UniveRSS is a 3D RSS feed reader for Windows Vista. It leverages the Windows Presentation Foundation and provides a stunning way of visualizing RSS feeds and their content. It introduces a full-screen 3D universe where galaxies represent the folders of your RSS feed directory, and the stars are represented by the spinning cubes that hold the feed information. Size and position of the feed cubes indicate how many unread items they contain.

 
RSS feeds are represented as 3D cubes spinning in a universe.

You navigate through the feed galaxies in a game-like environment, freely moving in all three dimensions. Selecting items in lists will turn the cube to the next side displaying the item’s content including images. Just click the right mouse buttons and you turn back to the list view or to the galaxy.
UniveRSS is a showcase application that demonstrates the use of several WPF features, 3D animations, data binding, and data visualization. Currently UniveRSS uses the RSS Feed Store managed through Internet Explorer 7. Later versions will allow you to manage the Feed Store from within the UniveRSS application.
Please note: We expect RSS feeds to become visually more appealing in the future. Today a lot of feeds don’t provide any logo or feed picture yet. In such cases the cubes only display a generic feed icon. So make sure to use a list of feeds that provide logos to generate the best experience (e.g. most podcasts).

What do you need?

Since this is a WPF showcase using 3D models and animations, we strongly recommend to install UniveRSS on PCs ready for Windows Vista Premium. This includes PCs with the following specifications:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.

You will find the complete list of requirements here.

Road map - what comes next?

UniveRSS is an evolving showcase application which will continuously be developed and enhanced with new features. It will update itself through the ClickOnce deployment service. You will also find regular articles on the development and how to’s from a developer’s perspective. Updates will be announced through the MSDN Flash newsletter. By registering for the Panel website you will receive updates via MSDN Flash.
Over the next months you will see enhancements and additional features like:

• alternative ways to navigate in UniveRSS
• further customization features and RSS feed management information
• advanced search and sorting possibilities
• more-advanced physical animation model
• integration of Live services
• additional layouts
• and many more …

How is it done?

With the release of version 1.0 you will find documentation and descriptions on how UniveRSS was built.

