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Friday, December 31, 2010

Medgadget Evaluation of Google CR-48 Device




The folks over at Medgadget got their hands on the Google prototype machine the CR-48 to do an evaluation.

While their work and opinions encompass much more than just the dental environment, what they learned can definitely be applied to the clinical world of dentistry.

While we don't beat our devices up during treatment or with lots of movement, our constant use and disinfection can definitely take its toll.

The post is definitely worth reading!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Sfttray.exe. Launch .OSD file without the APP-V Console

Hello

Do you want to execute the .OSD file without the Application Virtualization Console

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The file is sfttray.exe.

The directory: program files\Microsoft Application Virtualization Cliente>

The .osd file: \\App-v_Server\content\myfile.osd

 

sAnTos

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APP-V log.

Hi

Do you want to see the APP-V log in the client?

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Datos de programa\Microsoft\Application Virtualization Client

the stflog.txt is the file.

The Application Virtualization Client console.

You can change the register nivel from Information to Verbose to get more detail.

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sAnTos

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Microsoft Office 2010 and App-V 4.6

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The operating system is not presently configured to run this application. App-V . Sequencing Microsoft Visio 2010 error

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Species keep coming out of Peru

In the Peruvian Amazon, the rate of "major" animal discoveries is impressive: one new bird a year and one new mammal every four years. There are plenty of invertebrates as well: one find I mentioned in an earlier post was the toothy "Tyrannosaurus leech" (Tyrannobdella reina). As this article points out, the nation is taking meaningful conservation measures, with 15 percent of its lands under some level of protection. It's also a land undergoing rapid development, though, with 16 percent of the territory included in mining concessions. Conservationists are fighting to make sure the most critical spots are saved, noting that there are no doubt more species there we don;t even know about yet.
COMMENT: As in the United States, it's not reasonable to expect all public lands will be protected: economic welfare and conservation will sometimes be at odds. The balancing act will never be simple, although requiring greener methods of extraction and restoration can help.
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How to back up your social media data

(Mashable) -- Remember how we were all freaking out on New Year's Eve, 1999, convinced that the world as we know it would end -- at the hands of machines, of course?
Well, we weathered that storm and then some. Still, as we shamble forward into the next decade, it might be prudent to take pause and take stock of the years behind us. Translation: Back up your stuff.
Think of it as stockpiling food and building a fallout shelter for the 21st century.
We have a ton of information, photos and memories scattered around the web that we would be loathe to lose, and while it's unlikely that the entire Internet is going to come crashing down in the next week or so, it still might be wise to put some of that stuff in an iron box for safe keeping.
Read on, and Christina Warren and I will show you how to...
... back up your Facebook
We're coming pretty close to living our lives on Facebook -- it's our photo album, diary and mailbox, all in one -- so why leave all that info up to the whims of the all-mighty servers?
This October, the social network got hip to data portability after it started allowing users to download their profiles -- photos, statues, updates, videos and all.
The process is really too simple to forgo. Here's how you can stow away your social life for safekeeping:
1). Go to Account Settings
2). Click on "Download Your Information" and allow Facebook to download your info
3). Wait for an e-mail that will let you know your info is ready (it takes a while, what with all the stuff you probably have on Facebook)
4). Go through the security test that allows you to download your info (kudos on that one, Facebook), and, voila, your profile is ported to your desktop in a nifty folder.
Do this before you go through with that New Year's resolution to make your profile less scandalous -- you know, for when you're old and gray and full of sleep and nodding by the fire.
... back up your tweets
Yes, the Library of Congress is now hoarding tweets, but that doesn't do much for the casual user looking to keep a log of his own mundane musings, now does it?
Thankfully, you're got some options. There's TweetStream, which lets you back up your data as well as mine it for information and statistics. (Be warned, this service takes a looooong time to gather your info).
And if TweetStream doesn't strike your fancy, TweetScan, a site we covered back in 2009, will track your data back to 2007, and, using OAuth, will even grab your timeline, tweets from friends and direct messages.
Pinboard, a paid, Delicious-like (RIP) tool, also lets you store your tweets -- you can also back up or archive tweets from other usernames or from hashtags, as well as add favorites from a username and turn links embedded in tweets into bookmarks.
... back up your blog
After Tumblr's epic outage the other week, we showed you all how to back up your blogs. Well, we're just going to reiterate that right now, along with some solutions for WordPress as well.
Remember how you felt when your mom threw away all your old journals, crammed to the margins with angsty poetry? Well, that's not a feeling one would like to replicate later in life (unless it was relief -- in which case, disregard).
Tumblr
Last year, Tumblr launched a backup app that allows users to save their blogs so that they can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD or hosted as an archive of static HTML files.
The app is super easy to use: Simply download, enter your Tumblr sign-in info and save your blog to your desktop. You can launch the app and backup more info every time you post as well.
Note, this app is only for Mac OS X (10.5 or higher), but there are other options for those who use different operating systems.
Wordpress
If your blog or website uses WordPress, grabbing a backup file of all your posts, pages and comments is easy. In the WordPress dashboard, just go to Tools, Export and choose what types of posts you want to export.
If you want a backup of your entire WordPress database, the excellent WP-DB-Backup plugin can make scheduled database backups for your WordPress site at intervals you choose and even e-mail you the backup file.
... back up your photos
If you're like millions of Internet users, you probably upload most of your photos to a photo-sharing site like Flickr or Facebook. While you're backing up your blog entries, tweets and Facebook messages, it might be a good idea to go ahead and archive all of your photos, too.
If nothing else, this is a great way to destroy the evidence from that sorority beer bong tournament in college.

