Windows Vista already has official release date

It will be January 30th, 2007 when the new operative system comes to the consumers hands, after five years of wait.

Joining the also newborn Internet Explorer 7, the new operative system includes improvements as a more powerful search of files system, the new version of Windows Media Player, or major quality graphs.

Though the big Microsoft clients will have the package on November 30th, the retail users will have to wait two more months to possess the new version.

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Download Windows Media Player 11

Download Windows Media Player 11

Windows Media Player 11 (definitive version), is already available to download. About the characteristics there is no much to say (there’s bookshop and online shop improvement). But what bring my attention are the very fresh and renewed design and the simple but elegant interface, which gives signs of what is going to be the next Windows Vista.

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CSS changes for IE7

The development team of Internet Explorer 7 have published a post indicating the “improvements” of the new browser. Useful improvements for the CSS design and that only work under the <! DOCTYPE> switch, this to preserve the compatibility with IE’s previous versions.

Between the changes, I find five essential ones:

  • Support of Min/max width/height (ideal for designs with images)
  • To show transparent PNG (alpha channel support)
  • To show: hover in all the elements (not only for links)
  • Fixed Position‘s Support (to support a fixed element in certain position)
  • Background-attachment (to support the background of any fixed element)

And also it is necessary to emphasize the improvement of the support to the <objet> tag (to show multimedia – videos elements).

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Download Internet Explorer 7

The final version or definitive version of Internet Explorer 7 is already available to download, right now only in English. Importantly: The requirement to be able to install the program is to use Windows XP Service Pack 2.

This version is practically similar to beta 2, no change or significant improvement:

  • We already commented the tab use, even when they cannot be reordered.
  • And they also announced that the safety has been improved, but already one has found vulnerability.

What I have noticed is that IE7 has a better speed performance, for what is advisable to download this official version or updated it.

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So you want to start an online business?

Follow these five golden rules, says Michael Parsons, and nothing can possibly go wrong

At this point even the most cynical will probably concede that this internet thing is going to be around for a while. For good or ill, the audience is moving online, which means the people who serve the audience have to move with them, whether they’re selling TV, baked beans, or words. This means a lot of change: The Daily Telegraph is even going to a specially designed, brand new round office in Victoria as part of its belated conversion to the importance of new media. I’m sure they will be absolutely fine, as long as they study my five basic principles for understanding online publishing.

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Google Earth may catch a break in patent quake

Google may get a break from a federal judge in a lawsuit claiming the company’s 3D Earth-mapping program violates patent rights.

In a preliminary order released last week, U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock in Massachusetts appeared to side with Google’s interpretations of the patent in question, a stance that could bode well for the search giant as the case moves on.
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Microsoft to bring Hotmail onto the desktop

Microsoft has started beta testing software that will take its Web e-mail onto the desktop.

This week, Microsoft served up the first test version of Windows Live Mail Desktop, a free Windows program that will let users manage multiple e-mail accounts. The software is designed to work with Windows Live Mail, the successor to Hotmail that is also in beta testing.
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Will virtual humans replace machines?

How many times have you been rebuffed by a machine, be it a vending machine swallowing your cash but keeping its soda, or a ticket machine refusing to give you a subway ticket in a foreign country? It happened to me, and I’m sure it happened to you too, and it’s very irritating. This is why German researchers are developing the concept of virtual humans to replace these annoying machines. These virtual humans, which will interact with you through speech and gestures could be used as ticket sellers, but also as teachers for students taking e-learning courses.

Several research institutions are working on this concept including the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD).

“The idea behind the virtual character is to design the human-computer interface as naturally as possible”, explains Christian Knöpfle, head of Virtual Reality at the IGD.

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