Source: Microsoft

Via blogmaverick

I first saw this posted on the Pho List. A media related list that I have participated in for years with lots of smart people with great insights. THe posting, as you will read is fascinating and was originally posted anonymously. I emailed the list asking for permission to post it on my blog. In response, the “anonymous author”, who I respect and trust.
I cant say this has been fact checked. It hasnt. I cant say its 100 pct accurate, I dont know. But it rings true, and as I said, I trust the source
> I’m an experienced veteran in the digital media business and thought
> I’d share my version of events that happened at Youtube. Some of this
> is based on talks with people involved and some is speculation based
> on my experience working in the industry, negotiating settlements and
> battling in court.
>
> In the months preceding the sale of YouTube the complaints from
> copyright owners began to mount at a ferocious pace. Small content
> owners and big were lodging official takedown notices only to see
> their works almost immediately reappear. These issues had to be
> disclosed to the suitors who were sniffing around like Google but
> Yahoo was deep in the process as well. (News Corp inquired but since
> Myspace knew they were a big source of Youtube’s traffic they quickly
> choked on the 9 digit price tag.) While the search giants had serious
> interest, the suitors kept stumbling over the potential enormous
> copyright infringement claims that were mounting.
>
> Youtube knew they had an issue and had offered a straight revenue
> share deal if the complainants would call off the dogs and give them
> time. The media companies quickly rejected this path for two reasons.
> First off Youtube wasn’t making any money and was fuzzy about how they
> would generate revenue in the future. But more important the media
> companies view is that there was a mountain of past infringement that
> Youtube had engaged in and built their business on and they felt they
> deserved some of this accumulated value. And who could blame them. In
> spite of the media “user generated” puff pieces it was clear to all
> involved that they generated that content by hooking up their TV tuner
> cards to their PCs.
>
> It didn’t take a team of Harvard trained investment bankers to come up
> with the obvious solution and that is to set aside a portion of the
> buyout offer to deal with copyright issues. It’s not uncommon in
> transactions to have holdbacks to deal with liabilities and Youtube
> knew they had a big one. So the parties (including venture capital
> firm Sequoia Capital) agreed to earmark a portion of the purchase
> price to pay for settlements and/or hire attorneys to fight claims.
> Nearly 500 million of the 1.65 billion purchase price is not being
> disbursed to shareholders but instead held in escrow.
>
> While this seemed good on paper Google attorneys were still
> uncomfortable with the enormous possible legal claims and speculated
> that maybe even 500 million may not be enough - remember were talking
> about hundreds of thousands of possible copyright infringements.
> Youtube attorneys emphasized the DMCA safe harbor provisions and
> pointed to the 3 full timers dedicated to dealing with takedown
> notices, but couldn’t get G comfortable. Google wasn’t worried about
> the small guys, but the big guys were a significant impediment to a
> sale. They could swing settlement numbers widely in one direction or
> another. So the decision was made to negotiate settlements with some
> of the largest music and film companies. If they could get to a good
> place with these companies they could get confidence from attorneys
> and the ever important “fairness opinion” from the bankers involved
> that this was a sane purchase.
>
> Armed with this kitty of money Youtube approached the media companies
> with an open checkbook to buy peace. The media companies smelled a
> transaction when Youtube radically changed their initial ‘revenue
> sharing’ offer to one laden with cash. But even they didn’t predict
> Google would pay such an exorbitant amount for Youtube so when Youtube
> started talking in multiples of tens of millions of dollars the media
> companies believed this to be fair and would lock in a nice Q3/Q4.
> [Note to self: Buy calls on media companies just prior to Q3/Q4
> earnings calls.] The major labels got wind that their counterparts
> were in heated discussions so they used a now common trick a “most
> favored nation” clause to assure that if if a comparable company
> negotiated a better deal that they would also receive that benefit.
> It’s a clever ploy to avoid anti-trust issues and gives them the
> benefit of securing the best negotiating company. They negotiated
> about 50 million for each major media company to be paid from the
> Google buyout monies.
>
> The media companies had their typical challenges. Specifically, how to
> get money from Youtube without being required to give any to the
> talent (musicians and actors)? If monies were received as part of a
> license to Youtube then they would contractually obligated to share a
> substantial portion of the proceeds with others. For example most
> record label contracts call for artists to get 50% of all license
> deals. It was decided the media companies would receive an equity
> position as an investor in Youtube which Google would buy from them.
> This shelters all the up front monies from any royalty demands by
> allowing them to classify it as gains from an investment position. A
> few savvy agents might complain about receiving nothing and get a
> token amount, but most will be unaware of what transpired.
>
> Since everyone was reaching into Google’s wallet, the big G wants to
> make sure the Youtube purchase was a wise one. Youtube’s value is
> predicated on it’s traffic and market leadership which Google needs to
> keep. If they simply agreed to remove all unauthorized content and
> saddle the user experience with ads Youtube would quickly be a
> skeleton of its prior self. Users would quickly move to competing
> sites. The media companies had 50 million reasons to want to help.
> Google needed a two pronged strategy which you see unfolding now.
>
> The first request was a simple one and that was an agreement to look
> the other way for the next 6 months or so while copyright infringement
> continues to flourish. This standstill is cloaked in language about
> building tools to help manage the content and track royalties, some of
> which is true but also G knows that every day they can operate in the
> shadows of copyright law is another day that Youtube can grow. It
> should be noted that Google video is a capable Youtube competitor with
> the ONE big difference being a much more sincere effort to not post
> unauthorized works - and Google fully appreciates what a difference
> that makes. So you can continue to find movie clips, tv show segments
> and just about every music video on Youtube today.
>
> The second request was to pile some lawsuits on competitors to slow
> them down and lock in Youtube’s position. As Google looked at it they
> bought a 6 month exclusive on widespread video copyright infringement.
> Universal obliged and sued two capable Youtube clones Bolt and
> Grouper. This has several effects. First, it puts enormous pressure on
> all the other video sites to clamp down on the laissez-faire content
> posting that is prevalent. If Google is agreeing to remove
> unauthorized content they want the rest of the industry doing the same
> thing. Secondly it shuts off the flow of venture capital investments
> into video firms. Without capital these firms can’t build the data
> centers and pay for the bandwidth required for these upside down
> businesses.
>
> There are some interesting chapters yet to unfold. One is how much of
> this will become public. Google is required by the SEC to disclose
> material financial developments at their company. Working in Google’s
> advantage is their enormous market capitalization and revenues will
> give them considerable leeway to claim that a 50 million transaction
> is not significant to their business. If the other video sites have
> the wherewithal to put up a legal fight any decent attorney will
> demand access to Youtube acquisition documents. Expect a claim of
> collusion between Google and the media companies as a defense
> strategy.
>
> Infringement lawsuits will be served on Youtube and the new proud
> parent Google in the coming months. Google will respond with two
> paths: an expensive legal fight or a quick and easy settlement with
> most choosing the latter. Are there any larger copyright holders such
> as music publishers, movie studios, or unlicensed record label EMI
> that put up a fight rather than accepting the check? We’ll have to
> watch and find out.

****All I can say is Wow, those are some scary details. Now the $1.6 Billion seems to start to make sense, when you have to pay off so many players, it adds up pretty quick…*******

You can now download the Final Build of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP and Server 2003.

Get it from HERE

Welcome to “The HD DVD Insiders,” Microsoft’s new HD DVD blog. This is our forum for our passionate employees to talk  about the format, our VC-1 codec, and what we’re doing to provide consumers with the world’s best HD content.
Microsoft is involved with HD DVD in many ways, all of which we’ll discuss here. The two big areas  we contribute technology for are VC-1, the codec used in many HD titles, and HDi^TM, Microsoft’s implementation of the advanced interactivity specification for HD DVD.

