Windows 7 Beta available Friday 1/9

From WindowsTeamBlog.com:

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only (we’re not sending out physical media) and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta.

I’m super excited about this.  Like, compeltely ecstatic.  I’ve been talking up Win7 now for months to my friends and now we really get to show it off and have a ton of people try it.  Yes, I’m pimping out my work because I’m damn proud of it!

Most important, “Give Feedback”!  Everyone who uses Windows 7 will have the opportunity to give Microsoft feedback on pretty much everything. It’s the best way you can help Microsoft understand your experience with Windows 7. And, yes, we’re listening. :)  There’s an easy lil button for you to click that sends us your comments and thoughts and musings.  So, if you find bugs, report them!

For more information, see the Windows 7 page here (http://microsoft.com/windows7).  If you want to get it as soon as it comes out, there’s an RSS feed that will let you know as soon as the public Beta becomes available (feed here: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx).

Outlook in a Google World

I’m an Outlook user, at home and at work, and I have been for the last 10 years. It syncs with my phone, so all of my contacts stay up to date, as well as my notes, calendar, and email. I can use it with any account, including my Google GMail account.  However, times they are a change’n and I’m willing to let more of my data live in the Cloud.  How do I keep using Outlook and have all my data on my laptop and phone in sync in that world?

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Dell XPS M1330: unboxing

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Christmas came early this year in the form of a brand new Dell M1330 XPS laptop. Being a staunch IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad devotee, switching to a Dell is a big jump for me.  So far I’ve been nothing but impressed.  The build quality is superb, it runs Vista like a champ, and the battery life has been good despite having the smaller of the two battery options.  Most surprising is the minimal amount of bundled crapware installed when it came out of the box.

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