Flickr is a great service and in terms of reliability, it's consistently solid. What's less consistent is the whims of its parent company, Yahoo. If the Delicious debacle has taught us anything, it's that Yahoo isn't afraid to sell off or shut down a service with millions of daily users.
Lots of apps and tools let you back up your Flickr photo stream, but a quick, fuss-free way to unload years of photo uploads is the Adobe Air app Flump. The app works on Mac, Windows and Linux and downloads a copy of each photo in your stream to a folder of your choice.
Be aware that while this will grab each and every photo, tags, titles and photo sets are not preserved. There a few other alternatives if you're willing to invest more time in the process, but Flump gets the job done.
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65% of internet users have bought content online

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Holiday shopping online was strong right through Christmas, with consumers spending a record $30.8 billion for the season, according to a research firm report issued Wednesday.
Online sales for the 56 days ended Dec. 27 rose 13% from the same period in 2009, according to Reston, Va,-based comScore. There was a 17% year-over-year surge in the week that ended Dec. 26 -- the day after Christmas.
"For at least this holiday season, the American consumer has been able to shrug off the continuing economic challenges of high unemployment rates and depressed housing prices and spend at a rate that has been slightly stronger than we had expected," said Gian Fulgoni, comScore's chairman, in a statement.

Computer hardware led the way in online sales, with a 23% increase from last year, aided by Apple' (AAPL, Fortune 500)s iPad and e-readers from various sellers, according to comScore. Book and magazine sales rose 22%, consumer electronics sales gained 21% and software sales excluding video games were 20% higher online.
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65% of internet users have bought content online

(Ars Technica) -- About 65% of Internet users have paid for some kind of online content, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
Pew found that digital music and software are the two most common purchases, yet almost half of the users have only bought one or two kinds of content, and most have only used one method of access, such as streaming or downloading.
Of the 1,003 people surveyed, 75% were Internet users, which is consistent with the general proportion of Internet use in the U.S.
While previous surveys had looked at online purchases in general, the goal of this one was to isolate purchases of content only, rather than physical items. Of the people who where online, less than two thirds had ever used it to buy some kind of content.
33% of those who bought online content had gotten either digital music or software, and 21% had bought apps for cell phones or tablet PCs.
Ars Technica: 1 in 5 Americans want internet regulated like TV
10% had bought an e-book, and 15% had used it to by ringtones. Only 5% had paid to use online dating sites, and according the the data, a remarkable 98% of the users have never paid a penny for adult content.
Some of the more interesting collected data had to do with payment and delivery methods. 66% of Internet users have used only one method of getting content, like streaming, downloading, or using subscription services.
However, only 23% had subcribed to a service, 16% were downloading their content, and 8% were streaming. Even if these three groups were totally disparate, that leaves at least 19% who are buying content on the Internet, but don't know how they're getting it.
The average content expense was $47 per month, but Pew noted there were some very high-end users who skewed this number a bit. The median user spends only $10 per month for online content, with more going to downloading individual files than subscription services.
Ars Technica: Verizon's 4G LTE network gets first 4G smartphone
Unsurprisingly, consumption of online media went up with income brackets. 43% of people with a household income of $75,000 or more buy music online, while 26% of those with an income of $30,000 or less do.
Paying for premium content on websites, such as the Wall Street Journal's site, is a fairly unpopular use of online content dollars -- an average of 11% of users do so. But when divided up by income, 17% of the richest bracket pays for premium content, while only 6% of the lowest bracket does.
People with more education also seem to be more invested in online content. For instance, 43% of those who graduated from college bought digital music, but only 23% of people who had never been to college did so.
As far as the gender divide, women and men seemed to pay for online media in roughly equal proportions, differing no more than 2 or 3% in most cases. The only notable exception was Internet-obtained software: 40% of men had bought software off the Internet, while only 26% of women had.

Ars Technica: RIM PlayBook tablet's performance comes at a cost
Of the people who use the Internet but don't buy content, those ages 30-49 were the least likely to abstain from digital purchases -- 29% haven't bought anything, compared to 33% of 18-29 year olds and 39% of 50-64 year olds.
This indicates the 30-49 age bracket makes a good target for companies that are looking to sell online content, as it has the largest overlap between technological literacy and financial security.
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Android Trojan Horse called Gemini is on the loose




You can never be too crazy about your security. When I got my Android phone a while back, one of the first programs I installed was the Lookout security suite. It backs up my phone and checks every download for bad stuff.

Now comes word from the website talk android.com about a Trojan horse program targeting the Android OS. You can't get it on Programs downloaded from the Android marketplace, but it pays to be vigilant.

Here is what Talk android.com had to say about it.

New Android trojan virus discovered, dubbed “Gemini”




Today, mobile security company Lookout released some information regarding a new virus found in the wild, and it’s targeting Android phones. The virus comes to us by way of China, and has been dubbed “Gemini”. The app attaches itself to legitimate applications, such as:

Monkey Jump 2
Sex Positions
President vs. Aliens
City Defrense
Baseball Superstars 2010
According to Lookout:

The specific information it collects includes location coordinates and unique identifiers for the device (IMEI) and SIM card (IMSI). At five-minute intervals, Geinimi attempts to connect to a remote server using one of ten embedded domain names. A subset of the domain names includes www.widifu.com, www.udaore.com, www.frijd.com, www.islpast.com and www.piajesj.com. If it connects, Geinimi transmits collected device information to the remote server.

We will say this, however… this isn’t a giant threat. In order to get infected, you would have to install an sideload app from a 3rd party or Chinese Market, meaning the trojan doesn’t come to your phone by way of the official Android Market. So be careful out there, users, and always make sure your apps are coming from a legal, legit source. Lookout Mobile Security, however, has been updated to protect against the malware, so be sure to get it here if you aren’t already using it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The South Atlantic Anomaly

Here's another fun Skeptoid post. The South Atlantic Anomaly, unlike the Bermuda Triangle it's sometimes (unsupportably) linked to, is a real phenomenon, a quirk in the Van Allen belts that maintains a cloud of high-energy particles at an altitude low enough to concern the operators of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Some spacecraft have sensitive instruments turned off when they approach the Anomaly. While pseudoscientists link it to the strange 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, that's not supportable, either. Commercial aircraft operate at far too low an altitude to be affected.
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What was the Bell Island Boom?

