Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite Highlights

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite provides the ultimate set of tools for every team discipline engaged in your project: architecture, design, development, database and testing. When every team is building their skill set and getting guidance at every step of the lifecycle, they're going to be collaborating better than ever.

Highlights

• A customizable ALM solution designed to address the unique needs of your organization
• Includes all four Team System client editions—Architecture Edition, Developer Edition, Database Edition, and Test Edition
• Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition: Team Suite Editions include an MSDN Premium Subscription, giving you Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition. It provides the full functionality of Team Foundation Server for up to five users, including a team portal, version control, work-item tracking, build management, process guidance and business intelligence in one unified server. For more than five users, select the the full edition of Team Foundation Server.
• Powerful visual designers for sophisticated service-oriented solution modeling
• A complete set of quality tools for static analysis, code metrics, unit testing, code coverage, Web testing and database testing
• Performance tools to identify issues and optimize code
• Database development tools, including Schema Compare, to reduce risks associated with database schema changes, streamline changes and take control of your database
• Comprehensive support with a premier MSDN subscription, which provides priority access to additional tools, updates and technical assistance
• In addition, over 200 Visual Studio Industry Partners offer products to support a broad range of software processes, tools and platforms.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 is an integrated application lifecycle management (ALM) product family with the tools and processes that help development teams work more effectively together. The upshot? High-quality applications and substantial bottom-line savings.

Team System Overview Key Benefits of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 White Paper

Whether you're a development lead or a business stakeholder who depends on IT for business-critical applications, you know about application development challenges:

• Managing shifting business requirements throughout a project
• Communication gaps between project managers, developers, and testers
• Adequately testing applications for quality and reliability
• Gaining visibility into project status to make trade-off decisions and drive predictable project delivery
• Dealing with global development, regulatory, and compliance requirements

Sound familiar? These aren't simple problems to overcome. Many are interrelated and involve multiple team members and stakeholders, sometimes from various professional disciplines. That's when it's time to step up to an integrated solution. With Team System, you can defy all these challenges – with fewer resources, in less time, and for less money.

See a dramatic, positive impact on your business by:

• Streamlining processes between team members
• Improving compatibility across applications and development environments
• Boosting projects' success rates from the get-go
• Delivering high-quality solutions with your very first release

Plus, every edition of Visual Studio Team System includes an MSDN Premium subscription. MSDN Premium is a lifeline for software developers, testers, architects, IT professionals and database engineers.

So, if your team members are using any Team System edition, they’ll also have an MSDN Premium Subscription which gives them access to:

• Developer Tools
• Development and Test Licenses
• Access to Pre-Release Products
• Licenses for General Business Use
• Four Technical Support Incidents
• Managed Newsgroups Support
• 24/7 Online Concierge
• MSDN Magazine
• MSDN Flash

Buy Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition (DVD)

Windows Touch

While great for a lot of tasks, using a keyboard and mouse is not always the easiest way to do things. With Windows 7, if you've got a touch-screen monitor, you can just touch your computer screen for a more direct and natural way to work. Use your fingers to scroll, resize windows, play media, and pan and zoom.

The Start menu, Windows Taskbar, and Windows Explorer are touch-friendly, with larger icons that are easier to select with your finger. Browsing the web with Internet Explorer 8 is easier too—just use your finger to scroll down a Web page or browse your favorite links. You can even use your finger to arrange the pictures in a photo album.

Windows 7 also introduces support for new multi-touch technology, so you can control what happens on the screen with more than one finger. For example, you can zoom in on an image by moving two fingers closer together, like you're pinching something, or zoom out by moving two fingers apart. You can rotate an image on the screen by rotating one finger around another, and can right-click by holding one finger on your target and tapping the screen with a second finger.

Keep your life in-sync with Windows Live

If you are using Windows 7, you'll want to get Windows Live Essentials. It's free! Windows Live Essentials provides some features that were previously included in Windows Vista and other Windows operating systems, like programs to:

• Manage your multiple e-mail accounts in one place
• Make the most of your digital photos
• Chat instantly with IM
• Keep your family safer online

And Windows Live Essentials seamlessly connects what you do on your PC with the online services you use every day, like Windows Live Hotmail, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and others. One easy download gives you Windows Live Photo Gallery, Mail, Messenger, Movie Maker, and more. With these great applications you can get even more out of Windows 7.

