http://www.digwin.com/cat/General/hot Microsoft Top news, Buzz & Breaking Stories by communities en http://www.digwin.com/evaluating-recommender-systems Recommender systems are now popular both commercially and in the research community, where many approaches have been suggested for providing recommendations. In many cases a system designer that wishes to employ a recommendation system must choose between a set of candidate approaches. A first step towards selecting an appropriate algorithm is to http://www.digwin.com/action-prediction-and-identification-from-mining-temporal-user-behavior Predicting user's action provides many monetization opportunities to web service providers. If a user's future action can be predicted and identified correctly in time or in advance, we can not only satisfy user's current need, but also facilitate and simplify user's future online activities. Traditional works on user behavior modeling such as http://www.digwin.com/microsoft-chief-research-and-strategy-officer-craig-mundie-shared-vision-for-future-of-com Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft delivered a lecture titled Rethinking Computing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong on Nov. 16. http://www.digwin.com/the-use-of-assertions A new study from Microsoft Research shows the power of seeding your code with assertions. http://www.digwin.com/bendable-magnetic-interface A sensing surface developed by Microsoft researchers offers new ways to use computers. http://www.digwin.com/ortc-sample-code We provide sample code implementing the algorithm described in our 1999 paper “Optimal Compression of IP Routing Tables.” This is a single C file: no binary, installation kit, nor documentation. http://www.digwin.com/startup-of-the-day-the-real-estate-network The BizSpark startup of the day is The Real Estate Network, based in Romania. They provide business networking and specialized tools for real estate professionals. Tell us who you are and your role in the company. Co-founder and Director of Product Development; Im responsible for developing the products that automate the business workflows, for http://www.digwin.com/mvps-release-windows-7-resource-kit   The Windows 7 Resource Kit is now available from Microsoft Press. This 1700 page book and CD was authored by three MVPs Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup and Jerry Honeycutt, and also by Ed Wilson who is commonly known as The Scripting Guy on Microsoft TechNet. The lead author Mitch Tulloch also maintains an Unofficial Support Site for the W http://www.digwin.com/mvp-releases-windows-live-essentials-services-book with Marcus Schmidt recently released a new book entitled Windows Live Essentials and Services: Using Free Microsoft Applications for Windows 7. The book is a full-colour, step-by-step guide for using Microsoft's new series of free applications. Step-by-step instructions show you how to use not only these applications, but also associated Windows http://www.digwin.com/project-2010-and-project-server-2010-the-beta-is-out-some-early-issues-people-are-se If this is the first you have heard of the Beta (Where have you been? Can I come next time?) then take a look at for the links to Project and for great links to the new developer stuff (Great work Jim!). A couple of early issues or regular questions are: No, 2010 can only talk to 2010 Server. You can however still use 2007 against an upgraded (2007 http://www.digwin.com/project-2007-and-2010-a-new-blog-on-the-block-but-familiar-authors If you havent seen the other announcements of the brand new Project Administration then take a look over at and add a link to your browser favorites or RSS reader. Treb Gatte will be the primary blogger, but some of the kind of postings that have come from me and will in the future be posted via the Project Admin site. Ill be keeping my usual http://www.digwin.com/a-great-deal-for-college-students-on-office-2008-for-mac While economists have declared the in the U.S., we still live in challenging times, and its truer than ever that an education is the best first step to future success. At the MacBU, were committed to helping students achieve their goals, and still have enough money to pay for books, tuition and other realities of college life. With that in mind, http://www.digwin.com/jiwires-ads-for-access-program-free-wifi-in-hotels-and-airports-for-bing-users Microsoft is launching a new campaign with JiWire to provide free Wi-Fi access throughout airports and hotels in exchange for searching on Bing. The deal is the latest in an ongoing strategic push to further encourage new users to test the decision engine. Monday, the campaign "is based on the premise that once people experience Bing first-hand http://www.digwin.com/scaling-up-innovation The Microsoft UK Education team has a dozen people in it (surprised?) who are focused full-time on education across schools, colleges and universities. Which means that were awfully busy and spread across many, many things all the time. But fortunately we have the help of other similar teams around the world, and a much bigger team in our offices http://www.digwin.com/partnering-to-enable-european-citizens-to-monitor-climate-change Posted by John Vassallo Vice President, EU Affairs Earlier this week Microsoft joined with the European Environment Agency to launch a compelling example of how Microsoft’s cloud computing technology can be a real ‘change maker’ in the fight against climate...(read more) http://www.digwin.com/microsoft-shareholders-vote-on-sayonpay-other-measures Over the last few months Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and I have blogged about our Board of Directors consideration of Say-on-Pay proposals that enable shareholders to weigh-in on our executive compensation practices. As we shared in September, our Board approved a policy that enables Microsoft shareholders to cast a non-binding, advisory http://www.digwin.com/php-developers-get-more-choices-with-windows-azure-bing-and-sql-azure Today I presented a session at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York called Cloud Computing with Windows Azure Using Your Preferred Technology Windows Azure platform AppFabric SDK for PHP , which enables PHP developers to connect applications via the cloud more easily using the AppFabric Service Bus & Access Control. Bing 404 Web Page Error Toolkit for PHP http://www.digwin.com/apache-stonehenge-demoed-at-pdc09 . We reported the progress made on the Stonehenge project and presented the roadmap. is to provide a public forum to test the interoperability of WS-* protocols on different vendor stacks and to build sample applications that could provide best practices and coding guidelines for better interoperability. The main sample application, StockTrader has http://www.digwin.com/sacramento-municipal-utility-district-and-xcel-energy-customers-now-able-to-manage-home-en The Microsoft Hohm team continues rolling out its online energy management software with power utilities in North America. Today, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) customers in the California area will be able to better understand and change their energy consumption habits and receive personalized energy conservation recommendations from http://www.digwin.com/how-microsoft-it-enables-information-security-through-hbi-information-classification To prevent the inadvertent disclosure of High Business Impact (HBI) information, Microsoft IT designed and implemented a system using Microsoft technologies in conjunction with a third-party solution that automatically identifies and classifies HBI information at risk, and then starts the remediation proccess.