Atmospheric phenomena have always fascinated me. We are still learning about strange, gigantically powerful phenomena like sprites and elfs (not elves) in the upper atmosphere. One awesome phenomenon we have confirmed is the superbolt, a long-lasting lightning bolt from the top of a thundercloud to the ground, with 100 times the power and brightness of a normal bolt. Skeptoid host Brian Dunning here details a superbolt strike, blamed on a secret superweapon by some conspiracy types, that shook Newfoundland in 1978. It destroyed appliances, killed chickens, and left holes in roofs. No wonder it had people puzzled and alarmed.
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iPhone Slide Out Keyboard from Boxwave

iPhone Keyboard.jpg
For those of you who have an iPhone, but aren't a big fan of the soft touch keyboard, take a look at this.  This is the Keyboard Buddy iPhone 4 Case from Boxwave.  The device snaps onto your iPhone and then the keyboard slides out from the back.  The keyboard is a Bluetooth device, so it doesn't require a physical connection to the phone.  It is a fully functioning QWERTY keyboard with all the buttons you'd expect to be able to text, email, etc.
I know for some of you, this is overkill and it will add some bulk to the phone.  However, I've had many people tell me they still like having a physical keyboard and this one seems like a nice options.
Here is a rundown of the features:

Keyboard Buddy Case Features:

Form-fitting shell designed to snap on securely to perfectly fit your Apple iPhone 4
Cut-out design for the touch screen so that you can keep the same tactile feel as using the Apple iPhone 4 without a case
Conveniently designed to provide quick access to all of Apple iPhone 4's controls, features, camera, and ports
Integrated slide-out Bluetooth keyboard allows you to switch from the touch screen to a physical keyboard as desired
Includes a USB cable to charge the integrated keyboard
Bluetooth keyboard on/off switch allows you to turn the keyboard off when not in use to conserve battery power
Finished with a high-quality smooth coating making the case smooth to the touch
Charge Duration: 45 days
Bluetooth version 2.0
Jet Black color

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APP-V 4.6 Console error

hia

I can’t open the app-v console.

I got these error:

Error 0000C801

It is easy the explanation. The IIS has the problem

Change the Authentication Method in IIS7

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/appvbeta/thread/7ee7d9de-a82f-4e2d-9673-01f4ffd9de85/

and now it runs well

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App-V 4.6. Visio 2010 Sequencer

Hi

The jpg files are in Spanish, I am sorry. My clients are Spanish people.

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1,000-Core Chip Could Make PCs 20 Times Faster

Scottish scientists have built a 1,000-core processor, claiming it will run 20 times faster than today’s chips while using less power.

Dr. Wim Vanderbauwhede led a research team at the University of Glasgow to create the futuristic processor using a programmable chip called a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

Instead of the built-in circuitry of conventional desktop computer chips, these processors can be customized. So with some extremely clever programming, the research team was able to divide the processor into 1,000 cores, each capable of its own computation.

To give you some perspective, the fastest consumer processors such as Intel’s Core i7 top out at six cores. According to the Daily Mail, the 1,000-core processor processes 5 gigabytes data per second, and that’s “20 times faster than modern computers.”

The researchers gave each one of the cores its own dedicated memory, speeding it up even more. Remarkably, they were able to leverage all this extra speed and power without using more energy. Because they’re using those more energy-efficient FPGAs, Dr. Vanderbauwhede calls them “a greener option.”


Will we be seeing these processors in our laptops anytime soon? Not exactly. The team will present their research at a symposium next March, but according to Vanderbauwhede, “I believe these kinds of processors will only become more common and help to speed up computers even further over the next few years.”
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AT&T to expand Times Square Wi-Fi by New Year's Eve

(CNN) -- Ahead of the annual New Year's Eve celebration, wireless provider AT&T says it will expand a Wi-Fi hotspot in New York City's Times Square.

So if you plan to tweet "OMG it's 2011!!!" from Times Square early Saturday, you may have an easier time of it than you would have in 2010.

The "hotzone," as AT&T calls it, is part of a company effort to improve wireless data transmission to smartphones in certain urban areas. These public, outdoor Wi-Fi connections are intended to supplement the company's 3G cellular service, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

That 3G network has drawn complaints from smartphone users, who say it's difficult to send and receive data from their phones, particularly in high-traffic areas like New York and San Francisco.

Connection problems often are compounded when large numbers of AT&T smartphone users gather in a certain area and are trying to send and receive data via their mobile phones at the same time. There are few better examples of this than New Year's Eve in Times Square, where an estimated 1 million people will gather to ring in the new year. Many will want to send photos, e-mails and text messages from the celebration.

The AT&T outdoor Wi-Fi project started earlier this year when the company installed pilot Wi-Fi hotzones in New York, Chicago, Illinois and Charlotte, North Carolina. The effort is now expanding to beef up Wi-Fi in New York and to include a new Wi-Fi-connected zone at San Francisco's Embarcadero Center.

The company says the existing Wi-Fi hot spots work well.

"Our initial AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones have received great customer response and supported high data traffic," says John Donovan, AT&T's chief technology officer. "The pilot demonstrated the clear benefits of having fast and readily-available Wi-Fi options for our customers and our network, and so we have decided to deploy hotzones in more locations."

The Wi-Fi "hotzones" supplement AT&T's existing network of more than 20,000 indoor Wi-Fi "hot spots," the company says.


Wi-Fi connections generally help smartphone users send and receive data faster than existing cellular networks. Wi-Fi also use less of a phone's battery and doesn't eat into an AT&T customer's wireless data plan the way 3G connections do.

Verizon Wireless also has a Wi-Fi hot spot in Times Square, according to the company's website.

Wi-Fi, of course, is prone to failure, too, especially under heavy traffic demands. In one high-profile example of this, Apple CEO Steve Jobs' presentation crashed at a press conference earlier this year when a Wi-Fi network went down because of a traffic overload.