Internet access to home media

Once you've got your pictures, music, videos, and recorded TV content on your home PC, it'd be nice to take it with you, say on a family vacation. But you may not have time to download what you want onto your laptop or other media player. But, if your home PC and your laptop use Windows 7, then you can use the entertainment on your home PC from pretty much wherever you can connect to the Internet. You can use Windows Media Player on your laptop to listen to music, and view pictures, videos, or recorded TV, in the media libraries on your home PC. No need to take all your photos with you: so when you're at the family reunion, you can tap into your home PC and share photos with the whole gang.

Play to

Here's another way to enjoy the music on your PC—send it to another device. Let's say you're sitting on your couch, using your laptop to read e-mail or surf the web. You'd like to listen to some music, but you don't want to hear it coming out of your laptop's speakers—and you don't want to get up and go find your portable media device. With Windows 7, you don't have to. Just open Windows Media Player, right-click on what you'd like to hear, select Play To, and you'll see a list of devices and PCs on which you can play your music, like your network-connected stereo or Xbox 360. In most cases, if your media receiver doesn't support the file format for your media, Windows 7 automatically converts that content into a format that your media receiver can play. Windows Media Player even offers controls to manage that device, such as play, stop, and skip tracks so your PC becomes your remote control.

TV, music, pictures, and video: when and where you want them

Streaming media in your home

One of the great things about PCs is how they help you put your pictures, videos, recorded TV, and music in one place. Once everything is in that spot, it's natural to want to enjoy it on other PCs and devices in your home. Windows 7 helps you do it. It'd be great to just “send” music from your PC to the place where you want to see or hear it. And you can. It's called streaming, and Windows 7 makes it easy to use your PC to stream music, videos, or photos to your home audio-video system and other networked media devices. New media streaming features make your PC a great hub for audio, video, recorded TV, and photos throughout your home. So, when you set up a HomeGroup or media streaming from Windows Media Player, you can enjoy your music, pictures, and videos easily on other computers running Windows 7 and other devices in your home.

Easier TV, movies, and video

With a streamlined user interface and support for new content types and digital TV, Windows Media Center in certain editions of Windows 7 makes watching TV, movies, and other video content on your PC easier than ever. With a simple USB TV Tuner you can record and watch shows on your schedule. Windows Media Center has been updated to manage a single TV guide containing both standard and digital high definition TV shows.

Reduce interruptions

In previous versions, Windows was often able to tell you when something on your computer needed attention. Unfortunately, it often did so by interrupting you with pop-ups or other messages. These were helpful if the problem required immediate attention. However, they were less helpful if the problem was not urgent and you didn’t want to take care of it at the time.

Rather than popping up with a message in the lower right of your screen, if Windows 7 needs your attention, you'll see an Action Center icon and can find out more by clicking it. If you don't have time to look at the alert immediately, Action Center will keep the information waiting for you to address later.

Windows 7 helps you solve more problems, and it helps you solve them on your own schedule. The Action Center is a new, integrated Control Panel experience that gives you a central place to go for tasks and notifications associated with keeping your computer running smoothly. It makes it easier for you to fix problems yourself by providing a new streamlined experience for addressing notifications and managing computer issues.

Compatibility

We know how important it is for the hardware and software you use today to work with Windows 7. So we’re doing several things to help.

• We’re working with our partners to help ensure their products will work with Windows 7. You can expect that most of the products that work with Windows Vista to work with Windows 7.
• If you’re buying a new device or application, look for the "Compatible with Windows 7" logo. These products have passed tests that Microsoft designed to install readily and run reliably with Windows 7.
• With Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, you’ll be able to run many productivity and business programs designed for Windows XP. Some additional software will be necessary and it will be available free-of-charge as a download from Microsoft.

