Smarter Geek

Microsoft have now released Office 2010 to the public (via MDSN) and now they are starting to show off how the product will look on Windows Phone 7.

Awesome!!! Microsoft have now released Office 2010 RTM on MSDN.

If you have an MSDN subscription then get it now from http://msdn.microsoft.com

I recently bought a Dell 21.5” Multi Touch HD Monitor ( SX2210T ) which support multi-touch which I thought would be great for Windows 7 as it now supported multi-touch. However one of my disappointments was that there was a distinct lack of application that supported multi-touch input. This was not so much of a problem for people who bought new computers as OEM’s could bundle the Touch Pack for Windows 7 which provided users with 6 apps that were specifically written for people with a touch screen interface. But as the touch pack was an OEM only release this meant that people who bought a touch screen after market could not use these programs.

Well… Microsoft have now released the Touch Pack for Windows 7 for free to the public… YEAH!!!

For information on how to get the touch pack go to http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2010/04/21/microsoft-touch-pack-for-windows-7-now-available.aspx

For about the past 12 months Microsoft have been releasing a number of solutions on the http://support.microsoft.com/fixit web site. This web site could be used for some to find a solution to their problem and then simple click on a Fix It button which ran a self contained program that fixed that particular issues.

Microsoft now released an update to this service called Microsoft Fixit Center Online. You can downloads and installs the Microsoft Fixit Center application from the site which is used to find and troubleshoot a list common issues. This is a software + services solution that means also integrates with online support portal for all your computers.

To try Fixit Center Online for yourself now just go to http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/ then click on the “Try it Now!” button.

After you have installed the program and created an account with the Fixit web site you can run specific trouble-shooter to fix the problem you are having with your computer.

You then have the option of either Detect and Fix or just Detect and fix later..

You can then see you computer report on line with the history of the trouble-shooters that have been run on that computer…

If you then click on the “Manage this computer” link you can change the icon assigned to the device and give it a custom Display Name.

If you click on the “Device Information” link on the left side you then get some standard device information on the hardware specs of the computer.

and a comprehensive list of all the software installed on the computer.

Also provided on the web site is the “Find Solutions” page which is a one stop shop for troubleshooting all the common support issues with various Microsoft product. If you can find the solution to your problem you can even use this page to submit a support request and then you can keep track of the issues under the “View support requests” section.

I would rely like to see a remote assistance feature some what like Live Mesh and the ability to run all the trouble-shooters without clicking on multiple buttons. While the product at the moment is only beta and only offers reactive solutions problems I think has real potential to be very useful for every IT enthusiast that has to support one or more computers…

Microsoft have just release another free eBook called “Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner!”. This is a good sign that SQL Server 2008 R2 is also getting very close to RTM…

The book contains 10 chapters and 216 pages, like so: 

PART I   Database Administration

CHAPTER 1   SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements
CHAPTER 2   Multi-Server Administration
CHAPTER 3   Data-Tier Applications
CHAPTER 4   High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements
CHAPTER 5   Consolidation and Monitoring

PART II   Business Intelligence Development

CHAPTER 6   Scalable Data Warehousing
CHAPTER 7   Master Data Services
CHAPTER 8   Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight
CHAPTER 9   Reporting Services Enhancements
CHAPTER 10   Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot 

As myself am an IT Pro but I have not used SQL Server since SQL 2005 however but the Part 1 of this book looks like it will be brilliant for me to get up-to speed on the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2.

Download the book for yourself from here Microsoft Press : Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2