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The real story is that Microsoft is taking some big chances and doing exciting things they’ve never done before… and that scares the HECK out of us! But our fear and overall shock at the radical change in direction shouldn’t make us lose sight of the fact that some real innovation is coming our way, whether we’re ready for it or not. A lot of innovation - and a lot of risk - on the way from Redmond.
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Get out your calendars and free up some time on September 4. That’s when Windows Server 2012 will be generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. On that day we will also host an online launch event where our executives, engineers, customers and partners will share more about how Windows Server 2012 can help organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of what we call the Cloud OS. Coming soon to a server near you.
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People will be able get Windows 8 starting on October 26th either by upgrading for $39.99 or on a new PC or device. And if you buy an eligible Windows 7 PC today, you will be able to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (U.S.) through the Windows Upgrade Offer. However, we have a number of programs that provides various audiences early access to the Windows 8 RTM code to help prepare for Windows 8 as it enters the marketplace this fall. Read on for details. Here are the release dates and venues.
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Today marks an important milestone in the Windows 8 project. The Windows 8 team is proud to share with you that a short while ago we started releasing Windows 8 to PC OEM and manufacturing partners. This means our next milestone will be the availability of exciting new models of PCs loaded with Windows 8 and online availability of Windows 8 on October 26, 2012.
Developers can get their hands on the bits through MSDN on August 15th[^].
Be The Noise
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"When your boss is taking a holiday on some tropical island, it's usually cause for celebration. Soon, though, your supervisor could be in the office and on vacation at the same time."
From this story: Microsoft is building your robot boss[^]
Okay, let's bring 1984 on, and hurry! Besides, in some previous jobs that I've held, my boss has been a robot.
Sincerely Yours,
Brian Hart
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Quote: Anonymous vows revenge over logo trademark[^]
Anonymous has promised to take down the websites of a French online fashion retailer that has trademarked the iconic Anonymous logo and slogan.
Ouch! Be careful who you tick off.
Soren Madsen
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I actually have to agree with Anonymous, that retailer was very... um... unintelligent to do that.
Bill Gates is a very rich man today... and do you want to know why? The answer is one word: versions.
Dave Barry
Read more at BrainyQuote[ ^]
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Why would you register something that is obviously not your own? 
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Either they're trying to lay a trap (monitoring an obvious target might help law enforcement agencies catch some of them) or complete idiots
Honestly, I'm surprised they even can trademark it, they clearly didn't create it (something along the lines of "prior art" for patents?).
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That's actually kind of brilliant. Who in anonymous will come forward to defend their trademark (in a court, that is)? I'm thinking none of them. 
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Yeah, it kind of defeats the purpose of their name eh?
+5
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Pleasing the crowd at the Black Hat and Def Con computer security conferences that took place in Las Vegas last week is relatively easy: simply hop on stage and confidently show how to compromise, or "pwn," a system that no one has hacked into before. Notoriety, cash, and multiple offers of work can be the rewards for those who demonstrate truly novel attacks. But some speakers at this year's events say that the obsession with breaking into systems has gone too far, and are calling for their community to show more interest in advancing defense techniques, which don't have such cachet. Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
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“Why build for Windows 8 now?” “Why not wait until a future date when the platform is more stable?” These questions are valid from a consumer and an enterprise point-of-view and I’ll try to explain why we believe that you should start writing applications for Windows 8 today. To infinity and beyond!
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It’s a question that’s probably crossed your mind as you design and publish your own apps. Well, we were curious, too. Recently the Marketplace team spent time crunching download stats and doing side-by-side comparisons of the top 50 apps in each Marketplace category looking for clues. The result? While there’s certainly no magic formula for instant success, the analysis showed that best-selling apps do have things in common—lessons you can apply to your own apps to help boost downloads and revenue. If you write it, will they buy?
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It’s a good thing that data algorithms are getting democratized, and I’m all for there being packages in R or Octave that let people run clustering algorithms or steepest descent. But, contrary to the message sent by much of Andrew Ng’s class on machine learning, you actually do need to understand how to invert a matrix at some point in your life if you want to be a data scientist. And, I’d add, if you’re not smart enough to understand the underlying math, then you’re not smart enough to be a data scientist. If your model fails, you want to be able to figure out why it failed.
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There are also direct analogies between natural language and computer code. Well-written code is light on the computer's memory, and runs smoothly; well-written prose is easy on the reader's working memory, and reads easily. Badly written code will cause errors in execution; badly written prose can cause errors in interpretation. Some people will never learn to write. Some will never learn to code. The disanalogies between computer code and language are as important as the analogies.
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In my continuing efforts to migrate off of WordPress, I now understand some of my biggest mistakes and flaws. Here are ten of them. To post or not to post, that is the 404 Page Not Found.
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The US court responsible for hearing patent appeals is showing fresh signs of disarray over the question of when software-based "inventions" can be patented. We recently covered a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a patent on the idea of using a computer to perform a particular kind of financial transaction. Now, just a couple of weeks later, the same court has reached the opposite conclusion about a patent on using a computer to manage a particular type of life insurance policy. It might help if judges actually understood how computers work.
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E-readers have been around long enough now that the novelty has largely worn off. To be sure, we still get the occasional article or blog post celebrating the smell of "real books" and denouncing the disembodied fakery of text on a screen, but not nearly as many as in recent years. E-readers are simply part of the reading landscape now -- the first Kindle was released almost five years ago -- and it's time for a midterm progress report. How is the technology developing? What has been accomplished and what remains to be done? They certainly haven't replaced my (excellent) neighborhood bookseller, yet.
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If Microsoft Research gets its way, you might soon be controlling computers using the tiniest of muscle twitches and no controller in sight. With a hand still in your pocket, or behind your back, you will be able to control a computer with a variety of finger-waggling and pinching gestures. I can win this game with both hands tied behind my back.
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Controlling a computer with hand movements. That could go so NSFW very very quickly. Imagine Clippy:
"It looks like you're having a .... Can I be of assistance?"
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We think the time is right to reimagine email. So today, we're introducing a preview of Outlook.com. We realized that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past and build you a brand new service from the ground up. You already know Outlook via the Outlook desktop application-for PCs and Macs-as the world's most popular application for reading email, managing a calendar, and connecting to people. And you may have used the Outlook Web App connected to Exchange Server in your organization. Now, in addition to a desktop application and a service for businesses, we're offering Outlook as a personal email service - Outlook.com. You've got mail!
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Interesting social media features, though I think I'll stick to Exchange Online, as it allows me to use my own domain (which it appears outlook.com can't do).
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[edit: Looking at the release image in the blog, the answer is a clear yes imho.]
