Digital Life

You may received this:

Windows Live(TM) Messenger Service Staff says:
*Important service announcement: As part of a recent system enhancement, we need you to change your e-mail address to continue signing in to the Windows Live(TM) Messenger Service.

To ensure that your access is not blocked and to learn more, go to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/Messenger/en *

 This is a wrong notification by Windows Live stuff.  If you received this notification , please ignore it. 

Refer to: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!37886.entry

Bumptop for Windows 7 Touchscreen PCs is a 3D desktop organizer that helps you to pile your files along with advanced search and sort capabilities . You can flip through websites, toss your photos up to Twitter or Facebook right from your desktop to share it with your friends or personalize your desktop with custom themes, sticky notes and photo slideshows & pan/zoom images.

Frequently-used files actually appear larger and heavier than lesser-used ones, becoming visually more important. You can also pin up photo frames on the BumpTop walls, cycling through the latest photos from Flickr, Picasa or other photo RSS feeds.

Bumptop is free to download and works even with mouse. Pro version of Bumptop is available at US$29 and offers you additional features as unlimited sticky notes, more piling features and tossing files into USB keys.

Watch the video demonstration below to see Bumptop in action

Windows 7 users can now change their logon screen background. But in order to customize the logon screen, users had to hack the registry and create a new directory for background images. This feature looks like it is probably designed for OEMs where they can put their own logon screen background.

Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic editions do have the options to change the logon screen background but nothing more than choosing Windows default or OEM background

And here is what you get when you choose to change your Welcome Screen

If you do want customize your logon screen backgrounds in Windows 7 and searching for an easier tool than the registry hacks, then look no further than the Tweaks Logon Changer. Tweaks Logon Changer enables you to change your logon screen backgrounds more easily.

Run the Tweeks Logon Changer and select your locally stored custom image, preview the new logon background screen, apply the new logon screen or revert back to the default logon screen.

If your image size is greater than 256k, the Tweaks Logon Changer compresses the image and sets the new logon screen leaving the original image unaltered

The California woman suing Microsoft Corp. over Windows Vista’s downgrade rights revised her lawsuit Thursday to focus her charges on the requirement that users buy the most expensive versions of Vista if they want to replace that OS with Windows XP.

Originally filed Feb. 11 in a Seattle federal court by Los Angeles resident Emma Alvarado, the lawsuit was re-submitted Thursday. In the amended complaint, Alvarado repeated her charges that Microsoft violated Washington state’s unfair business practices and consumer protection laws by restricting computer makers’ ability to offer XP on new PCs after Vista’s early-2007 launch.

“Downgrade” describes the Windows licensing rights that allow users in some circumstances to replace newer versions of Windows with an older edition without having to pay for another license. In effect, the license for the newer Windows is transferred to the older edition.

The revised lawsuit spells out in much greater detail how Microsoft allegedly profits from its Vista downgrade practices. In particular, the complaint now highlights the rules that limit downgrades to Windows XP Professional, and then, only from PCs that have Vista Business or Vista Ultimate pre-installed.

“Although many consumers would prefer to purchase a new PC pre-installed with the Windows XP operating system or at least not pre-installed with the Vista operating system, Microsoft has used its market power to take advantage of consumer demand for the Windows XP operating system by requiring consumers to purchase a PC that includes a license for the use of the Vista operating system and to pay money (as part of the overall purchase price of the PC) to downgrade to the Windows XP Professional operating system,” the suit stated.

“To make matters worse, Microsoft requires consumers to purchase a PC that includes a license to either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate — versions of the Vista operating system that: (a) are premium, more expensive versions of the home versions of the Vista operating system, and (b) include specialized applications that are neither needed nor wanted by an ordinary consumer seeking to purchase a PC primarily for personal, non-business use,” the filing continued.

The suit also noted that Windows XP Professional, the only version of that line that users are allowed to downgrade to, is a premium edition with a higher price tag.