Power management improvements

We designed Windows 7 to improve battery life by adding power-saving enhancements,such as adaptive display brightness, which dims the display if you haven't used your PC for a while. Other improvements include using less power to play DVDs (handy on a trip) and using processing power more efficiently.

Faster, more responsive performance

Nobody likes to wait, so we all want our PCs to perform well. We looked at a number of ways to improve performance on PCs running Windows 7. We designed the operating system to be more responsive and simpler to use.

To improve performance, Windows 7 is designed to make PCs start up, shut down, resume from standby, and respond faster. To help you zip through your day, we’ve added new features to simplify the number of steps required to do common things. Some of the features that’ll help you save time include:

• Windows Taskbar simplifies working with your applications and files
• Jump Lists put the documents you want handy and the ones you’ve used recently a couple clicks away

We’ve also focused on making it more convenient to work with the operating system. For example, the Action Center gives you more control over how the operating system notifies you about system changes. You can recover more quickly from problems when they do occur because when you’re ready to address issues, Windows 7 will help you fix them.

View Available Network (VAN)

Windows 7 makes viewing and connecting to all of your networks simple and consistent. You'll always have one-click access to available networks, regardless of whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or your corporate VPN.

HomeGroup

Today, you may have a network in your home that you use to share an internet connection. But it can be hard to share other things, like files and printers. Do you have one or more computers in your home but only one printer? If you’re like most people, when you need to print a file that’s on your laptop in your bedroom on the printer in your den, you probably e-mail the file from one PC to another or transfer it on a USB drive. And if you need to find a file but don’t know which computer it’s stored on, chances are you’re in for a long night as you traipse from PC to PC and search each one.

HomeGroup, a new feature in Windows 7, makes connecting the computers in your home a painless process. HomeGroup is set up automatically when you add the first PC running Windows 7 to your home network. Adding more PCs running Windows 7 to the HomeGroup is an easy process. You can specify exactly what you want to share from each PC with all the PCs in the HomeGroup. Then, sharing files across the various PCs in your home—and many other devices—is as easy as if all your data were on a single hard drive. So you can store digital photos on a computer in your den and easily access them from a laptop anywhere in your home. Similarly, once in a HomeGroup, the printer in your den is shared automatically with all of the PCs in your home.

Better device management

One of the great things about PCs is how they let us use such a wide array of devices. In the past, you had to use several different screens to manage different types of devices. But With Windows 7, you'll use a single Devices and Printers screen to connect, manage, and use whatever printers, phones, and other devices you have on-hand.

A new technology in Windows 7 called Device Stage takes device management a step further. Device Stage helps you interact with any compatible device connected to your computer. From Device Stage you can see device status and run common tasks from a single window. There are even pictures of the devices which makes it really easy to see what's there. Device manufacturers can customize Device Stage. For example, if your camera manufacturer offers a custom version of Device Stage, then when you plug your camera into your PC, you could see things like the number of photos on your camera and links to helpful information.

Internet Explorer 8

Available now, Internet Explorer 8 helps you do what you want online, faster. With innovations to the address bar, search, tabs, and the Favorites bar, Internet Explorer 8 brings you more information, with less effort.

Instant Search

To start, as you type a search request you'll immediately start seeing relevant suggestions from your chosen search provider, complete with images when available. The twist: search will also use your browsing history to narrow the suggestions. If you see what you're looking for, you can go right to the list without finishing the request.

Accelerators

There are online services you use all the time. Like mapping a location. With Accelerators, you can highlight a bit of information on any page, click on the blue Accelerators icon, and choose from a variety of relevant services. So if you highlight a street address and right click, the Live Maps Accelerator will show a map preview right there on the page. In addition to mapping, you’ll find Accelerators for e-mailing, blogging, searching, translating, and sharing information. Popular services including eBay and Facebook offer special Accelerators you can use with their sites.

Web Slices

A Web Slice is something you use when you need to track information on a website, but you don’t want to keep going to the site. Use a web slice for things like auction items, sports scores, entertainment columns, and weather reports. When the content you're watching changes, you’ll see it right away in the Web Slice in your Favorites Bar.

