Kurt Shintaku's Blog: Web

NEWS: Halo 3 on Xbox360... now in internal testing at Microsoft

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 20:23:22 GMT

Well, the cat's out of the bag so here's your official notice: The testing has begun!

Halo 3 Mutliplayer in Internal testing: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153533.html
Halo 3 Single Player in Internal testing: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153533.html

With it's predecessor being the single highest selling game EVER, beating out even Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 3 looks to tear apart previous records. If I can dig them up, I have photos of the lines that were formed at BestBuy and EBGames for the release of Halo 2, and if that's any indicator of the demand for this game, Halo 3 looks to just explode in 2007.

--------------------------

This will all be right after the launch of "Gears of War", what IGN, OXM, and Gamespot all called, "the 2nd record-shattering franchise for the Xbox". This game is sheer fun and anyone that liked Halo 2 will be just giddy when they play Gears this holiday season.

And it'll be after the release of the XBox 360 Vision Camera. There's already a series of games that support the camera even though it's not out yet. I won't point them all out but the most obvious of them is "Uno" on Xbox Live Arcade.

Of course Halo 3 will come out after "Viva Pinata", our answer to Animal Crossing, except it leverages XBox Live to connect people's "farms" together. Viva Pinata, with it's cute characters, it's relatively non-violent game play, and it's simple yet obsessive gameplay will hook millions of players. The games fun just to watch on the screen even if you're not doing anything.

Oh, and there's "99 Nights" and "Too Human". Depending on your preferences, this is Microsoft's answer to "God of War". I've seen "99 Nights" which has been available in Japan for a while now, and it's incredibly fun. Really. All your dreams of just utterly enkillenating 500-1000 enemies simultaneously with a single massive combo attack has been realized... without diminishing the quality of the graphics and animation you've come to expect from a next-gen console. "Too Human" is more adventure like with your powers and capabilities growing with the game. This is going to be closer in nature to Baldur's Gate with much better gameplay, 3-D camera graphics, and infinitely better sound & graphics... not to mention a bitchin' storyline.

And "Chromehounds". The spiritual successor to MechAssault with more "Mechwarrior-like" features in it. Chromehounds brings back some of the intricacies of the Mechwarrior gameplay with upgradable guns and armor and better tactical play while keeping the game action packed. It seems to have suppressed a bit of the "arcade-ish" type of gaming that MechAssault provided in exchange for smarter gaming. God bless them.

And then there's the wireless headset. Finally... no more wires. It's all about wireless gameplay and the XBox360's gonna provide it.

WEB: Microsoft Financial Services Blog now online

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:44:43 GMT

We have a Financial Services blog for those of you interested.

http://blogs.msdn.com/finserv_blog/default.aspx

WEB: Finding the cheapest gas in your area using Windows Live & MSN

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:45:24 GMT

MSN & Windows Live has provided some really great information about gas prices in your area. Basically enter your zip code, and it'll list out all the gas prices of the gas stations in your geography.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx

Alternatively, you can do what I do: Set up your home page to be the Windows Live page, (http://www.live.com) which is a RSS reader that will show you article summaries of as many web sites as you configure. One of the things you can do is install and run a "Microsoft Gadget" in this page. This is a bit of code that queries databases on the Internet to display information relevant to you.

One of the Gadgets that's out there is a Gas Prices gadget.

http://microsoftgadgets.com/forums/2510/ShowPost.aspx

For those of you using Windows Vista Beta 2, you can take this gadget and install it to your desktop.

WEB: Outlook Support Web Sites & Tools

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:28:56 GMT

Teamscope Software started doing a little newsletter. I don't know how success it's going to be but I do know that their first effort was an admirable one. They wrote up all the web sites they knew of that supported Outlook and I think that's pretty cool. Here's an excerpt of the newsletter:

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Outlook Support Websites

As a developer of products for Microsoft Outlook, we've found a number of websites that contain lots of great tips and techniques. Below are the best we have found:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010778051033.aspx <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010778051033.aspx>
Microsoft's very own Crabby Office Lady offers tips on using all the Microsoft Office products.