An AT&T spokesman would not comment on how much traffic the New York hot spot will be able to handle.

"As in any situation where a large number of people in a dense area are using smartphones, periods of network congestion can occur," the AT&T spokesman wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "Wi-Fi hotzones provide another broadband option in high traffic areas, and we feel that customers will benefit from having the option to log onto AT&T Wi-Fi in these locations."
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A viral video on viral videos?

(CNN) -- How many videos go viral per year? From Bed Intruder Video to Annoying Orange, there's an insane amount of memes we've run with in 2010.


And a new video attempts to cram them and dozens of other viral ideas into one video.

Called the Klick! Holiday Party, the seven-minute clip, from ad agency Klick!, is a mock festive event in its cubicle-laden offices.

What we get are dozens of employees dressed up like their favorite memes, dancing to The Isley Brothers' classic "Shout."

The video is an almost continuous shot, but more impressive is the sheer number of memes it hits. Klick! claims more than 50 are referenced, including:

• Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"
• Tron Guy
• Double Rainbow
• I Can Haz Cheezburger
I caught about three dozen, but there were a few I didn't even recognize -- and I wrote a book on the history of memes.

The video is both brilliant and overwhelming, and it will probably make you eager to hunt down the viral ideas you haven't caught yet.
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'CityVille' now bigger on Facebook than 'FarmVille'

(Mashable) -- Facebook game developer Zynga has proved once again that it knows exactly what it needs to do to keep millions of Facebook users happy and occupied.

In less than a month, its latest game "CityVille" has become the most popular application on Facebook, surpassing Zynga's previous hit "FarmVille" in all areas.

According to AppData, "CityVille" now has 16.8 million daily active users, compared to "FarmVille's" 16.4 million. Looking at monthly active users, "CityVille" is also ahead with 61.7 million users, while "FarmVille" trails behind with 56.8 million users.

Zynga's "FrontierVille" and "Texas HoldEm Poker" also round out the top five: put those four apps together (we'll disregard the fact that many of those users overlap for a second) and you have a very impressive number: 184 million active users across four games.
The only non-Zynga app in the top five list is "Phrases," which at one point threatened to take the top place, but is now overshadowed by both "CityVille" and "FarmVille."


"CityVille's" future success wasn't hard to predict after an amazingly good start at the beginning of December, but it's still impressive to see Zynga amassing tens of millions of users in a matter of days, proving that all that venture capital that went into the company isn't there by accident.
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The 10 biggest tech 'fails' of 2010

(CNN) -- In 2010, we saw social networking skyrocket in popularity. We embraced a new category of tablet computer. And we rushed to new gaming systems that let us play video games without a controller.

But in the technology world, not all valleys are made of silicon. While the highs were high for the tech winners this year, the low points were equally low.

Even tech titans such as Apple and Google had some rough moments in 2010. And some ambitious ideas that must have made sense behind closed doors just didn't translate well to the real world.

So here are our top "tech fails" of the year: the missteps, misdeeds and mistakes that remind us that no one -- not even Steve Jobs -- is perfect. What did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.

1. iPhone 4 'Antennagate'

Apple drama -- nothing brings out the diehard fans and Cupertino haters quite like this one.

The newest iteration of the wildly popular smartphone was released in June.

By all standards, it's been a huge success. All standards except one.

Some people couldn't actually use it for phone calls.
OK, maybe that's an overstatement. But the Grip of Death (caused when users covered part of the antenna in a band around the phone's edge) was real -- and a big glitch in the device's rollout.

First Apple said the problem didn't exist. Then they said it was a software issue. Then they kind-of admitted it existed and gave away free cases to help. Then, they said it doesn't really exist anymore and stopped giving away the bumpers.

Months later, the problem is all but forgotten and the phones show no sign of dipping in popularity. So "fail," in this case, is a pretty relative term.

2. 3-D TV

After being all the buzz at the trend-making Consumer Electronics Show Video in January, 3-D television didn't do much of anything this year.

Three-dimension movies may have taken over your neighborhood multiplex. But how many people do you know who will pay $4,000 or more for a TV that has a limited amount of special content and makes you wear special glasses in the comfort of your own home?

That will likely change as prices fall and the technology gets better. But so far, in a market full of folks who just recently shelled out four figures for high-definition TVs, 3-D television has fallen flat.

3. Microsoft Kin

We almost don't have the heart to beat up on the Kins anymore.

Having already served up the short-lived, tween-centric phones in our Thanksgiving all-time tech turkey list, we'll just remind you that the Kin One and Kin Two (Born: April 2010. Died: July 2010) aimed to be the fun, social smartphone for kids but ended up as a sort-of iPhone Lite, with a pricier data plan than their limited functions could justify.

Microsoft seemed happy to move on to the Windows Phone 7 system, so we will, too.

R.I.P. Kin. We hardly knew ye.

4. Nexus One

Speaking of phones that failed ...

Google's Android phone operating system came into its own in 2010, actually outselling phones running Apple's system by the end of the year.

But Google's effort at making their own phone to run it, the Nexus One, fizzled fast.

And here's the thing -- just about everyone who tried out the Nexus One liked it. It had features to rival the iPhone's, and reviewers were kind.

But Google might have gone wrong by originally selling the phone only online. Apparently, folks like to get their hands on their gadgets before paying for them.

5. Facebook privacy

Nothing on the internet elicits as much squawking as a change to Facebook.

Any change will do, really.

But this spring, some of the roughly half-billion users on the site got really miffed when a handful of privacy bugs, among other things, made private chat conversations briefly visible to Facebook friends.

And on April 21, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook feature called the "Open Graph," which essentially brings Facebook-like functionality to a number of websites.

A few folks actually left on a protester-created "Quit Facebook Day." Most didn't, but the sustained anger led Facebook to eventually simplify its privacy controls and roll out some new ones.