Alvarado claimed that Microsoft dreamed up those rules to boost Vista sales figures and profits.

“Microsoft appears to have conceived and implemented the ‘right’ for consumers to ‘downgrade’ to the Windows XP Professional operating system in order to: (a) maintain and/or inflate its sales figures for the Vista operating systems (particularly the Vista Business and Vista Ultimate versions … and (b) recoup its substantial investment in the development and production of the Vista operating system by forcing consumers to purchase the premium, more expensive versions of the Vista operating system (Vista Business or Vista Ultimate) in order to ‘downgrade’ to the Windows XP operating system,” the lawsuit read.

She also accused Microsoft of gouging consumers with its downgrade practices. “Prior to permitting the consumer to ‘downgrade’ to Windows XP Professional, Microsoft first mandates that the consumer ‘upgrade’ from Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium to either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate — thereby forcing the consumer to incur an unnecessary expense of US$130, perhaps more or less, depending on the retail outlet, and creating revenue for Microsoft in the same amount,” her revised lawsuit said.

The $130 figure cited by Alvarado was the same as noted by Dell Inc. last year when it responded to reports that it was charging customers $150 to downgrade a new computer to XP. Dell countered that while it did charge $20 to install XP on the machine and cover the cost of the additional media, $130 was the price of upgrading the PC from the standard Home Premium to the more expensive Business edition.

“Microsoft mandates that customers who want to downgrade to XP must purchase the license to Vista Business or Vista Ultimate,” said Dell spokesman David Frink last December. “[That's] typically about a $130 premium, though some retail outlets charge more.”

When Alvarado’s suit was first filed last month, Microsoft denied it made money on downgrades.

“Microsoft does not charge or receive any additional royalty if a customer exercises those [downgrade] rights,” said Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster in a February e-mail.

Bowermaster repeated that today. “Microsoft does not charge for downgrades,” he said in an e-mail Friday. “Some Windows Vista licenses, including Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, include downgrade rights to various versions of Windows XP. If a customer exercises those rights, Microsoft does not charge or receive any additional royalty.”

Alvarado is seeking compensatory damages and wants the case granted class-action status.

A just-leaked build of Windows 7 lets users remove Internet Explorer (IE), the first time that Microsoft Corp. has offered the option since it integrated the browser with Windows in 1997, two bloggers reported Wednesday.

The move might have been prompted by recent charges by the European Union that Microsoft has stifled browser competition by bundling IE with its operating system, the bloggers speculated.

According to postings on Chris’ Repository of Knowledge and AeroXperience, the 7048 build of Windows 7 — a version that has not been released to the public but is available as a pirated copy on file-sharing sites — includes an option to eliminate Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).

Both blogs posted a screenshot of Windows 7’s “Windows Features” dialog box, which included an option to turn off IE8. “There is a catch: For now, this only seems to wipe the actual executable running Internet Explorer 8 (iexplore.exe),” said Bryant Zadegan in an entry on AeroXperience.

“This might’ve been the only way to do it without killing the rest of Windows,” Zadegan noted. “In addition, this actually takes two reboots and a configuration step to complete, so there’s definitely something going on behind the scenes, likely a remapping of where IE-related functions can be found for other elements in Windows so that Windows doesn’t complain about IE’s nonexistence.”

On Chris’ Repository, Chris Holmes chimed in with more information. “All references to IE are removed from the OS,” Holmes said.

Both Zadegan and Holmes, who collaborated on digging up the new option, also posted Windows 7 screenshots that showed the operating system sans IE: Microsoft’s browser was absent from the “Set Program Defaults” choices.

Windows 7 Build 7048 first began appearing on file-sharing sites, such as The Pirate Bay and Mininova, two BitTorrent tracking sites, on Monday. Traffic has been substantial since then, with Mininova reporting more than 21,000 downloads of the pirated operating system.

