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As part of Microsoft's BUILD 2014 keynote address, the company announced Universal Windows apps, a way for developers to create apps that will work across all of Microsoft's Windows platforms and form factors. Write once, run everywhere (mostly)
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unless you want your app to actually run on the desktop not in some full screen metro app store parallel universe 
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At its Build developer event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced the launch of its oft-rumored voice-driven Cortana personal assistant. Cortana, which seems to have some of Siri’s humor, gets its knowledge from Microsoft’s Bing. It will be a built-in part of Windows Phone 8.1. Please don't get it to call you, "Master Chief"
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I still think they should've went with GLaDOS.
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I posted this above, and I should have posted it here.
I noticed that "Cortana" is an anagram of "An Actor".
It's also the name of a Halo 4 character.
A one or two syllable name typically could be spoken quicker, but then maybe they found "Cortana" is easier to recognize in noise? I am curious what criteria were used to choose that name?
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I'm guessing they originally went with Cortana as a code name (due to Halo), then decided to stick with it to ship. Nicely, they even got the actress that did the voice in the game to be the assistant's voice.
I think the 'Cortana easy to recognize' is just a really nice accident.
TTFN - Kent
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And now I seem psychic[^]:
Quote: The name started from a simple suggestion from Windows Phone program manager Robert Howard in an early planning meeting. "It was just a codename, it stuck," explains Marcus Ash, group program manager of Windows Phone. "We didn't intend for it to be the actual product name from the beginning." The fact Cortana exists simply as Cortana, and not some marketing buzz like "Microsoft Personal Digital Assistant Home Premium" is surprising given Microsoft’s history of naming products. Up until a few weeks ago, it was hit and miss whether Cortana would be the final name. It could have been Naomi, Alyx, or a number of other suggestions, but leaks and a petition to use the Cortana name helped sway Microsoft’s decision.
TTFN - Kent
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Kent, I read that, but it doesn't tell 'how' the codename was originally chosen. I suspect it did come from Halo.
It's cool if the anagram is just a coincidence.
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The anagram is a coincidence. It was just codenamed after the character in Halo, and it stuck.
Quote: The name started from a simple suggestion from Windows Phone program manager Robert Howard in an early planning meeting. "It was just a codename, it stuck," explains Marcus Ash, group program manager of Windows Phone
TTFN - Kent
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That's according to an e-mail he issued to employees in 2010 for an annual Top 100 meeting called "2011: Holy War with Google." In related news: Duh
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I swear, are there ANY of them who just aren't out and out evil?
I'm definitely not one of the "Evil Korporation$" morons. But do they really have to be such jasshonks about lock in? I swear if I never use another google product it'll be too soon, lust as I do after a sparkly android phone.
It's getting to the point where Microsoft is actually shaking out to be the good guy, in relative terms.
Hrrmpf.
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mikepwilson wrote: It's getting to the point where Microsoft is actually shaking out to be the good guy, in relative terms.
Just like the Rockefeller Foundation is doing good deeds with the billions ripped off from consumers, Bill Gates is also trying to salvage his reputation by giving to charity... he realizes that St Peter cannot be bribed to let him bring in his billions of dollars.
On the other hand, Satan may be agreeable to a deal. Bill, go for it!
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Apple and Roku have a new competitor in the living room: Amazon just announced its own video streaming device: Amazon Fire TV. I find it funny that the TV companies could have been doing this for years and didn't
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We’re bringing Windows to a whole new class of small devices. Build a smart coffee mug, build a talking bear, build a robot, or build something else entirely. All this using a platform and tools you already know and love. Honey, I shrunk the computing devices
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Now when the toaster comes after you during the night you will know why !
Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true
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I've gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with their push to use the fully-featured windows version on smaller and smaller devices. It'd be neat to avoid the notion of a 'mobile OS' altogether.
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Apache Allura is an open source implementation of a software forge, a web site that manages source code repositories, bug reports, discussions, wiki pages, blogs, and more for any number of individual projects. Version control, bug tracking, discussion, where else are you going to get something like that? (oh, sorry Chris)
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Copycats! 
cheers
Chris Maunder
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AFAIK, that was started by SourceForge, and then picked up by Apache.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
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Yahoo is one of the few companies that can compete with Google in the realm of search—theoretically, at least. Now, the company reportedly plans to challenge Google in another area it dominates: user-generated videos. That should solve the internet's cat video shortage
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Kent Sharkey wrote: That should solve the internet's cat p0rn video shortage
FTFY.
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Oh thank heavens - when I got the alert for your reply, it didn't have the strikethrough. I was starting to worry about your viewing habits. 
TTFN - Kent
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Well, they do lick themselves. 
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Kent Sharkey wrote: when I got the alert for your reply, it didn't have the strikethrough.
Yeah, that too!
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