Bill Gates’ last full day at Microsoft - from CES 2008 January 9, 2008
Posted by kevinpaulmorris in CES, Microsoft, bill gates.add a comment
Surface Multi-Touch Tech Debuts with Dell XT/XPS ONE November 16, 2007
Posted by kevinpaulmorris in Dell, Michael Dell, Microsoft, project milan, surface.add a comment
A while back I posted about Microsoft’s “Project Milan”, or Microsoft Surface Technology. It seemed cool, but a little ways away from being used in the home.
Well, check out the following vid from Michael Dell’s speech at Oracle OpenWorld yesterday:
Microsoft to Acquire 5% Stake in Facebook September 24, 2007
Posted by kevinpaulmorris in Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft, Orkut, Parakey, Yahoo, YouTube, google.add a comment
Rumours are spreading today about the possibility of Microsoft acquiring a 5% stake in Facebook, for anywhere between $300 to $500 million.
If my math is correct, that values Facebook at anywhere up to $10 billion, although Mark Zuckerberg has shown signs of not budging for less than $15bn.
Remember when Yahoo made a run at Facebook for $1bn?
For anyone following Facebook over the last few months, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. After acquiring Parakey and hiring the former CFO at YouTube, it is clear that Facebook has been looking to make some big moves. Could this be it?
It is likely that this is a move from Microsoft which will play part in its larger plan to catch up with rival Google. This would be a key acquisition for either of the companies as they realize how important social networking has become to consumers, not to mention Microsoft’s attempt to dominate Web advertising (more than the already-existing Facebook/Microsoft deal that is set to expire in 2011).
While this is just a rumour, it will be interesting to see what happens. Google and Yahoo could make a comeback offer to Facebook, although Google has been pouring many of its efforts into its own social networking site Orkut (www.orkut.com)
Photosynth Technology Preview September 17, 2007
Posted by kevinpaulmorris in Microsoft, Photosynth, TED, milan, surface, technology.add a comment
New from Microsoft, a unique architecture allowing images to be put together in order to recreate a real space. Use the space bar to scan from image to image, use your scroll button to zoom; its incredible. Combined with Microsoft Surface Technology, or what has until now been labeled as “Project Milan”, there are some really unique applications; retail, navigation, education, ebooks…
Check out the beta version of Photosynth and play around with it! You can’t yet add your own photo collections, but you can play around with collections uploaded by Microsoft.
“In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor. A Photosynth experience begins with nothing more than a bunch of digital photos. They might all have been taken by one person, or they might be a mixture of images from many different cameras, shooting conditions, dates, times of day, resolutions, and so on.
Each dot represents an extracted feature
Each photo is processed by computer vision algorithms to extract hundreds of distinctive features, like the corner of a window frame or a door handle. Photos that share features are then linked together in a web. When the same feature is found in multiple images, its 3D position can be calculated. It’s similar to depth perception - what your brain does to perceive the 3D positions of things in your field of view based on their images in both of your eyes. Photosynth’s 3D model is just the cloud of points showing where those features are in space.”
Check out the initial unveiling of Photosynth at a recent TED conference:
