John at myITforum.com

I've been a little remiss with blog posts.  Several reasons why, namely it's been a crazy few days.  First, I forgot my cardinal rule for PDA's.  Vibrate drains the battery way beyond normal rates, so I should turn the volume off rather than vibrate.  I'm carrying two phones to blog and post photos, but then I notice there is no battery left.  Not a good thing.  Second, it's been an absolutely crazy couple of days. 

• I had to perform a little crowd control at the myITforum booth Monday night.  Once again, the line was long at the booth rushing to get the party pin, and folks just couldn't figure out why there were so many people, so they tried to cut to the front to see, and get the "prize".  They gave us all very strange looks when we said there was a line.  They tried everything (i.e. I just want to enter the raffle...hopefully you won't notice that I'll slip in right here and get a pin).  After the opening night, we all ended up over at Tao for dinner.  At least 20 people (I think 23 was final tally), but people just kept showing up.  Very late night.
• Tuesday morning started early and ended very, very late.  From the opening keynote to the last session, focus groups, and event hopping until the wee hours of the morning, just no time to blog. 
• Wednesday morning started early again, and I'm a little tired and it isn't even lunch time.  I've got notes from several sessions, just have had not time.  From my perspective, nothing really earth shattering in any of the announcements.  Brad alluded to several forth coming announcements in the keynote this morning, so sounds like it will be a busy next couple of months for System Center.
• Is it me or is the comedian a little um, well, as entertaining as he has been in the past?  I've been a little disappointed with the video's before the opening keynotes, particularly the "top seven" signs of a bad casino.  Not terrible, but they've been much better.  Maybe I'm tired.

Session summaries will be posted later today (I hope).  I see several are blogging the event and some of the sessions.  Pictures will go up later too.

Is the 3G Blackberry having issues?  Fortune is reporting it is:

Research in Motion (RIMM) is facing a delay with the introduction of its new hotly anticipated 3G BlackBerry phone for AT&T (ATT).

The release of the phone, apparently named Meteor, has been pushed to as late as August, from the planned June launch, say people close to the companies. The reason for the delay isn’t clear, but people close to the companies say AT&T had concerns about call quality.

Some of these people speculate however that AT&T may be using a tech glitch as an excuse to avoid having two competing 3G smartphones launch at the same time. Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone is expected to debut in June, and analysts have speculated that the release will likely coincide with the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone, which is June 27.

AT&T declined to comment. A RIM spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company does not discuss unannounced products or comment on “rumors and speculation.”

The delay of the new BlackBerry comes at a particularly sensitive time for RIM. As product cycles and phone fashions go, the current crop of BlackBerries - the Curve, the Pearl, etc. - are due for a refresh as demand slows. Among the big things expected from RIM was the first 3G version of BlackBerry, being called Meteor or the 8900. It is a black phone with a silver metal edge, curved corners and a flatter Qwerty keyboard than the namesake bumpy berry-skin keypad.

A new product delay from June to August would mean fewer phone shipments and lower subscriber growth than some may be expecting in the company’s fiscal second quarter ending Aug. 30.

I stopped down at Grand Lux cafe to see da king (you know who that is right???), and have already ran in to Paul G, Ron C, Brian T, Josh S, and Sherry K.  Sure doesn't take long for myITforumer's to find each other...particularly around da king...what a great thing...

Well, I'm here.  Is this Day 0, or is it really Day -1?  Labs are tomorrow, opening keynote is Tuesday.  So I guess depending on how you look at it, it can be either Day 0 or Day -1.  Flight was uneventful and I've already played a quick round of "Can You See Me".  Got here about an hour ago.  Look for as many blog posts as I can cram in for one week, as well as pictures (and of course, video's).  Yes, I plan on live blogging all the action and activities.  I've got my PDA's (as many as I could cram in my bag) fully charged and ready to go.  You saw the post...La Scena....heading over there in the next few...

Once again the Microsoft-Yahoo fandango dominates the quiz this week, but we also find time to dwell on the Webby Awards, smelly cell phones, and things Wal-Mart would rather you did not know. Correct answers are worth 10 points, and remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid quiz masters. Ready? Then get crackin'.

http://www.infoworld.com/tools/quiz/news/2008/04-11/news-quiz-1.php

So you think you're a good photographer?  Now's your chance to snap some photo's and take a shot at winning $10,000 and appear in National Geographic.  if you're one of the weekly winners, you'll win an LG phone.

http://www.viewtyfulworld.com/uk/

SanDisk has warned that IT managers are unaware of the extent to which unsecured flash drives are being brought into their organizations, backing this with a new study of corporate end-users and IT executives.