• The VC-1 codec is being used to compress the video in the vast majority of HD DVD titles. VC-1 is the SMPTE [421M ]standard based on Microsoft’s Windows Media Video 9 technology. We work with the studios and authoring houses to enable the visually transparent compression quality to the master that’s become a hallmark of HD DVD titles.
  
• HDi^TM is Microsoft’s implementation of the HD DVD advanced interactivity layer. HDi^TM provides the  interactive menus, picture-in-picture commentaries, in movie experience and other features that make HD DVD not just better video and audio than DVD, but  a more compelling and immersive experience.
  
• Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player will be available this holiday. As we get closer to launch, we’ll discuss the product, its development, and the consumer experience here.

One of our secret weapons is that many of the people working on HD DVD were passionate home theater enthusiasts long before HD DVD was born. So we spend our days focused on providing the spectacular home theater experience that we also want for ourselves in the evening.
We hope this blog will help us pull the veil back a little, and give you some insight into the people and stories behind the making of a world class format and exciting content.

http://blogs.technet.com/hddvd/

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 18, 2006 — MSN today announced the U.S. beta release of Soapbox on MSN^® Video, a user-uploaded video service that makes it easy for people to express themselves by uploading, discovering and sharing personal videos with the Soapbox community and others around the world. Soapbox will be available on MSN Video and will be deeply integrated throughout Microsoft Corp.’s portfolio of online services, including Windows Live™ Spaces and Windows Live Messenger.

“Soapbox delivers on a critical component of the MSN growth strategy of deepening audience engagement by enabling people to participate in the content experience,” said Rob Bennett, general manager of Entertainment and Video Services for MSN. “By adding a user-uploaded video service, we are rounding out our existing investments in commercially produced and original content on MSN Video.”

Advanced Technology for Exceptional Performance

Soapbox on MSN Video utilizes powerful Web 2.0 technologies to provide a dynamic, fun and entertaining experience and offers these benefits:

Availability

The beta of Soapbox on MSN Video is available on an invitation-only basis in the U.S. Those interested in participating in the beta can sign up for the waiting list now at http://soapbox.msn.com. Access to the beta will expand over time by enabling existing beta testers to invite a limited number of friends. The beta of Soapbox on MSN Video is available to users of Microsoft^® Internet Explorer^® 6 or later running on Windows^® XP and Firefox 1.0.5 or later running on Windows XP or Macintosh OS X.

About MSN Video

MSN Video is one of the largest video-only streaming services on the Web, watched by more than 11 million unique users per month. In addition to streaming news, entertainment and sports video clips from more than 45 content partners including “Today,” FOX Sports, MSNBC, JibJab Media Inc. and Fox Entertainment Group, MSN Video presents a broad array of live events to online audiences worldwide. More than 50 top advertisers support MSN Video, which is available to consumers at no charge. MSN Video is available on the Web at c to consumers in the U.S. MSN Video is also live in Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.K., and in Spanish in the U.S.; the service also is in beta testing in France.

Overall, MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide.

Source: Microsoft Press Release

http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/

Just found this, a great interface, lots of storage space, tabbed messaging, built in RSS reader, etc.

This is on par or possibly better than the upcoming Outlook 2007 and I do not make that comment easily.

Ok, the ad supported interface is a little annoying. The ads are so BIG. But beyond that….

Source: In House

This is a very cool web based picture resizing tool.

I did 3 pictures top test it and they came out great.

You must try this.  ResizR

The time comes in the life of software when it must say goodbye, it boards a plane, and with sad music in its ears and tears in your eyes, you fly away to another time, another day. That is what Windows Live has done, after living in Beta for a while, it has boarded the plane and flown to another place and a new life. A place called Live. So its official, Windows Live has said goodbye to Beta. Microsoft’s Live services are now live (small ‘L”), believe it or not. Live search will also replace MSN search as the Microsoft search of choice. Anyone want to bet that MSN in its entirety won’t be around much longer, or will be rebranded? That would be my guess.

News Source: ArsTechnica

Wikipedia has a great information site about Windows Vista HERE

Digg Fights Top Users For Control

Some of the generals in Digg.com’s army of volunteer news readers are in revolt over new abuse controls that could undermine their influence on the site.

In an attempt to defend Digg from gaming and spam, founder Kevin Rose announced the site will be changing its algorithm for weighing and ranking stories.

Digg’s open news model — stories on the site are ranked on popularity among its users — has been criticized recently for being vulnerable to fraud or abuse.

Groups of users can bump news items to the top of the site’s front door by working together in a bloc, submitting and promoting (”digging”) stories together. To break up groups, Rose’s proposed changes will favor news items given positive votes by users who don’t know one another.

“This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story,” Rose posted on Digg’s blog. “Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn’t mean that the story won’t be promoted, it just means that a more diverse pool of individuals will be need to deem the story homepage-worthy.”

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71750-0.html?tw=wn_technology_1 for the rest of this story

***** I personally only visit digg.com a few times a week, or less. I have decided to add the Digg feed to the side of this blog and I may just visit more often, since they seem to be taking care of my only issue.*****