Microsoft Techfest - A Sneak Peak at What the Future has to Offer

[Mike Temporale]

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=msftresearch03&date=20050303

"Microsoft Techfest ...is designed to expose employees to projects being developed in Redmond and Microsoft laboratories around the world. Employees have a hard time following who is working on what in such a large company, and Techfest tries to connect some and inspire others. Chairman Bill Gates is expected to tour the event today and might even take in a lecture on such topics as "bridging the gap between science data and databases" or "impromptu communication." Reporters were allowed in yesterday, but Microsoft kept them away from all but a few inventions."



One of the projects that reporters got to see at Techfest was remote picture browsing using Windows Media Center and a Windows Mobile Smartphone. Bill also ran a demo of this in his keynote speech for ES earlier this year. This is one project that I am really interested in. Now that I have my Media Center all setup and I have remote record running. I want to browse my pictures without taking them all with me!

[Mike Temporale]

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=msftresearch03&date=20050303

"Microsoft Techfest ...is designed to expose employees to projects being developed in Redmond and Microsoft laboratories around the world. Employees have a hard time following who is working on what in such a large company, and Techfest tries to connect some and inspire others. Chairman Bill Gates is expected to tour the event today and might even take in a lecture on such topics as "bridging the gap between science data and databases" or "impromptu communication." Reporters were allowed in yesterday, but Microsoft kept them away from all but a few inventions."



One of the projects that reporters got to see at Techfest was remote picture browsing using Windows Media Center and a Windows Mobile Smartphone. Bill also ran a demo of this in his keynote speech for ES earlier this year. This is one project that I am really interested in. Now that I have my Media Center all setup and I have remote record running. I want to browse my pictures without taking them all with me!

[Kris Kumar]

Wow! Impressive stuff..

I like the one where Outlook automatically prioritizes mails from people I frequently exchange email with. And the one where they are trying to make the searches smarter, context wise, by knowing my likes and dislikes.

And of course the Harry Potterish clock that tells you where everyone in the family is. But can't MSN Messenger do that anyways. I know it requires you to be logged in on a computer, Pocket PC or Smartphone, it is low tech but works.