Windows Search

Looking for something on your PC? What’s your first instinct? If you use the web a lot, you probably start by looking around for a search box. Now, you can find things on your computer the same way. Introduced with Windows Vista, Windows Search helps you find virtually anything on your PC quickly and easily. Windows 7 also makes search results more relevant and easier to understand.

Looking for a file, e-mail, or application? While you can easily look through folders and menus, there’s an even faster way. Just click on the Start button and you’ll see a search box at the bottom of the Start menu. Just enter a word or few letters in the name or file you want, and you’ll get an organized list of results.

Windows 7 uses libraries to show all content of a particular type in one spot. Say you’ve got photos in several locations on your PC. A lot will be in your Photos folder. But you might have some in documents folders too. Your photos library makes it easy for you to browse and use all your photos, no matter where they are on your PC.

By collecting things into a single view, libraries make it simpler to find what you’re looking for. They’re even more powerful with Windows Search. You can search your Libraries using filters to customize your search. For example, when you’re looking for music you can search by album. Or search for photos by the date they were taken. You can go to your Documents Library, click on authors, and see all the documents on your computer sorted by author name.

Desktop enhancements

Windows 7 simplifies how you work with the windows on your desktop. You'll have more intuitive ways to open, close, resize, and arrange them.

With Windows 7, it’s easier to do things you do all of the time. For example, before, when you wanted to compare two open windows, you had to manually resize your open windows to show them side by side. With Snaps, you can simply grab a window and pull it to either side edge of the screen to fill half the screen. Snap windows to both sides, and it’s easier than ever to compare those windows.

Another thing you may want to do is quickly see your gadgets or grab a file from your desktop. To see your desktop just move your mouse to the lower right corner of your desktop. That'll make all the open Windows transparent—so your desktop is immediately visible. Want to get all but one window out of your way? Grab the top of that window, shake it and all the other open windows will minimize to the taskbar. Shake the window again, and they’ll all come back.

Jump Lists

With Windows 7, we focused on keeping the things you use most right in front of you. One example: The new Jump List feature. It's a handy way to quickly reach the files you've been working with. To see the files you've used recently, just right click on the icon on your taskbar. So right-clicking on the Word icon will show your most recent Word documents. Plus, if there are other files you want to keep handy, you can just pin them to the Jump List so they’ll always appear. That way, the documents you’re likely to want are just a couple clicks away.

Some programs, such as Windows Media Player, can pre-populate their Jump Lists with common tasks. For example, on the Jump List for Windows Media Player, you’ll see options to Play All Music or resume your last playlist. On the Jump List for Internet Explorer, you’ll see frequently and recently viewed websites. With some programs, you’ll even have quick access to tasks that, in the past, were only available from within the program, such as composing a new e-mail message.

What's new in Windows 7: Faster & easier

Windows 7 was built around your feedback, so you'll see a lot of things you've asked for. You asked us to make everyday tasks faster and easier, to make your PC work the way you want it to, and to make it possible to do new things. And that's exactly what we're doing. See how it's coming to life.

Improved taskbar and full-screen previews

The taskbar at the bottom of your screen is what you use to launch programs and switch between them when they're open. In Windows 7 you can pin any program to the taskbar so it’s always just a click away, and you can rearrange the icons on the taskbar just by clicking and dragging. We’ve made the icons considerably bigger, too, so they’re easier to use. Hover over the icons and you’ll see thumbnails of every file or window that open in that program, and if you hover over the thumbnail, you’ll see a full-screen preview of that window. Move the cursor off the thumbnail and the full-screen preview disappears.