The study found that 77 percent corporate end-users surveyed have admitted to using personal flash drives for work-related purposes. However, when asked to estimate what percentage of the workforce uses personal flash drives, corporate IT respondents said only 35 percent.

Users meanwhile admitted that data files most likely to be copied to a personal flash drives includes customer records (25 percent), financial information (17 percent), business plans (15 percent), employee records (13 percent), marketing plans (13 percent), intellectual property (6 percent), and source code (6 percent).

The survey highlights that due to the highly portable nature of USB flash drives, they represent a significant risk of data loss for enterprises. Approximately one in ten (12 percent) of corporate end users reported finding a flash drive in a public place. Additionally, when asked to pick the three most likely actions they would take if they found a flash drive in a public place, 55 percent indicated they would view the data.

SanDisk meanwhile hopes to give IT managers a fighting chance of controlling the usage of flash drives in organizations, and earlier this week unveiled a new version of its CMC (Central Management & Control) software used to manage its Cruzer Enterprise USB flash drives.

Source

Microsoft on Thursday plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams.

The new service’s software technology, called Clearflow, was developed over the last five years by a group of artificial-intelligence researchers at the company’s Microsoft Research laboratories. It is an ambitious attempt to apply machine-learning techniques to the problem of traffic congestion. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets.

The Clearflow system will be freely available as part of the company’s Live.com site (maps.live.com) for 72 cities in the United States. Microsoft says it will give drivers alternative route information that is more accurate and attuned to current traffic patterns on both freeways and side streets.

A system for driving directions that Microsoft introduced last fall was limited, because without Clearflow there was no information available about traffic conditions on city streets adjacent to the highways. Because the system assumed that those routes would be clear, drivers were on occasion sent into areas that were more congested than the freeways.

The new service will on occasion plan routes that might not be intuitive to a driver. For example, in some cases Clearflow will compute that a trip will be faster if a driver stays on a crowded highway, rather than taking a detour, because side streets are even more backed up by cars that have fled the original traffic jam.

Source

AT&T plans to invest $200 million in Texas during 2008 to boost its wireless network there. This will bring AT&T's three-year investment in the state to more than $700 million.

AT&T plans to add 102 new cell sites as part of the 2008 wireless network investment. Besides this it will roll out its higher-speed wireless network in additional communities throughout the state. Many of the improvements will benefit Texans who live and work in rural areas.

"Our goal is to ensure that AT&T customers have the very best wireless experience possible, and that includes providing unmatched coverage, quality of service, competitive calling plans and innovative wireless devices," said Adam Vital, vice president and general manager of AT&T's wireless unit in North Texas, in a statement.

Vital continued: "This year's investment will increase coverage in the places our customers live and work, and the planned expansion of our 3G network will allow more customers to enjoy increased data and video speeds while they are on the go."

Windows Mobile 6.1 was just announced at CTIA. A bunch of us got together to record a video demoing most of the new features in Windows Mobile 6.1. Check out this 40-minute video that shows:

• Cool devices, including the T-Mobile Shadow, HTC Tilt, Pantech Duo, Moto Q9
• The new Sliding Panel home screen (aka "Bronze")
• All new home screen plugins
• Threaded SMS
• Copy & Paste support for non-touch devices
• New Task Manager
• Clock & Alarms
• Windows Live and Live Search Mobile
• and more...

This is a long video but it shows several features in great detail that you may not see elsewhere. Also note, there are other improvements in Windows Mobile 6.1 that we don't cover in this video, including IEMobile's new Zoom feature and integration with SCMDM 2008.

-Mel Sampat

Video

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

Paint.NET v3.30 Released: April 10th, 2008

This release adds an Italian translation, a new "Fragment Blur" effect, and the ability to save PNG images at 8- and 24-bit color depths. For developers, the IndirectUI system has some new controls, some new constraint rules, and can now be used for file type plugins.

• New: Italian translation.
• New: Ability to save PNG's at 8- and 24-bit color depths.
• New: Ability to save BMP's at 8-bit color depth.
• New: "Auto-detect" bit-depth option for PNG, BMP, and TGA file types. It will analyze the image and determine the lowest bit-depth that can still save the image without quality loss.
• New: "Fragment" blur effect, by Ed Harvey

Download