Facebook E-Mail? or Instant Chat? or Both?

Mark Zuckerberg has been working on a modern messaging system that will give people the choice of where and when they want any of their emails, sms, Facebook messages, or from what it seems any messaging source. I gather this would be huge if he pulls it off, as the 500 million people who are already Facebook users, will be using the site for all other forms of communication. AOL and Google have been scrambling to catch up to what Facebook has planned, but they will most likely fall short.

Read the full story here.

Windows Azure

Have you heard of it? Well I have more than a few times from an MVP at EPIC. Essentially Windows Azure is a new platform for running applications on a scalable, reliable hosting framework.

Over at the Microsoft Download Center, they have an Introduction to Windows Azure. The topics walk you through a high level overview of what Windows Azure is, they also have a hands on lab that will walk you through the process of creating a Windows Azure application in the environment.

Check it out! Over at Systinternals they have a webcast by Mark that introduces Windows Azure.

Windows Memory Management and Process Explorer

You think you know Task Manager, but do you really understand what is going on with all those numbers and columns? Over at Sysinternals Live you can watch Mark in an on-demand 2010 Professional Developer’s Conference.

Check it out Part 1 and Part 2.

Also if you have never checked out Process Explorer, it is considered a replacement for Task Manager the world over. Go here to see what it is all about.

Samsung Galaxy Tablet

Now here is something that i might actually get and use… aside from a BlackBerry Playbook

Samsung’s foray into the tablet market will definitely be a profitable one, based on the specs below and what I’ve read about it, I cannot wait to  get my paws on it. Here are the specs.

• Android 2.2 running TouchWiz 3.0
• 7-inch TFT LCD with 1024 x 600 resolution (WSVGA)
• Weighs 380 grams
• 1GHz Cortex A8 processor
• 16GB or 32GB internal storage
• microSD expansion for up to 32GB additional storage
• Front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and rear 3 megapixel camera with flash
• 4,000mAh battery
• 3G data / voice (there’s a speakerphone and Bluetooth for phone calls, but no earpiece)
• 5GHz dual-band 802.11n WiFi
• Standard back color is white, carriers might offer different colors
• Full HD video playback
• There’s a 30-pin dock connector on the bottom that allows for HDMI, USB, and docking accessories (a car dock at least is planned)

We will have to wait and see what the Android developers come up with, if they can push out some great apps for the Android, it just might steer some people away from the iPad or PlayBook.

-NS

vReference 4.1 card released

This was released last month, but i am pretty sure that most of my readers are not aware of this little gem. Here are some updates from the last revision for those who do keep up to date with vReference.com.

• Maximums to 4.1 levels
• Storage IO Control
• VM-Host affinity rules
• Network IO Control
• Load based teaming
• ESXi TSM
• ESXi Lockdown mode
• Other small updates to device support

He also has a great poster that you can print out and put up on your wall chalked full of VMware goodness!

Check out the new vReference card here and he poster can be downloaded here.

Download Speed in the IE9 Download Manager

Here is a short but sweet one, a lot of people have been asking me, “How to check the actual download speed of downloads using Internet Explorer 9″. I myself love watching download speeds, the more numbers flying around the better, kind of like instant gratification. Anyways onto the answer, just mouse over the percentage completed and your average download speed will be shown. The Microsoft forums are all a buzz over this, and I can assure you its a safe bet that we will have more information (download speed and time remaining, to name a couple)available to us in the future revisions of Internet Explorer 9.

If you havent downloaded IE9 yet, you really should, it functions quite well. Take it for a Test Drive!

-NS

VMware and Defragmentation

I am not just talking about defragmenting VMFS but the actual Virtual Machine virtual disks. Like real hard drives performance can suffer due to fragmentation. See the insert below from vmware.com

Defragmenting Virtual Disks

Like physical disk drives, virtual disks can become fragmented. Defragmenting disks rearranges files, programs, and unused space on the virtual disk so that programs run faster and files open more quickly. Defragmenting does not reclaim unused space on a virtual disk; to reclaim unused space, shrink the disk.

For best disk performance, follow these steps:

1. Run a disk defragmentation utility inside the virtual machine.

2. Power off the virtual machine, then defragment its virtual disks from the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings). Select the virtual disk you want to defragment, then click Defragment.

Note: This capability works only with virtual disks, not physical or plain disks.

3. Run a disk defragmentation utility on the host computer

Defragmenting disks may take considerable time.

Note: The defragmentation process requires free working space on the host computer’s disk. If your virtual disk is contained in a single file, for example, you need free space equal to the size of the virtual disk file. Other virtual disk configurations require less free space.

So be kind to your VM’s and defrag their virtual disks. I recommend defraggler, I know it sounds silly but it does quite a good job. Download it here.

-NS

View Client 4.5 and Internet Explorer 9 Beta

It just doesn’t work… no matter what the settings, there is something in IE9 includes an updated networking library that causes View Client to fail. You may get an error message or you may get nothing but a stuck view client, in which you need to use task manager and end the process. The process name is wswc.exe.

Read the full article here. People with Windows 7 SP1 Beta will suffer the same issues.

-NS

Image Resizer 2.1.1 Release

Hey eveyone, there is a new release of Image Resizer, v2.1.1 If you guys do not know what this is, its a clone of the Windows XP Power Toy, right click on a picture and resize, its that easy.

Release Notes

This is a clone of the Image Resizer Powertoy for Windows XP — a PowerToy that allows you to right-click on one or more image files in Windows Explorer to resize them. It was created (by me) to extend support to non-XP and 64-bit versions of Windows (including 2000, Vista & 7).

Version 2.1.1 of the Image Resizer adds some community-contributed features to the tool. This will be the last release of version 2.x. I am currently performing a major overhaul of the tool (see Image Resizer 3).

Download it here.

Can I cancel and Offline Defrag?