6. Google Buzz

Buzz was supposed to be Google's entry into the world of social networking in much the same way that Google Wave, which Google killed in August, was supposed to revolutionize real-time communication.

But it didn't help that, right out of the gate, Buzz's default settings amounted to a privacy breach. Basically, if users didn't tweak things at set-up, the people they e-mailed and chatted with the most through Gmail automatically became their followers.

So, theoretically, someone only needed to take a quick look at your profile to see who you interacted with the most in forums that most people assume are private.

Google quickly patched the problem. But the tool never really caught on. In Google Land, that might be OK, though -- the latest speculation is that Buzz might have been just the first step toward a networking site called "Google Me."

7. Gawker media sites hacked

Two fails here, really.

Fail No. 1: Gawker Media sites were breached in early December, with hackers saying they got access to the user names and passwords for about 1.3 million users of sites such as Gizmodo, Jezebel, Lifehacker and Kotaku.

Fail No. 2: A published list of the most-popular passwords hacked showed that "123456," "password," "12345" and "qwerty" were at or near the top of the list.

Sorry, folks. If those are your passwords, it's awfully tough to feel sorry for you getting hacked.

8. Content farms

Creating click-bait junk on the internet didn't start in 2010. But it certainly took off in a big way.

Demand Media, Aol's Seed and Associated Content, bought this year by Yahoo!, operate on a similar "content farm" model: They choose topics people are searching for on the internet, pay a "journalist" a tiny amount to write something -- anything -- about it, then slap it on the Web so people will click on it.


According to a Wired article, industry "leader" Demand Media already was cranking out 4,000 videos a day in late 2009. And they were on pace to publish 1 million items a month by this summer.

The magazine interviewed a videographer who has done 40,000 videos for Demand. Asked about his favorite, he said he couldn't really remember any of them.

Writing to what readers are interested in is one thing. At CNN, we monitor Twitter, Google Trends and other digital listening posts to make sure we're covering what people want to know about in the tech world.

But cranking out by-the-numbers copy, with profit as the only motive, just junks up the Web for everyone. It cynically betrays the promise of what the internet could, and should, be.

And maybe it won't work. The Wall Street Journal has said Demand has never made a profit. And just this week, there were reports that Demand is delaying a public stock offering because of concerns about its accounting practices.

9. Digg relaunch

It's impressive that content-sharing sites such as Digg have clung to some degree of relevancy in an era when most people share their favorite digital content on Facebook and Twitter.

But, to be sure, they've struggled. And a revolt by some vocal members of Digg this summer didn't help. The site got a major overhaul to make it easier for users to find content.

But the changes were buggy at first, and some old-school features such as the "Bury" button (which was eventually returned) had regulars claiming they were bolting for Digg competitor Reddit.

The fallout was still clearing by year's end, and the reasoning behind Digg's changes -- to help curate content in a more manageable way -- made sense. But the change brought some headaches that Digg's top brass no doubt would have liked to avoid.

10. iTunes Ping

There's a whole social network set up in Apple's iTunes store now.

Didn't know that? Well, there you go.

Not all musical artists are on there. And it doesn't integrate with Facebook. (Although Ping and Twitter just linked up). And, a lot of the time, it simply pushes you to buy music.

Needless to say, Ping hasn't really caught on.
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Two lawsuits target Apple, app makers over privacy concerns

(CNN) -- Although Apple gadgets sat under many a Christmas tree this year, the computer company is receiving some unwanted holiday-season attention.

Two separate class-action lawsuits filed last week in federal court allege that Apple and as many as eight makers of popular applications for the iPhone facilitated the sharing of private information about their customers to advertisers.

Though a recent news report claimed that many apps are sharing this personal data, the lawsuits together target just eight: Dictionary.com, the Weather Channel, internet radio service Pandora, the messaging app textPlus 4, as well as the makers of entertainment or game apps Talking Tom Cat, Paper Toss, Pumpkin Maker and Pimple Popper Lite.

The plaintiff leading one of the suits, Los Angeles County resident Jonathan Lalo, has been using four of those apps on his iPhone, said Dave Stampley, a partner at KamberLaw, which is bringing the case in a San Jose, California, district court.

"Mr. Lalo has had some of these apps since they were first issued -- in some cases, years," Stampley told CNN.

A copy of Lalo's suit, obtained by CNN, claims many iPhone and iPad owners have been "the victims of privacy violations and unfair business practices."

Both cases are seeking class-action status in the hopes of covering all Americans that are allegedly affected. More app developers could be added to the suits, or sued separately, as more plaintiffs join the case, Stampley said.

Lawyers filed the suits in U.S. District Court on behalf of the named plaintiffs and an unspecified number of unnamed plaintiffs.

The other suit was filed Thursday on behalf of three Texas men and a California woman, all of them iPhone owners. It states that "their personal, private information was obtained without their knowledge or consent ... their personal property -- their computer -- was hijacked by Defendants and turned into a device capable of spying on their every online move."

The plaintiffs seek an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.

An Apple spokesperson could not be reached for comment because its press department is closed for the holidays, said a company message.

Apple recently launched an ad network of its own, though that does not seem to be a target in the suits. Apple has said app makers must obtain users' permission before transmitting data.


The suits follow a December 17 Wall Street Journal article highlighting dozens of apps that reportedly collect usage data and send personal info to advertisers without the user's consent or knowledge.

"I think it was through the Journal," that Lalo discovered the issue and decided to connect with KamberLaw, said Stampley. That investigation by the newspaper claimed that Android apps were also sharing personal info but that the Android platform was less intrusive.

Mobile app data-sharing differs from websites, which commonly use small files called cookies to track users, because smartphone apps can access a device's UDID, an unchangeable string that's embedded in each Apple device.