Microsoft has only released one build to the public — Windows 7 beta, build 7000 — which it rolled out Jan. 10 but has since stopped offering. The company has been mum, however, about when it will deliver another build to users, though it has hinted that it would do so when it wrapped up a “release candidate.”

Zadegan and Holmes each mentioned the accusations made last month by EU antitrust officials against Microsoft’s bundling of IE, and the possible actions it may demand. One solution under consideration would require Microsoft to disable IE if the user decided to install a different browser, such as Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox or Google Inc.’s Chrome.

“A quick solution to the EU’s argument against them?” asked Holmes. “Time will tell.”

Microsoft had no comment when asked to confirm whether Windows 7 will let users dump IE8 or whether the option was in reaction to the EU charges.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) finally granted 3G licenses to the country’s mobile operators on Wednesday, bringing to a close years of waiting and delay.

There were no surprises contained in the MIIT announcement (in Chinese) that three licenses were issued for 3G services.

As expected, the country’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile Communications, received a license to operate services using TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), a standard that’s unique to China and largely unproven. TD-SCDMA has been a focal point of Chinese telecommunications research and development, and 3G licenses were pushed back repeatedly in recent years as companies scrambled to get the technology ready for commercial deployment.

The two smaller mobile operators were given licenses for established 3G standards that are used more widely around the world. China Telecommunications (China Telecom) was awarded a license for CDMA2000 EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized), while China United Telecommunications (China Unicom) received a license to offer WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) services — the most widely used 3G standard, with hundreds of millions of users around the world.

While China Unicom and China Telecom may appear to have an advantage by using established 3G standards for their services, MIIT’s announcement made it clear that the success of China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA service will remain a priority for the government.

“The development of TD-SCDMA holds an important position in the development of 3G. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other related departments are developing policies to support the development of TD-SCDMA,” the MIIT announcement said.

“There has been much talk about EV-DO and WCDMA being more established and widespread 3G technologies than TD-SCDMA, but we don’t believe this is much of an advantage for China Telecom and China Unicom,” wrote Ovum analysts Charice Wang and Raymond Yu in a statement.

They said the Chinese market is large enough to support the development of a third 3G standard, and said the technology has “immense government backing.”

“It is not a matter of ‘if’ TD-SCDMA will succeed, but a matter of when,” they said.

SAP wants Oracle to reveal profit-margin information for JD Edwards and PeopleSoft software and support, according to a joint discovery statement filed this week in connection with Oracle’s lawsuit against SAP.

In quarterly earnings reports, software vendors regularly trumpet statistics such as growth in earnings per share or the increase in revenue for general software categories, such as databases. But it is far from typical for companies to detail their profit margins for specific software product lines.

If such information were in the public domain, it could put Oracle at a disadvantage in negotiating with customers and provide “useful ammo” for its competitors, particularly Salesforce.com, said 451 Group analyst China Martens.

Oracle sued SAP in March 2007 for copyright infringement and other alleged violations, charging that workers at SAP’s now-shuttered subsidiary TomorrowNow, a provider of third-party support for Oracle’s PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications, had illegally downloaded material from Oracle’s support systems and used them to court Oracle customers.

Meanwhile, SAP has said that TomorrowNow staff members were authorized to download materials from Oracle’s site on behalf of TomorrowNow customers, but acknowledged that some “inappropriate downloads” had occurred. However, SAP has also said that Oracle’s software remained in TomorrowNow’s systems and has strongly rejected Oracle’s claims of a broader pattern of wrongdoing.

Oracle has said its damages could top US$1 billion, but has not yet provided a specific figure.

SAP, meanwhile, states in the discovery document filed Monday that the information is “relevant to the calculation of Oracle’s alleged damages.”

“Under the Copyright Act, actual damages represent the injury to the market value of the copyrighted work at the time of infringement. In appropriate circumstances, this amount may be computed by determining the profits that would have accrued to plaintiff but for the infringement,” it adds.

