Wild and Wacky Friday - Microsoft SongSmith

" Ever sing in the car? Maybe in the shower? You know who you are. Admit it, you like to sing, and you like music. Ever thought of writing your own music? Most people never get a chance to try... but we want to give everyone a piece of the songwriting experience, so we’ve developed Songsmith, an application that lets you create a complete song just by singing! Are we going to turn you into an award-winning songwriter overnight? Of course not. But Songsmith will give you a way to create something authentically musical and authentically yours, even if you don’t know the first thing about chords or music theory."



Check it out: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/

A Website Named Desire - a supergraphic

Sometimes the best possible way to visualize something really complex is to create a high-resolution supergraphic. But then you are faced with the problem of sharing it over the Internet.

A Website Named Desire is a printed supergraphic that illustrates the process of launching a web site. This visualization allows you to explore a 100 megapixel digital version of the poster with interactive annotations to add context to the nuances of the illustration.

Highlights:

• Presents a way to navigate processes and characters in web site construction visualization.
• Shows customized use of Silverlight DeepZoom.
• Employs “Power Scaling” to position elements overlaid on the DeepZoom surface.
• Uses both storyboards and programmatic methods to animate elements.
  

Check it out: http://www.visitmix.com/labs/descry/awebsitenameddesire/

Windows 7 - Everything you wanted to know

There's a website dedicated to the new Windows 7 - what is it and do you need it?

Check it out: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help

Microsoft Learning Snacks

Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks, learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.

I am looking for the player information.

Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/format-learning-snacks.aspx

Join in on the Twitter fun for a chance to Win an Adobe Suite

Follow RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe in his quest to get 1000 followers via Twitter.

He will do a drawing and randomly select a winner, who will have the choice between either the Adobe eLearning Suite and the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2.

Check it out: http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez/2009/07/join_in_on_the_twitter_fun_for.html

History of Microsoft - the 1990s

Spent this weekend with Microsoft stuff - lots of interesting things to share.

A video series that gives you a rare glimpse into the story behind the software giant. Using rare footage and never-before-seen photos, experience Microsoft's history by year. You can download the videos in a number of different formats.

Check it out: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-1999-The-Series-Finale/