People can generally delete cookies on most browsers, but they can't change or hide a UDID. This allows advertisers to more reliably tie behaviors to a single iPhone user, for example.
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

McAfee's 2011 List of Threats

With the New Year fast approaching, tech enthusiasts are very excited about all of the latest technology that is being introduced in 2011, but what about the possible security concerns that come with all the new technology? On Tuesday, December 28, 2010, McAfee released their 2011 list of threat predictions. The company said, "The list comprises [the] most buzzed about platforms and services, including Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, Foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals."

"We've seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most," said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs, in a statement. "These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and we're already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss."

McAfee will have to work especially hard to fend off the increasingly sophisticated malware that will be targeting Apple in 2011. So far, the Apple Mac OS platform has been decently secure, said McAfee. The iPhone and iPad are growing increasingly popular in the business realm though, and McAfee is afraid that with the general lack of knowledge about how to secure these Apple devices Apple botnets and Trojans could be a frequent occurrence and become a serious issue.

The biggest thing that people need to be really careful about is social networking sites. McAfee said that sites like Twitter and Facebook can easily fall prey to problems like URL shortening scans. They continued saying that they knew that utilizing abbreviated links does make it easier to condense your 140 character limit Tweets, but sometimes these links are also an easy way for criminals to mask and direct users to malicious Web sites. Each minute there are more than 3,000 tiny URLs created. Due to these astronomical numbers, McAfee said that they expect to see an increasing number of URLs that will be utilized for spam, scamming, and other malicious purposes.

Although a recent study showed that only 4 percent of adults really use location-based services, companies are continuing to release location-based features including Foursquare, Google Latitude, Facebook Places, and more. McAfee warns that the information that is shared on sites like these could easily enable cyber criminals to formulate a targeted attack. They also predicted that in 2011 there will be an increase in the use of this type of tactic across most of the popular social networking sites.

A lot of these location-based services that people utilize are used via their mobile phones. Because of this, McAfee is also predicting a “rapid escalation” in the number of mobile attacks due to “widespread adoption of mobile devices in business environments, combined with historically fragile cellular infrastructure and slow strides toward encryption."

McAfee also said that the increased use of Internet TV connections could pose a serious security risk. If manufacturers just rush into releasing their products, they could run into some major issues with suspicious and malicious apps on platforms such as a Google TV device. "These apps will target or expose privacy and identity data and will allow cybercriminals to manipulate a variety of physical devices through compromised or controlled apps, eventually raising the effectiveness of botnets," McAfee said.

These weren’t the only things that McAfee had on the threat list that they released. The list also included:

Hacktivism: McAfee is predicting that there will most definitely be a rise in the number of possibly politically motivated cyber attacks. "More groups will repeat the WikiLeaks example," McAfee said. They continued saying that unlike WikiLeaks though, the strategy will be much more sophisticated and leverage social networks.

Friendly Fire: McAfee is saying that there will also be a rise in the use of malicious content that is disguised as an e-mail from a source that you know. There is “signed” malware that works to imitate legitimate files that McAfee is afraid will be much more prevalent. They also said that “friendly fire,” which is a threat that seems to come from your friends but really is a virus such as Koobface or VBMania, will become a much more prevalent choice by cybercriminals. McAfee also said that these attacks go hand-in-hand with social network attacks and that these social network attacks could quite possibly eventually overtake e-mail attacks.

Botnets: McAfee Labs is predicting that with the merger of Zeus and SpyEye that there will be more sophisticated bots that will be produced because of the advancements for bypassing security mechanisms and law enforcement monitoring. McAfee Labs also says that they expect to see an increase in botnet activity that begins to adopt data-gathering and data removal functionality, instead of the more common use of sending spam.

Well, one thing that can definitely be taken from McAfee’s 2011 list of threats is that there are definitely threats out there that users want to avoid. Security is a big issue that many people tend to avoid, including myself. Protection and caution is necessary and is something that people really need to pay a little more attention to.

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Creating a User-Defined Server Role in SQL Server “Denali”

“Denali” is the code-name for the next release of Microsoft SQL Server, and a community technology preview (CTP) is available for download from here. My colleague Geoff Allix has already posted a couple of articles about the enhancements Denali includes for debugging Transact-SQL scripts here and here, and as the Content Master data platform team continues to investigate the CTP, I’m sure more posts will appear. In this post, I want to discuss a new feature that makes it easier to delegate server-level administrative tasks – user-defined server roles.

If you’re familiar with previous releases of SQL Server, you’ll know that there are essentially two levels of security principal within SQL Server (well alright, 3 if you include the operating system) – server-level principals, such as logins, and database-level principals, such as users. Permissions can be granted to these principals in order to allow them to use or manage resources (generally known as securables) at the relevant level. For example, you can grant permissions on server-level securables (such as endpoints and certificates) to server-level principals, and you can grant permissions on database-level securables such as (tables and views) to database-level principals. Obviously, managing permissions for individual principals can become complex (and error-prone) as the number of principals increases, so in common with most software systems, SQL Server supports the idea of grouping principals into roles, enabling you to grant the required permissions to the role, and simply add or remove principals from the role in order to allow or disallow them access to the securables.

So far, so ordinary.

Previous releases of SQL Server included a pre-defined set of server-level roles and database-levels roles that are already granted commonly required permissions, and to which you can simply add your principals (for example, logins at the server level or users at the database-level) in order to quickly enable people to access the resources they need while maintaining the principle of “least privilege” (i.e. not granting any permissions to anyone who doesn’t require them). Additionally, you can create your own user-defined database-level roles but crucially, until SQL Server “Denali” you could not create your own user-defined server-level roles.

To understand how the ability to create and manage your own server-level roles is useful, let’s consider a scenario where a corporation uses a SQL Server instance to host multiple application databases. Many of these databases are used by internal “home grown” ASP.NET Web applications or client/server applications that use Windows integrated authentication, and to control access to these databases, the DBA has simply created logins in SQL Server for the appropriate Windows Active Directory groups. However, the environment also includes a couple of off-the-shelf applications that do not support Windows-integrated authentication, and therefore require their own SQL Server logins. Let’s also suppose that these applications are supported by team of dedicated application administrators who need to be able to manage the SQL Server logins for the applications, for example to periodically change the password.

