots.
The site also generates its own API keys so developers can compete and have their code tie into the site’s services, provides community with ‘robocards- rich SilverLight cards that are exposed to be readily consumable on blogs, websites or third-party networks like Facebook. Advertising also plays a big role with sponsorship, ‘in world’ ads with Massive, and Silverlight Streaming for the video podcast.
Check out Tina’s cool video:
February 26, 2008 at 10:31 am ·
Filed under Video, Fun
Barb, my fellow EE, just sent me this super cute extended commercial for Microsoft Office 2007. Who said Microsoft was dull and liveless? :) You just gotta check this out! I love how this movie proves that Office 2007 is so easy to use that even rabbits can have a go at it. Sit back for this one, you’ll enjoy the ride. Warning: Pinkness overload :)
Also check out the other clips for Office2007 :)
February 22, 2008 at 12:34 pm ·
Filed under Games, Video, XBox 360, Community
From the presspass: In a landmark announcement during the keynote address at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), Microsoft Corp. promised to soon allow Xbox LIVE members to play, rate and share community-created games. As the first in the industry to pioneer high-speed online gaming and high-definition games, Xbox 360 once again broke new ground by introducing a new, open distribution service for games created by the community and soon playable by its 10 million Xbox LIVE members. Community-created games on Xbox LIVE will quickly double the size of the Xbox 360 game library. By the end of 2008, Xbox 360 owners will have access to more than 1,000 games, making it the largest, most creatively diverse library across all next-generation platforms.
That is really AWESOME news. Especially because the game created by fellow Belgian Loïc Dansart (”Little Gamers”, a 2-D high definition action side-scroller based on the famous Web comic) has been selected to be made available together with 6 other XNA created games. The platform will be opened up, so that ‘consumer generated games’ can find their way to a worldwide audience!
The game was developed using Microsoft’s XNA technology, so it’s currently able to run on both PC and XBOX360 (the later requires a Creators Club membership). A fully playable XBOX360 prototype of 5 levels was submitted to the Dream, Build, Play! competition, and it won a place as a finalist. Currently, the full version is in development, and should be available for Windows in a few weeks.
The game is a 2D action sidescroller which borrows many gameplay elements from action games such as Metal Slugs and Madness Interactive and mixes them with the webcomic feel and humor of Little Gamers to create a unique cute but deadly combination.
An Xbox 360 community game created using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio software and XNA Creators Club membership will be able to be submitted for distribution on Xbox LIVE. Each community-created game must then undergo a thorough peer-review process and be evaluated for accuracy in representation and appropriateness. Community game developers will be able to beta test the process this spring and will be able to distribute their games on Xbox LIVE by the end of this year.
Related:
Little Gamers - Teh Game (info + download)
PressPass Release
Check out the comic!
See the demo below:
February 20, 2008 at 7:08 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife, Video, Technology, Demo
We’ve had another cool Circle of Media where we announced the DreamSpark program and a new partnership for Media Center with RTBF, a French spoken national broadcasting company. The full DreamSpark announcement can be found in an earlier post on this blog, if you want to know more about that. The partnership with RTBF includes an exclusive content delivery with podcasts and digital radio (and tv programs) for the Media Center platform through the very well-known interface. This content can be consulted if you set the Media Center settings to Belgium/French, and will extend pretty fast as new content will be made available on a swift pace.
I’ve also done a 10 minute demo of InkSeine, a brilliant application for tablet PCs (I also reported on that earlier). Luc Van Braekel and Maarten Schenk, two of the invited and present bloggers, both recorded the session and I’m posting Luc’s clip below, since Maarten’s cam wasn’t able to get the screen capped clearly.
Under normal conditions, the web search would go faster and I’d show off a little more features, but since there was no wifi available, I had to uplink my phone to 3G and connect to the internet over USB. That caused a small delay in the demo-flow but still, it went pretty well. Enjoy the demo. Thanks againfor the USB cable, Maarten :)
Video: Miel Van Opstal presents Microsoft InkSeine
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