BufferOverrun: Brian Johnson

Engadget posted a photo tour of the Zune offices. Check it out:

Zune headquarters mini-tour - Engadget

Ever wonder where Zunes are designed? Well, right now it's all done in a fairly non-descript and temporary office building on Microsoft's sprawling campus in Redmond.

NYT coverage of a new contest from Microsoft. 

Your Chance to Finish a Movie Microsoft Started - New York Times

The contest, which is to begin on Thursday, is called the Ultimate Video Relay and has its own Web site (ultimatevideorelay.com), a spinoff of the Windows Vista Ultimate Web site (ultimatepc.com). The relay reference comes from the invitation to computer users to complete a story titled “The Cube” in several stages. The tale, a humorous cross between “The Matrix” and “The Office” (or “Office Space”) begins with a six-minute clip that can be watched on the relay Web site. The clip is directed by Kyle Newman, the director of “Fanboys,” a coming movie about “Star Wars” aficionados.

Photosynth was on CSI last week and I'm so mad that I forgot to record it in HD. Check it out.  Photosynth is one of my favorite Microsoft projects and I can't wait to see where this goes.

 Last week we were at the State History Fair in Tallahassee. Will made it to state with his paper on the causes of World War II. The photos I took are here.

I love this photo. If he does become a lawyer, I can say I knew it all along. :)

Future lawyer?

For those interested in such nonsense, we posted a new podcast yesterday on Channel 10. Check it out here and leave a comment on the podcast page.

JD, Nic, and Brian Podcast - Episode 6 | Brian Johnson | Channel 10

In another exciting episode of the podcast named for JD Lewin, JD, Nic, and Brian talk about Windows Vista, Live Mesh, stuff we saw on the Web, JD's sleeping habits, and the popular Asus EEE PC.

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm going to this afternoon. Check it out here:

speech @ microsoft : Windows Speech Recognition Macros is now available!!

The Windows Speech Recognition Macros tool (aka WSRMacros) extends the usefulness of the speech recognition capabilities already included in Windows Vista. Users can now create powerful macros that are triggered by spoken commands. These macros can perform a single task, or a series of tasks. Macros can be as simple as inserting your mailing address to as complex as providing a completely different speech interaction utilizing a number of built in capabilities or utilizing custom JScript/VBScript actions.

I thought this was sort of cool...

Microsoft picked for Democratic convention

Software giant Microsoft Corp. will be the official software and HD web content provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) made the announcement Monday. The convention will be held Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

"Microsoft's standing as an industry leader in software development makes them an ideal partner for the DNCC," said Leah Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC.

If you're in the New Jersey area this weekend, check out the Trenton Computer Festival. I'm going to be giving two talks there on Saturday, one on Microsoft Robotics and one on Windows Media Center. Should be a lot of fun.

Trenton Computer Festival

EWING, NJ ... The world's oldest and largest personal computer show will once again take place this spring at The College of New Jersey.

The oldest and largest personal computer show and sale in the world is again scheduled at The College of New Jersey on Saturday, April 26th and Sunday, April 27th with an IT (Information Technology) Professional Conference on Friday, April 25th and continuing on April 26th.

This year's festival will focus on "Hands-on Experiences". Many of the speakers and special presentations on the main exhibition floor will involve visitors in hands-on activities. Visitors will experience the latest in computers and consumer electronics technology - digital cameras, video, HD TV, VoIP, MP3 and much more... National exhibitors will demonstrate their most recent products. Attend at no extra cost numerous talks, workshops, tutorials, hands-on robot contests, computer merit badge sessions, applications sessions and poster sessions. Personal computing/electronics fans can find plenty of bargains on new and used hardware and software.

One of the interesting things I saw at the MS Research TechFest last month was SearchTogether. SearchTogether is an Internet Explorer plug-in that lets groups of people collaborate on web searches.

There's a forum here:

http://community.research.microsoft.com/forums/88.aspx

Check it out via the link below:

SearchTogether

I love learning system internals and my recent trip back to Redmond to talk to MVP's and members of different teams gave me a desire to share my favorite internals resources for Windows. This list is just a start (in no particular order), but if you dig deep into the stuff that's in it, you'll come away with a great understanding of what's going on with the operating system.  I'll keep the Listas list updated here.

Listas - Brianjo's List: Become a Windows Expert

Windows Vista Resource Kit

Windows Internals

Windows SysInternals - Tools for Windows by Mark Russinovich

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

Windows Vista Community

Windows Vista TechCenter

Windows Vista Technical Library