However, during discovery Oracle “has taken the position that it is unable to determine its profit margins on the two product lines that are at the center of this case,” the filing adds. Oracle has refused to provide financial information to allow SAP to determine or make a “reasonable estimate of” its profits on the product lines, according to the filing. So, SAP wants the court to order Oracle to provide the “financial data necessary to attempt to determine Oracle’s actual profit margins for the PeopleSoft and JDE products and support services.”

SAP’s motion comes some weeks before a settlement conference scheduled for Feb. 23. A judge has ordered both parties to turn in proposals for settlement that include specific dollar figures prior to the conference.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined comment on Wednesday.

“This filing speaks for itself and this is a normal part of the discovery process,” SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie said of the company’s request for the profit margin information.

SAP is not interested in dragging out the suit, he added. “We have always said that we would like this case to be resolved.”

Amid growing fears that many countries face a long and painful economic recession, Lenovo plans to lay off 2,500 workers, cut the salaries of its executives and restructure its Asian operations in an attempt to weather the downturn, the company said Thursday.

Lenovo will take a US$150 million restructuring charge, the majority of which will be taken during the current quarter, as a result of these changes. Looking ahead, the company hopes to save US$300 million during its upcoming 2009/2010 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2010.

The layoffs, described as part of a “resource redeployment plan,” represent 11 percent of Lenovo’s global workforce, and the employees will be let go during the first quarter of 2009, the company said. It did not say where the layoffs will take place or whether they would be spread evenly across all of the regions where the company operates.

Lenovo will also cut the pay of managers by 30 percent to 50 percent, including bonuses, and wants to rein in spending on expenses and other functions, such as human resources, finance and marketing, it said.

The company also plans to combine its operations in Asia-Pacific and Russia under the lead of Chen Shaopeng, who currently heads Lenovo’s China operations. The new region headed by Chen, to be called Asia-Pacific and Russia, bucks a recent trend of companies elevating China’s role as a single market of global importance. But Lenovo said forming the new region will lower operating expenses by combining support and other functions.

As a result of these changes, the current head of Lenovo’s Asia-Pacific operations, Senior Vice President David Miller, will leave the company after the restructuring is complete.

Scott DiValerio, senior vice president and president of Lenovo’s Americas Group, is also leaving the company. The Americas Group will be led by Rory Read, Lenovo’s senior vice president of operations, the company said.

Between my computer and my iPhone, I use Google Maps to find just about everything these days. Still, I never thought about using it to find buried treasure — but Nathan Smith did.

The 39-year-old musician supposedly used Google Maps to help find a buried treasure along the Texas Gulf coast, according to the Houston Chronicle. That’s what he said yesterday to the court that is investigating his claim to the find, which may include a boat lost in 1822 during a hurricane that was filled with silver and gold.

That, in and of itself would be a great story, but that’s hardly the most interesting part. First of all, Smith, who also makes documentaries about conspiracy theories surround the terrorist attacks of 9/11, says he hasn’t made a profit from his artistic endeavors since 1990. Instead, he looks for investors to fund his treasure hunting, which in turn fund his life as an artist.

Second, he got the idea to become a treasure hunter after seeing the movie National Treasure.

Third, Smith says that half of the crew died in the shipwreck, while the other half were eaten by the local cannibal tribe.

Fourth, Smith estimates that there is $3 billion in buried treasure in the spot that he’s trying to claim.

I bet you didn’t think finding a buried treasure on Google Maps would be the normal part of the story. But something tells me Smith is just trying to get the plot optioned for National Treasure 3.

Netflix sure seems thrilled about the quality of Microsoft’s Silverlight. In fact it is so happy with Silverlight over Windows Media Player that it has fired 50 support specialists. The company has decided to go with Silverlight in their movie playing and streaming business while giving up Windows Media Player.

That’s a mighty move from Netflix. In the battle of the giants, it has chosen Silverlight over Adobe Flash.

A Netflix representative said:

Silverlight makes it easier to connect to watching on the PC and Mac. There isn’t the need for highly specialized technical folk.