Buy Windows 7 Inside Out (Book)

KJ Movie

Synopsis

KJ is a biography of a HK musical genius. At the age of 11, KJ won the Best Pianist price and went to Czech to perform with a professional orchestra. Touching on subjects such as the meaning of life, God and the artistic process, the director’s 6-year-conversations with KJ reveal how a young man inspires by his music teacher, Nancy Loo and his conflict with his peers and parents. KJ is not about the victory of a genius, but how he learns to be a “human being”.
Ann Hui- Director
"It's a great musical biography even for people who are not music fans!
Ruby Yang- Best Director Oscar Winner
“KJ’s music is definitely the soul of the film”
Nancy Loo- Pianist
“I’ve never thought that music brings him not only dreams, but also shadows”
Ka Ming -Film Critics
“KJ is one of the big surprises of HKIFF this year”
Shiu Ka-chun- University Lecturer
“KJ is arrogant and frivolous, but the genius is all like that.”

Director : King Wai Cheung

Britney Spears Photo 2009

New Dell Precision Workstations Shatter Performance Metrics

Dell, the world’s No. 1 workstation supplier for the last nine years, today unveiled Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 tower workstations. One of the first workstation lines to ship with Intel Xeon 5500 “Nehalem,” the Dell Precision T5500 and T7500 deliver up to 90 percent better multi-threaded digital content creation application performance versus previous generation systems. The new systems are purpose-engineered for professionals in engineering, media, entertainment, biosciences, exploration, economic modeling and risk analysis.

The News:

Designed for performance, reliability and scalability, the three new Dell Precision tower systems are available for order tomorrow:

• Dell Precision T7500 –The most powerful Dell workstation offers with outstanding performance and scalability, up to two quad-core processors, up to 192GB of three-channel DDR3 ECC memory up to 1066 or 1333MHz, dual native Gen 2 PCIe x16 graphics slots with up to 450 watts (two 225W or single 300W) and supports NVIDIA SLI technology without a riser. With more than 1 billion configuration options, the system starts at $1,800 (USD).
• Dell Precision T5500 –The T5500 offers dual socket Intel Xeon performance in a small footprint system with memory capacity of up to 72GB and graphics slots that scale up to 300 watts (two 150W or single 225W), starts at $1,620 (USD).
• Dell Precision T3500 – Offering a balance of performance, scalability and affordability, the T3500 features up to 24GB of DDR3 ECC memory and an integrated memory controller, resulting in low latency and excellent application performance. It starts at $999 (USD).

Dell partners with at least 35 leading independent software vendors (ISVs) to test and certify compatibility for 90 applications in areas such as mechanical computer aided design, architecture, engineering, construction, digital content creation, biosciences, financial services, and oil and gas. Broad-based ISV certification helps customers create a complete, customized solution for the specific single- or multi-threaded application they use. Application-based performance gains over previous generation workstations include:

• Up to 82 percent better Catia application performance with Intel Nehalem-powered Dell Precision workstations
• Up to 350 percent more memory bandwidth on the Dell Precision T7500 and the T5500 with dual processors using the SiSoft Sandra 2009 Bandwidth benchmark test.

Available product features of the Dell Precision T3500, T5500 and T7500 (some features available on select systems only):

• Intel QuickPath, Direct Cache Access help significantly improve performance;
• Intel Turbo Mode is designed to adapt processor speed based on application needs;
• E-SATA port for fast external storage;
• Up to 1.5TB SATA hard drives for generous local storage;
• Dual and quad monitor support, DisplayPort connectors;
• Support for NVIDIA Tesla GPU compute solutions (T5500 and T7500 only);
• NVIDIA NVS 295, NVIDIA QUADRO FX 580, FX 1800, FX 3800, FX 4800, and FX 5800 (T5500 and T7500 only) graphics card; and ATI FIREPRO V3750, V5700, and V8700 graphics cards.

Configurations of the Dell Precision workstations are Energy Star 5.0 compliant, featuring 85 percent efficient power supplies to help reduce energy consumption.

Dell ProManage and Dell ProSupport Services help automate deployment, management and support for workstations so that IT teams focus on more strategic work.

ImageDirect- Images and applications are factory-installed to help cut IT staff time for deployment, eliminate desk-side visits and prevent configuration issues.

• Distributed Device Management - Automate asset tracking and monitoring, software inventory and utilization, backup, patch management and email management to help resolve routine management through the cloud, and may reduce ownership costs.
• Dell ProSupport for IT - Configurable support services for IT and end-users to help reduce downtime with expert tech-to-tech support, Fast-Track PartsDispatch and support for third party software.