http://www.outlook-tips.net/ <http://www.outlook-tips.net/>
Hundreds of Outlook tips! Owned by Outlook MVP Diane Poremsky, President and CEO of CDOLive LLC, Outlook Tips website was founded in July 2003 to help users learn to use Outlook.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/ <http://www.howto-outlook.com/>
Provides help and news for Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Office related products. This web site is maintained by Robert Sparnaaij (A.K.A Roady in the Microsoft Newsgroups) who is an MVP for Office Systems - Outlook.

http://www.outlookpower.com/ <http://www.outlookpower.com/>
Lots of advertisements, but a good source for news as well as discussions on common problems that Outlook users encounter.

http://www.slipstick.com/ <http://www.slipstick.com/>
A comprehensive Outlook and Exchange solution center. Slipstick Systems was founded in 1994 by Sue Mosher, a 15-year veteran of The Associated Press, experienced journalist, technology manager and software developer. In January 2004, Sue sold Slipstick.com to CDOLive LLC, a company formerly focused on developing Exchange solutions. CDOLive is owned by Diane Poremsky, also an Outlook MVP and the author of several books

http://www.exchangefaq.org/ <http://www.exchangefaq.org/>
Compilation of frequently asked questions and esoteric information about Exchange from the Exchange Mailing List and other various sources.

http://msd2d.com/Tip_view_03.aspx?section=exchange <http://msd2d.com/Tip_view_03.aspx?section=exchange>
MSD2D is a resource for the Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, .NET and Security communities.

http://www.outlookcode.com/ <http://www.outlookcode.com/>
Run by Sue Mosher, this web site is a meeting place for people who want to make Outlook work harder for themselves and their organizations by learning how to program applications for their own use and to share with others. No matter whether you are a beginner or an expert, this is a web-site for users that need to customize forms and develop new applications using Outlook.

Outlook Tools and Utilities

We also use and recommend a number of tools and utilities that you may find useful.

http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/ <http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/>

Annoyed by the security pop-up that is displayed by Outlook on occasion? This utility automatically presses the Yes button for you whenever these specific dialogs are displayed.

http://www.teamscope.com/otherpro/utilities.asp#linker <http://www.teamscope.com/otherpro/utilities.asp#linker>

Linker(tm) for Windows® is a free utility that generates links to items and folders in Outlook, and to files and folders from Windows Explorer. Linker is a system tray applet that automatically generates a hyperlink and places it on the Windows clipboard. The hyperlink can then be pasted into any MS Office document, Web page, e-mail message, etc.

http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/ <http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/>
Outlook Redemption works around limitations imposed by the Outlook Security Patch and Service Pack 2 of MS Office 98/2000 and Office 2002 and 2003 (which includes the Security Patch), plus provides a number of objects and functions to work with properties and functionality not exposed through the Outlook object model.

HOWTO: Remove the advertising on your MSN Space

Mon, 01 May 2006 22:12:36 GMT

Have you noticed something different about this MSN Space blog? Take a good look around it. Here's a hint: There's something missing.

Yep. That's right. No advertising.

Nothing above the title. Nothing on the sides. Nothing whatsoever. It seems we added this feature and I frankly never even knew about it because you have to enable it within settings. The advertising disappears if you have a Premium MSN Services account - like a Hotmail Plus account.

Hotmail Plus basically gives you:

- 2GB of storage in your inbox

- 20MB attachments

- Windows Live Mail interface

- Office Outlook 2003 integration (the Outlook 2003 client-side Junk Mail filter works wonders on Junk Mail within Hotmail)

...and of course, you can get rid of the advertising on your MSN Space.

If you're interested in doing this:

1) Go to http://join.msn.com/hotmailplus/overview-std. Sign up for Premium Services for $19.95/year.

2) Go to http://spaces.msn.com/<yourbloghere>/SpaceSettings.aspx and go down to Premium Settings.

3) Check off the box that reads: "Claim my benefits as a subscriber of Premium MSN Services".

WEB: MSN Spaces releases new features

Mon, 01 May 2006 01:25:39 GMT

Interesting. MSN Spaces has three relatively new modules for users to use and they've published a recent article on their Blog ("The Spacecraft") that goes into more depth on Expo:

Windows Live Expo:

Interested in advertising the stuff that you're selling on the Windows Live "Classifieds" section? Now you can using the Windows Live Expo feature. Windows Live Expo allows you to put things up for purchase "regionally" - in other words, you can put things up for purchase that people in your geography specifically might be interested in. For example: Los Angeles Lakers tix, signed UCLA jerseys, line passes to Circus Disco in Hollywood, etc. You can do all of this at http://expo.live.com. What the MSN Spaces module allows you to do is post these ads on your blog automatically.

More available here: http://spaces.msn.com/thespacecraft/blog/cns!8AA773FE0A12B9E3!9738.entry

Windows Live Favorites:

Do you have a list of favorites that you wish would follow you around? That's what Windows Live Favorites are. They're a list of pointers that follow you around where you log in, as long as the Live Favorites add-in is installed on the computer you log in to. (Go to http://favorites.live.com for more info on this) These "Roaming Favorites" can not only be available to you when you browse the internet from say a kiosk computer, you can also post these favorites to your blog automatically for others to see. For more info from the MSN Spaces team on this integration, go to: http://spaces.msn.com/thespacecraft/blog/cns!8AA773FE0A12B9E3!6097.entry

(The is the Live Favorite's blog BTW: http://spaces.msn.com/livefavorites)

RSS Feeds:

If you're into syndication summaries, the RSS Feeds module will allow you to post article titles & summaries of other blogs or other news site's content on your site. Good for sites that are like-minded to you.

If you want to use any of these, just go to the Customize feature in your MSN Spaces blog and select "Expo" or "Live Favorites" or "RSS Feeds" modules and configure them as you please.

WEB: Jeff Jones' Security Blog

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:12:17 GMT

Jeff Jones', the Director of our Trustworthy Computing division (think Security, Privacy, Confidentiality, Data Integrity, etc.) has set up a new blog, http://blogs.technet.com/security/.

He's set it up to discuss potentially challenging security issues and decisions that we face. (such as the MSFT policy concerning how we treat internally found security bugs)

I'm looking forward to this. I may even end up just posting pointers to his site. This should be a very valuable blog for individuals interested in Microsoft security-related discussions.

WEB: Windows Mobile gets a new Web site!

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 06:12:41 GMT

Windows Mobile finally updated their web site. It's got a completely new look and feel to it however most importantly, the left side navigation bar's been cleaned up and points to EVERYTHING that we have available in the web hierarchy.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx

WEB: Windows XP on a Macintosh

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 11:07:38 GMT

What comes around . . . goes around.
http://winxponmac.com/The%20Contest.html

Even though I have a Titanium Laptop, I think I'd actually go buy one of the Intel Macs just for this purpose.

WEB: Microsoft LiveMeeting 2005 Resources

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:39:50 GMT

I have this friend Blake who's a computer consultant and has this penchant for scouring through our web site and creating Cliff Notes versions of web topic hierarchies. (Or should I say, "Blake's Notes"?)

In any case, he's done one for LiveMeeting 2005 Resources which is really very good - those of you using LiveMeeting right now may want to check it out. Christ - even I didn't know about a few of the items he's posted and I use LiveMeeting weekly.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/bhandler/Blog/cns!1pt1v0Q4vD8jSvNS4lqdAuug!720.entry

NEWS: XBox360 in the comics!

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 00:48:23 GMT

Wow. Here's a listing of a ton of comics with XBox360 as the topic.
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/XBox/main.asp

WEB: Blogging... the Microsoft Executive way

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 00:45:40 GMT

Here's a list of high-level Microsoft executives that frequently update their blog.

Ray Ozzie, Chief Technology Office (of Lotus Notes & Groove fame)
http://spaces.msn.com/members/rayozzie/

Soma Somasegar, VP of Development Tools
http://blogs.msdn.com/Somasegar/

Steven Sinofsky, VP of Business Productivity/Office
http://blogs.msdn.com/techtalk/

Satya Nadella's blog , Corp VP Microsoft Dynamics previously known as Microsoft Business Solutions
http://blogs.msdn.com/satyanadella

WEB: List of backward compatible games for the Xbox360

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 19:25:09 GMT

This is a list of games that are backward compatible on the Xbox360 from the original Xbox.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm

This is a Q&A about backward compatibility from the Xbox team.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilityqa.htm

I'm kinda ticked the Ultra BustaMove, Trivial Pursuit, and Tetris Worlds (Online) aren't supported. Those are the games that my wife and I like to play.

BLOG: Ever wanted to talk to a Microsoft Lawyer?

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 19:56:09 GMT

So here's something that I bet you never thought you'd do: Would you like to read the musings of a Microsoft Lawyer? Don McGowan is from Microsoft Legal/Corporate Affairs - the side of Microsoft that handles any and all legal issues that Microsoft is involved in.

Don, in a word, is a god. Or at least a demigod. And yes, he's a real Microsoft lawyer... and a nice guy. He actually monitors the discussions at Microsoft to make sure people don't get themselves into trouble online. He has his own blog that includes many of his throughts and it's a really good read:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/DonkeyXote/

WEB: Notes on Presenting with Powerpoint

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:33:05 GMT

A friend of mine blogged recently about Jesper Johansson's recent article about how to use Powerpoint:

http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2005/08/24/Death_by_PowerPoint.aspx

I read through it and while I agreed with the general humorous gist of the article, I thought that there were some larger macro-level points about presenting that are more important to focus on rather than the nuances of building Powerpoint decks themselves. I've read through numerous books that tell you such old advice like: Don't use small fonts, Don't pack too much in a slide, Use pictures,...blah blah blah. This is stuff you can get out of any Dummies or Complete Idiot's guide to presenting with Powerpoint.

I've been in sales for more than 10 years at Microsoft and I've consistently see the same presentation mistakes, and they frankly, usually have nothing to do with Powerpoint. I'm not going to go off on a rant here but here's just 3 examples of things that are pet peeves of mine of new technical sales employees at Microsoft that present.

GET TO THE DAMNED POINT:
Answer the question that in your customer's minds as soon as humanly possible, then go back an explain why your answer is correct. Your audience has an itch to scratch, otherwise they wouldn't be in front of you so don't make them wait 15 minutes before you scratch that itch with background sides, history slides, marketing slides, or stuff that will just annoy them - no matter how important you think it is. People that do this are usually slackers using some pre-fabbed presentation deck loaded up with marketing slides about "their company's history" or "the 'problem' that they're solving". And make no mistake - it's obvious.
POWERPOINT IS NOT A CRUTCH:
Guide your pitch on what the audience responds to, and barring that, base your commentary on the slide title - not the actual content of the slide. When you can give your presentation without looking at a slide deck at all, you're ready to present. People that don't know their presentation flow are obvious because they read bullet items and are completely dependent on their slides to give their pitch. This is the mark of a bad salesperson.
REMEMBER THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE:
Measure and balance the following: You, your pitch, the audience.
Make sure you're jazzed about your pitch... if you're not, reschedule. And if your jazzed, the audience will be to. If they aren't you're not scratching their itch and you need to adjust your pitch. If your pitch isn't on target with what you're trying to communicate, reschedule, because if it's not, it's awfully hard for you to get jazzed/excited about.

On Powerpoint: 2 quick rules.

The main rule of Powerpoint is the "4x5" rule: No more than 4 bullets, no more than 5 words per bullet on a slide.
The main rule of presenting is the "Tell them" rule: Tell them what you're going to say, tell them, then tell them again what you just told them.

WEB: "Windows Vista Secrets" web site

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 21:13:30 GMT

I've found this interesting site that has a decent amount of traffic on it about Windows Vista. I accept no responsibility for the hacks and backdoor stuff found on this site, but I thought you guys messing with Windows Vista would enjoy this.

http://www.winvistasecrets.com/

WEB: Software & Tools for Windows XP

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:47:49 GMT

For those of you interested in software that is uniquely focused on Windows XP technology, check out Paul Thurrott's WinSuperSite on the topic of "Windows XP Reloaded". He's got basically every tool we've created and posted on his web site. Note that most of the posted downloads (some 40 or so) are free and can be accessed immediately off the site.

http://www.winsupersite.com/xpreloaded/

WEB: SoCal Developer Events & News

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:46:53 GMT

Whoa. After arguing with him about why he should maintain his own blog, my friend and co-worker Scott Kerfoot just showed me a site he maintains that has a calendar along with announcements about all things "Microsoft Development" related for Southern California.

Check it out:

http://www.socalmsft.com/default.aspx