To accomplish this, I can create a user-defined server role by right-clicking the Server Roles folder in SQL Server Management Studio and clicking New Server Role, as shown below. Alternatively, I can use the new CREATE SERVER ROLE Transact-SQL statement.

Picture1

Using the SQL Server Management Studio UI reveals the New Server Role dialog box, enabling me to define the server role. In this case, I want to create a role named SQLAccountsAdmin, which will be owned by the built-in sa login. I can also specify the server-level securables I want to assign permissions for, and I can select each securable and set the required permissions. In this case, I’ve selected the AcctsPackage and AppSvcAccount logins (yes, principals can also be securables!) and granted the full set of available permissions on these logins to the SQLAccountsAdmin role.

Picture2

To grant permissions to a user-defined server role by using Transact-SQL, you can use the GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE Transact-SQL commands just like you would for any other server-level principal.

Now I need to add some server-level principals to the role, so that they can use their role membership to gain the permissions required to manage the two SQL Server logins. You can do this on the Members tab of the dialog box or by using the ALTER SERVER ROLE Transact-SQL statement.

Picture3

Finally, it’s worth noting that you can nest user-defined server roles within other server-level principals, including the fixed server roles provided out-of-the-box by SQL Server. In general, I’d advise against this as you can often find yourself granting unnecessary and unintended permissions, but it’s shown here for completeness.

Picture4

So, there you have it – user-defined server roles in SQL Server “Denali” provide a flexible way to delegate administrative tasks at the server-level.

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AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Award

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Award


Web Site » http://www.aallnet.org/about/award_call_for_papers.asp

Other Writing Competitions: http://law.du.edu/forms/writing-competitions/

Description: Papers must address an issue "relevant to law librarianship."

First Prize: $750

Additional Prize(s): The winner will, in addition to receiving the cash prize described above, have the opportunity to present the winning paper at the 2011 American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The winning papers wil also be considered for publication in the Association’s prestigious Law Library Journal.

Deadline: 04/15/2011

Contact Information:

David Hollander

dholland@princeton.edu
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Third-Generation Kindle Now the Bestselling Product of All Time on Amazon Worldwide

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I'm a Kindle user and lover.  Despite the fact of my iPad ownership, I still do a ton of reading on my Kindle when I travel, and I prefer to use the Kindle app on my iPad so that I can keep all of my book purchases in one place.  I've got to give Amazon credit, they've done a great job of making their ebooks available across a wide variety of platforms.  Because of Amazon's embracing of all these new technologies, they've managed to keep the Kindle front and center in their sales.  I mean, I'm a first generation Kindle user and I'm still routinely using the device.  That should say something about its staying power.
Well, it turns out that lots of other folks like the Kindle as much as I  do.  It seems the newest edition of the device (third generation) is now the bestselling product of all time on Amazon.  Here is the press release:
In just five months, new Kindle replaces 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' as best-selling product in Amazon's history

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon.com today announced that the third-generation Kindle is now the bestselling product in Amazon's history, eclipsing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)." The company also announced that on its peak day, Nov. 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which is a record-breaking 158 items per second.

"We're grateful to the millions of customers who have made the all-new Kindle the bestselling product in the history of Amazon -- surpassing Harry Potter 7," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. "We're seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions. They report preferring Kindle for reading because it weighs less, eliminates battery anxiety with its month-long battery life, and has the advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display that reduces eye-strain, doesn't interfere with sleep patterns at bedtime, and works outside in direct sunlight, an important consideration especially for vacation reading. Kindle's $139 price point is a key factor -- it's low enough that people don't have to choose."

Amazon Worldwide 2010 Holiday Facts (includes www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it)

On Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history.
On the peak day this season, Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 9 million units across all product categories.
Amazon shipped to 178 countries.
One of Amazon's most remote shipments contained the "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue," "Toy Story" DVDs, "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul," NHL 11, Halo Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops and was delivered to the hamlet of Grise Fiord, north of the Arctic Circle in Canada.
Amazon shipped over 350,000 units to APO/FPO addresses.

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Homo sapiens much older than thought?

The general theory, until recently, was that our own species evolved only some 200,000 years ago, a half-million years after the migration out of Africa. Teeth found in Israel, though, may complicate this picture considerably. According to Israeli researchers, the teeth are from "modern" humans - but are 400,000 years old. While the discoverers are cautious (they will keep digging, looking for skulls and bones that might reinforce their theory) and other anthropologists think the claim isn't proven yet, the find raises the possibility that the first H. sapiens arose in what would become known as the Holy Land. That might mean one group of ancient humans pushing out from Africa settled this region and eventually developed into a new species - us.
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More on ancient human from Russia

Readers may remember the announcement made in March that a finger bone from a Russian cave represented a new species of human. Now we have learned more about the "Denisovans," as the writers have nicknamed these people from 41,000 years ago. Among other findings: some of their DNA shows up in modern people from Melanesia. That's a long way from southern Siberia, and complicates questions about human origins and migrations. As one researcher put it, "Instead of the clean story we used to have of modern humans migrating out of Africa and replacing Neanderthals, we now see these very intertwined storylines with more players and more interactions than we knew of before."
COMMENT: Also, this indicates the Denisovans may have migrated south, which increases speculation by cryptozoologists that they may not be extinct, and may represent the almas, reported primates generally described as primitive humans of some sort, from the Pamirs.
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RoHS recast short delay

Gary Nevison, Premier Farnell.

ENGLAND: At the Environmental Council meeting on 20 December the Council did not approve the RoHS recast text voted through by the European Parliament on 24 November due to translation problems.

The Council will therefore officially adopt the text early in 2011 at one of the first meetings under the new EU presidency.