Quotes:

“With the new Dell Precision workstations, we’re taking a revolutionary step forward in performance, enabling professionals to do more than ever with the ISV applications they need for business-critical tasks,” said Brett McAnally, director, Dell Product Group. “By combining industry-leading ISV certifications, energy efficiency, configurability and services we can better help workstation customers lower ownership costs and maximize uptime.”

“We are really excited about the new Dell Precision workstation solutions,” said Ken Pimentel, director of visual communication solutions at Autodesk, publisher of such applications as 3ds Max. Dell understands what is really important to 3D professionals – groundbreaking performance in a dependable system that allows them to get more done faster. The new Dell Precision workstations really shows off our new render-quality viewports and multi-threading enhancements in 3ds Max 2010.”

The Dell Precision T7500, T5500, T3500 tower workstations will be available through all Dell channels, including the company’s PartnerDirect program.

Computer Viruses and Anti-Virus Software - Microsoft Security

Windows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

• Check for and remove viruses


• Get rid of junk on your hard disk


• Improve your PC's performance

New: Windows Vista users, try the beta edition of the scanner, just for Windows Vista.

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Fashion Meets Function with New Inspiron Family, Dell Makes It Easy to Customize Lifestyle and Decor

Style-minded families, students and teens want to personalize their PCs to meet their performance and lifestyle needs – blogging, chatting, sending photos or running a media center. Highly-stylized products, like Dell’s new Inspiron slim and mini-tower desktops, deliver on design and customization, transforming the brand from the “built- for-me” model, into “made-for-me.”

• People control power, color and size
• Fresh ID and vibrant colors express personal style and complement any environment
• Custom configurations to meet performance and budget

Dell’s new Inspiron slim and mini-towers expand the design and personalization possibilities for consumers. Available in eight vibrant colors, Dell is the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer such extensive personalization options to reflect individuals’ personal style or to complement their bedroom or study.

Inspiron slim and mini-tower desktops debut today in China and are available for purchase through Dell, distributor Digital China or retailers Suning and Gome. Starting at $299 US, the systems will be available worldwide later this spring.

The News:

• Dell’s new Inspiron desktop lets people express themselves through choices of color (eight options), size (slim or mini-tower) and configuration.
• Vivid color palette to express your personal style: Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Flamingo Pink.
• Dell becomes the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer color options for the entire front of the machine.
• Customizable options to meet individual’s budget, lifestyle and usage needs.
• Ideal for common tasks including email, Internet, blogging, entertainment (movies, music and casual gaming) and productivity.

Features available on the new Inspiron desktops include:

• Intel Celeron, Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad options or AMD Sempron, Athlon X2 and Phenom X4 processor options
• Integrated Intel or ATI Radeon graphics on select systems with discrete graphics options available
• Up to 8GB memory on select systems
• Up to 750GB storage (slim tower) or up to 1TB storage (mini-tower)
• Optional 19-in-1 media card reader and optional HDMI connectivity
• 6 USB ports (2 front, 4 back)
• Dual optical options (mini-tower only) including Blu-ray Disc drive
• Small form factor with its versatile horizontal or vertical placement is designed to easily fit into your home media center (slim tower only)

Quote:

“Customers are given complete control in choosing processors, form factors and colors to build an Inspiron desktop that’s high in function and style. There’s versatility to customize a system that fits into everyone’s lifestyle and budget.” -- John Terwilliger, director, consumer desktops

Palm Pre VIP Launch Event Benefiting the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Palm, Inc.:

WHAT: VIP Event celebrating the launch of the all new Palm Pre.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 3
7 p.m. PT

WHERE: Raleigh Studios Hollywood
5300 Melrose
Hollywood, CA 90038

WHO: Hosted by Palm, Inc. and Sprint
Emceed by Jason Alexander
Special guest performance by one of world's most famous and successful comedians of all time.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company's products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm Treo, Pre and Centro phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores.