TechEd 2009 already gave us details on Windows 7 and Office 2010 this week, and now it’s Windows Mobile 6.5’s turn. After the first day of the conference, a panel was put together and asked to talk about developing applications for Windows Mobile 6.5. I could not find the video uploaded on YouTube, so I’ve uploaded it on Vimeo and embedded it below (warning: it’s 42 minutes and 45 seconds long): 

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Although the Obama administration is indicating that it will be more aggressive about enforcing antitrust regulations, the European Union has been pursuing high-profile cases for years, having levied a large fine against Microsoft back in 2004, and hitting the software giant again last year. The latest target of the EU’s Competition group is the chipmaker Intel and, this morning, the EU announced that it too would face a hefty fine: slightly over €1 billion, which comes in just shy of $1.5 billion. Intel is already promising to appeal but, in the meantime, it’s going to have to drop over half a year of its current profits into a bank account in case its appeal fails.

The full decision, which is over 500 pages long, hasn’t yet been released to the public, but a summary of the EU’s case is available. It focuses primarily on the company’s pricing practices during the years 2002-2005, when Intel was facing growing competition from AMD in the desktop and server space. The EU authorities also cite an instance of similar practices in the notebook space in 2007, a time when that market was rising in prominence.

The Commission has concluded that Intel paid one manufacturer to delay the release of AMD business desktops, keep them from being sold through distributors, and block their sales to enterprise customers.

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Again to sum up, TechEd 2009 has brought us fresh headlines for Windows 7, Office 2010, and Windows Mobile 6.5. So, what else is worth talking about? How about the Microsoft Surface. The company quietly (sans press release) announced that Service Pack 1 for the super-duper coffee table has been released. Apparently the service pack is the result of feedback from more than 180 partners in 11 countries who are developing on the Microsoft Surface. SP1 is meant to make development on the platform faster and easier: the SDK supports development on any .NET framework and is optimized for WPF and XNA.

Surface can run multiple applications simultaneously, but only with SP1 is it easy to tell if an application in the background needs your attention, thanks to a small notification on the side. Surface is also now easier to set up since you can calibrate without needing to plug in an external display. SP1 gives users more visual feedback about where they’ve touched and where they should have touched to select a specific item. Also, where applicable, Surface will let the user know that he or she cannot zoom into a specific object by showing lines leading away from the object. Below is a quick list of features that have been added; I think the Microsoft Update one is the most important one (and it probably should have been there from the start):

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Intel’s Linux-based Moblin platform, which is designed to run on Atom-based netbook devices, has gained the backing of numerous Linux distributors. Novell jumped on the Moblin bandwagon last year and has participated in the development effort. In an announcement on Thursday, Novell revealed that it has signed an agreement with Intel and plans to boost its involvement with the project.

In an effort to make the project more inclusive and transparent, Intel recently invited the Linux Foundation to host ongoing Moblin development. Novell was a vocal supporter of this move and expressed enthusiasm for Moblin and the project’s potential capacity to accelerate the advancement of Linux in the mobile space. As part of the company’s new agreement with Intel, Novell has committed to build its own Moblin-based distro to offer to hardware makers.

Novell will also establish its own Linux labs in Taiwan to collaborate with a Moblin development facility that Intel launched in the country last year as part of a partnership with Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. Intel is building a very strong presence in Taiwan, where the company is investing in both Moblin development and a major WiMAX rollout.

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Earlier this week we learned that Microsoft would be giving out the Office 2010 Technical Preview to select testers on an invite-only basis. In January, screenshots of the alpha (then still codenamed Office 14) were leaked a week after select testers got them. This time, testers don’t even have the Technical Preview yet, but new screenshots have already arrived (see below). Office 2010 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit, and both flavors have been leaked.

The most important part to remember here is that this version is build 14.0.4006.1010. The build number of the official Technical Preview, which is scheduled for two months from now, is not known, so it is perfectly possible that this is not the build that testers will be getting.

Office 2010 includes Access 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Project 2010, Publisher 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Word 2010.

Installation

Honestly, this really isn’t much different from the Office 2007 setup. You may note that not all the applications are here. That is because this setup is for the Professional Plus SKU. I did not bother taking screenshots of the installation for Project, SharePoint Designer, or Visio. Without further ado, here are the screenshots from the 64-bit version.

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Last week, Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 arrived on MSDN, TechNet, and Connect. We noted that testers would not be getting slipstreamed ISOs of the operating systems but that MSDN and TechNet subscribers would be getting them soon enough. This week, Microsoft started putting up the downloads, and it looks like they’re pretty much all there. If you’re a subscriber, head over to the corresponding download page on MSDN or TechNet and put that bandwidth to good use. Below is a list of the SP2 downloads that Microsoft is now offering.

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I’ve written before about how hard it is to find a good hosting provider, and how Ipowerweb and Hosting Zoom didn’t quite work for me. It’s hard to get good advice with all the lucrative referral programs, which seem to have spawned a whole genre of fake hosting review websites. That’s why I thought I’d share my experiences with Pair Networks. If you’re looking for a good, reliable host and are willing to spend a bit more, I suggest you read on.

Setup

I moved my personal sites from Hosting Zoom to Pair four and a half months ago, and setup was about as easy as it gets. Pair does not use CPanel, so I had to move the sites manually, but it really only took me a couple of hours, and was no trouble at all.

my.pair.com

It took me a while before I felt at home in Pair’s own control panel, but it’s really very well designed, and incorporates ticket support and billing. All explanatory text are also very clear, unlike in CPanel. I actually prefer my.pair.com over CPanel, even though I’ve used the latter for quite a while and had gotten used to its layout and quirks.

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I know from my own experience that naming an application you’ve created can be just as challenging as creating it in the first place. A name should fit the purpose and be catchy at the same time. Some names are so clever they’ll not only increase the software’s chances of success, they also make me smile. Here are some of the best ones I’ve come across.

Top 5

1. Taekwindow
This clever little app changes the way you can drag and resize windows. Although I see more use for this under OSX (where you can still only drag the bottom right corner), the wordplay works. Taekwondo is a clever martial art, so the analogy fits.

2. Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey lets you run ‘user scripts’ that can affect the way web pages work and are displayed. There are tons of these scripts, ranging from useless to invaluable timesavers. This Firefox plugin lets you mess with the internals of web pages, so the name fits perfectly.

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I have to say that I was slightly disappointed by the 8.04.1 version of Ubuntu-eee. I know I blogged about how the Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu would probably be ideal for netbooks, but now that I’ve actually played around with it I feel differently. The 901’s 9″ screen is big enough to use the regular UI, and having even the smallest little popup window be maximized bugged the hell out of me.

That’s why I decided to go ‘back’ to my old setup with regular Ubuntu made ‘eee-friendly’ using the array.org kernel. I put the word ‘back’ between quotes in that last sentence because this also allowed me to go with the newer 8.10 version of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex). It may not be as easy as installing Ubuntu eee, but I found it to be well worth the extra effort.

Installing Intrepid Ibex

This really couldn’t be any simpler. Ubuntu’s installer is even easier than the one that comes with Windows. I chose to pay a little extra attention to the disk partition setup (like with 8.04), but other than that there’s nothing to it.

Once you’ve successfully installed the OS and rebooted your Eee-PC you’ll find that the wireless network adapter doesn’t work. Luckily the wired one does, so I grabbed an old UTP cable I had lying around and used that to install the array.org kernel.

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Apparently, there’s a course out there that makes you a Certified Ethical Hacker (or CEH). I always thought that being a hacker was about having an certain attitude about technology. I consider myself a hacker because I own a region-free DVD player. It’s about manipulating technology to suit your needs. But unfortunately, these ‘needs’ are personal, and there are plenty of people out there for whom illegal activities like fraud constitute personal goals.

That is where a course like this comes in. This is aimed at software testers and IT security professionals. EC-Council offers courses in Security Fundamentals, Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, Computer Forensics
, Disaster Recovery and Secure Programming. They supplied me with a review copy, and as far as I can tell the books offer a wealth of information about known vulnerabilities, software tools and appropriate countermeasures. If hacking really is about thinking outside the box, knowing about what others have put into that box sounds like a good start.

There’s also a set of CD-ROMs filled with tools. While browsing the books I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if these materials fell into the wrong hands. I fully believe this course will make you a ‘certified hacker’, but I’m not sure about the ‘ethical’ bit. I guess it’s fortunate the course isn’t very cheap. Except for one of you, that is.

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When our DLS connection failed a couple of weeks ago, it became clear to me that we needed a backup of some sort. I looked into business DSL subscriptions, but if you need a fast guaranteed repair time, the monthly rates start to look like mortgage payments. That’s why I decided to get a second consumer broadband line and hook try to somehow tie them together into one, easy to use local network. Thanks to a great router by Draytek and some clever tips from various forums, this turned out not to be very difficult at all. Here’s what I did.

First, get a second line

My primary connection is a DSL line, so I decided to get cable as a backup. A single telephone line can only be used by one provider at the same time, so I wouldn’t be able to get another DSL connection. But a more important reason is that even if you have two telephone lines, any failure in your local telephony network will probably still knock out both. By going for a completely separate infrastructure, I hope to avoid this.

Another option is to get a 3G USB modem. The Draytek router can use most of those as the backup connection, but since portability is not an issue for my home network I decided to go for a speedier cable backup.

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Apple today released the first public beta of Safari 4, which sports a redesigned interface that resembles Google’s Chrome, as well as support for all of the major Internet standards, and a large range of new and enhanced features. Among these new features are a reimagined start page with a speed-dial interface similar to what Opera and Chrome are currently offering, a Cover Flow-like interface for browsing your bookmarks and history, and the ability to perform a full-text history search of your bookmarks.

Overall, Safari 4 feels a lot like the love child of iTunes and Google Chrome. It takes some of the best UI elements of both and mashes them up in a browser that can now easily compete with Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – though, of course, it does lack the third-party developer ecosystem that has sprung up around Firefox.

Granted, most of the new features in Safari 4 are not exactly new, but, as Apple does so often, it exceeds at putting all of these features together in a very attractive package.

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