Hungary and Poland, who joined the EU in 2004, will assume the presidency during 2011 with Hungary taking the first half of the year.

So, it is unlikely that the recast will be published in the Official Journal (OJ) of the EU in March / April as originally expected, and it is difficult to say whether Hungary will push as hard as the previous Belgium presidency on the recast, but the delay should not be too long.

The recast will enter into force some 18 months after publication in the OJ.
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Moving to XenDesktop 5

Hi

We have The XenDesktop 3 and 4.

We are moving to The XenDestop 5.

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I will post errors, comments and so on

sAnTos

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APP-V. Error 25109. Data Store error

 

I got these error

If you install the product several times over the same sQL server.

You need to delete de DB (APPVIRT) and the login user (with the computer name)

Now, you can install the product without problems.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/appvbeta/thread/fba06c45-b751-4530-b2af-c8ec2f940d62/

(see this post)

We ran into this today on and found a way around it. We think this was the cause of the problem: 

We had previously had a 4.5 server, running in a VM, that we trashed - removed from domain - deleted....

We built a new VM but used the same name as the original server.

Every attempt to install the 4.5 Management Server on this new VM failed with the 25109 error.

We got it to work after finding that the SQL server had retained the machine account for the original server (which was the server name with a $ appended to it) - remember this was the same name as the new server. There must be a GUID or SID associated with the old machine. I'm not a SQL guru, so maybe someone can confirm this.

After we deleted the referneces to this machine name from the SQL server and tried installing the Management Server on our server VM, everything worked perfectly.

Has anyone else seen this before?

or

http://blogs.technet.com/b/appv/archive/2008/10/23/error-25109-the-installation-program-could-not-create-the-configuration-data-store.aspx

 

regards

sAnTos

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Service Manager Authoring Tool. Language Error

Hi

We have SCSM in Spanish.

My Windows 7 is in English.

The SCSM console and the authoring tool runs in English.

But sometime, I got errors.

Not very well the integration with languages

regards

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sAnTos

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Service Center Service Manager 2010. Our welcome page

hi

We are installing the SCSM 2010 with a colleague (marta).

Our portal:

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some problems to install the SCSM, because our SQL is in English and SCSM in Spanish.

Now , We have both in Spanish, and the installation was well.

sAntos

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App-V Error 25120. Virtual directory error

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HOW TO: Land a Job at Microsoft

Everyone has a dream job. Whether it’s a company you’ve been pining to be a part of or a new product you’re dying to throw your creativity into, there’s always a line of work that seems like the perfect fit.
Though recognizing your ideal position is easy, actually getting the job is the hard part. For those looking to start a career at tech giant Microsoft, the sheer size of the company makes the hunt seem even more overwhelming. Resumes can get lost in a sea of applications, and finding the right contact to reach out to can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
But that doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream of working at one of the most successful and dynamic corporations in the world. Here are some tips and resources from the company’s recruiters and employees for landing a job at Microsoft.

Getting Started


With so many locations and products, the first step in starting your Microsoft job search should be deciding where you want to work and what you want to create. Visiting the Microsoft Careers website can help answer these questions. There you can look for a specific position in the navigation bar or choose a country from the drop-down menu. On the Find Your Fit page, details on the company’s various professions and technologies are laid out to help you explore opportunities.
Once you apply by uploading your resume to a specific job posting on the site, it’s up for review. So how do you get that resume noticed?

Standing Out


Many recruiters use keyword searches to pull up resumes — but that doesn’t mean every other word needs to be “motivated” or “team player.” Be sure to list the names of certain technologies and programming languages you’ve used in each project you include. This will allow a recruiter to see what you know and how well you know it.
When putting together your resume, think about how you affected your environments and less about the basic facts of what you did. “Often, applicants write their resumes like a list of job tasks, but it’s even more important to call out your major achievements and the difference you made: what you did, how you did it, and why it mattered,” said Gretchen Ledgard, communications manager for Microsoft Recruiting.

Doing Your Homework


Microsoft is known for its difficult interview process and obscure questions. The best way to nail it? “Do your homework on us,” Ledgard said. Candidates who come in with knowledge about the role, team and location tend to already have an idea of how to frame their answers and are ready to ask solid questions.
Thom Mitchell, a Microsoft account technology strategist who was hired earlier this year, couldn’t agree more. He researched each person who was interviewing him and read up on the products he would be responsible for in the role and the competition for those products. He even prepared a short PowerPoint presentation about Microsoft products in case he was asked to present something on the fly (he wasn’t). When Mitchell asked questions, they were substantive and role-related — not “How are the health care benefits?” or “Is there a gym reimbursement?” More importantly, when he didn’t know an answer to a question he was asked, Mitchell simply said so and didn’t try to talk around the issue or come up with a fake answer.

Following Up


If you have questions after submitting your resume, many Microsoft recruiters are open to being contacted via social media, Ledgard said. Microsoft Careers is also open to connecting through social networks and has resources for potential job candidates on its advice hub JobsBlog.
But how do you strike a balance between keeping your name on the radar and being a nuisance? For Mitchell, the key was checking in as needed. He followed up with the recruiter after each screening interview and sent brief thank you notes to the hiring manager he interviewed with in person — but not to each person who interviewed him. Mitchell said his recruiter let him know what would happen every step of the way, so there wasn’t a need to over communicate.

Finding a Fit


There’s a big focus on not only job fit, but also company fit at Microsoft.
Recruiters look for people who go above and beyond in everything they do, whether that’s taking the most difficult computer science courses or working on extracurricular projects, Ledgard said.
Still, there’s no fool-proof formula for landing a job at Microsoft. Even though the position you’re applying for might feel like the perfect match, sometimes it’s just not. Microsoft’s recruiters and hiring managers are the experts on what type of person will be a good fit for both the job and the company culture. The best advice? Relax. If it’s meant to be, it will.
Have you scored a job at Microsoft or are you trying to? What has your experience been like? Tell us in the comments below.
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