kdmurray.blog

The crossroads of life and tech

Microsoft joins the Free Software Revolution

This week, Microsoft announced that the Express editions of it’s popular Visual Stuido line of development tools would be made avalable free of charge and free of royalties from now on.  This is great news for starting developers, hobbyists and enthusiasts who up until this point had to pay for the privilege of developing in these technologies.

The Express editions are scaled-back versions of Microsoft’s Visual Studio line.  They include an IDE and compiler for building:

Look for more great things to come from free and open-source software developers around the world now that these technologies are more widely available.

More detailed information on this can be found in ScottGu’s blog.

PC Anywhere? Try TV Anywhere!

SlingBox is a device which hooks up to your TV and your Internet connection and allows you to watch TV — or interface with your PVR – from the Internet!  Now you can catch the local news from your home in Vancouver on your EvDO-enabled cell phone while you’re on your way to a meeting in Boston.

The only real “catch” is that the product only allows a single connection over the Internet to make use of the TV signal (aparently this has something to do with re-broadcasting regulations).

The article on Engadget has several interesting replies that raise some curious technological questions:

[1] If it catches on, will it wreak havoc with Uplink speeds on broadband Internet connections?

[2] Will technologies like this become the next “TiVO” and be bought-out by multi-million dollar corporations?

[3] Why do people pay no attention to the content of an article and then ask questions about it: “Will this work from my house if I hook one up to my parents’ house in another state?” — Well, the thing works over the Internet so as long as your parents aren’t using dial-up you should be OK.  grr…

Either way, looks like a cool gadget, and from all reports that I’ve read (and heard first-hand), works like a charm.  Currently retailing for about $200 USD.