[QUOTE]
According to Commtouch Software, an average of about 10 million zombie computers worldwide are sending an average of 3 million messages every day. Some time periods indicate a collective peak spam output of 8 million to 10 million messages.

Many of those messages are sent through the top three web-based mail services. Gmail, operated by Google, ranks #3 among the top 10 origins for spam. Yahoo ranks #6, and Hotmail, operated by Microsoft, ranks #7. It's probably not coincidental that the rankings correspond to the popularity of each company's search engines and other online services.

The current top 2 offending domains origins are nearly unheard of by the majority of Internet users. Active-encounter.com, operated by marketing company iLead Media, ranks #1 and authentic-mechanic.com, registered to Tad Asaro, ranks #2. Asaro is registrant of the relatively new BabytoBee.com site.

Commtouch's cost calculator currently indicates that a company with 50 employees, each with an average salary of $50,000 per year, who also receive 25 messages per day - half of which are spam - would spent $14,300 per year as a direct result of dealing with spam.
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Source: windowsitpro.com

[QUOTE]
Everyone's got their own idea about how we're gonna get our work done in the future, and except for the camp that envisions us toiling away in the silicon mines for our robotic overlords, most of these concepts seem to have converged around a few of the same elements. Well Microsoft was showing off its Center for Information Work's take on the ideal workstation at Convergence 07, and the so-called DigiDesk does indeed incorporate many features we've seen before, including a multi-touch display (we know, we know), document digitizer, speech recognition engine, and ability to resize objects on the fly a la Jeff Han's famous TED presentation. Of course Redmond conveniently neglected to tell us when we can expect to to find the DigiDesk at our local Office Depot, meaning that like most of these neat-o concepts, a YouTube vid (after the break) is probably the closest you're gonna get to this tech for a long time.
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Source: www.engadget.com

Brian Jones, Microsoft Office Program Manager, writes in his Blog:

[QUOTE]
I just saw that the Novell folks have released a version of OpenOffice with support for the Ecma Office Open XML formats (http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~). They announced this work awhile ago, but this is the first chance folks have had to actually download the builds and try it out. Very cool stuff.

So at this point we now have a few options for applications that support Open XML on a couple different platforms. We'll see more popping up over the summer too (for example Corel as well as the Mac version of MS Office).

I think at this point we can really move onto more productive and collaborative discussion and admit that we are no longer in any sort of "file format war." If we ever were really in a war, it's now over, and both sides are winners. Over the past few years, we've had two important file formats come into the market, OpenXML and ODF. Both were designed for different purposes, and both have been valuable additions to the market. Now we can also say that we have multiple implementations of both formats.

When discussing file formats, there are a number of things that can set one apart from others such as performance; file size; security; accessibility; extensibility; and support for different types of functionality like formulas, formatting, drawings, etc. Before looking at any of those things though, there are some fundamental issues that may be important to see addressed. These issues have recently been called out by various government bodies (like departments within Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and now California).

The big reason people are excited about both ODF and OpenXML is that they enable the following:

1. Long term availability – You want to know that 100 years from now, you'll still be able to access your data. This is a complex problem, as it can affect everything from the software you use to the hardware you use that software on. The key in terms of file formats is that everything in the file format is fully documented, and the stewardship for that documentation belongs to an independent standards body. ISO, Ecma, OASIS, and the W3C are all examples of organizations people feel comfortable trusting with the stewardship of that documentation.
2. Freely available – You want to make sure that you don't need to worry about someone else holding rights over your documents. If there is IP behind the format technology for instance, you want to make sure there is some type of license available that will work for you. Not only that, but you want to make sure this will work for anyone else that you want to have access to your documents. All formats out there take slightly different approaches here (PDF, OpenXML, ODF, HTML, etc.), so it's important to pay attention to this.
3. Fully interoperable and accessible – You want to know that people on other systems can still work with your files. This means that the format needs to be fully documented, and there is nothing in the format that would prevent it from working on a different system. A great indicator here is to look at the number of applications that support the format, and what systems those applications run on. HTML is a great example of an interoperable format. OpenXML and ODF are also both fully interoperable, but are also much younger. So while you don't see as many applications support OpenXML and ODF as you do HTML, you'll clearly start to see more and more pop up as time goes by.

It's those three points that really make, both OpenXML and ODF interesting formats. You now have OpenXML supported by multiple applications on multiple platforms, and you have the same with ODF. There are definitely still some growing pains to go through. The tools that support the ISO ODF standard aren't yet fully compliant, but I think we're heading in the right direction. The same will be true for the OpenXML support.

Let's keep the momentum going and focus more on what we can do with the formats. I'm going to start pointing out solutions that other people are building around Open XML using the "3rd party tools" tag: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/tags/3rd+Party+Tools/default.aspx
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The Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center was officially released by Microsoft. It enables you to set up new partnerships, synchronize content and manage music, pictures and video with Windows Mobile powered devices (Windows Mobile 2003 or later). The Windows Mobile Device Center is only supported on Windows Vista.

Windows Mobile Device Center Features Include:

• Streamlined setup - A simplified new partnership wizard and improved partnership management.

• Robust synchronization - Synchronization of business-critical data such as e-mail, calendars, contacts, tasks, favorites, and files.

• Enhanced user interface - A simple and compelling user interface helps you to quickly access critical tasks and configure your device.

• File browsing - A new device browsing experience enables you more quickly browse files and folders and open documents on your device directly from your PC.

• Photo management – Picture management helps you detect new photos on your Windows Mobile powered device, tag and import them to the Windows Vista Photo Gallery.

• Media synchronization - Use Microsoft Windows Media Player to synchronize and shuffle music files on your device.

The Windows Mobile Device Center is compatible with Windows Mobile 2003 devices and later.

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx

Always intriguing, often useful, and sometimes surprising, these 20 products showcase some of the best in tech of the year 2006:

1. Microsoft Office 2007
 
The Redmond giant's latest upgrade of the world's most popular productivity suite introduces several new features that revolutionize how people work with documents. The most striking change is a "ribbon" at the top of the interface that replaces the traditional cascading menus and taskbars, and can expose functions you never knew were there. Through the suite's handy new Live Preview feature, you can see how formatting changes, for example, will affect your document prior to your making them. You get greater XML-format support, too.

2. Intel Core 2 Duo
 
The Core 2 Duo series might have the greatest impact of any product on this list. Most of Core 2 Duo's technological advances are obscured under titles like Advanced Smart Caching, Smart Memory Access, and Wide Dynamic Execution.

3. Parallels Desktop for Mac

The idea of running Windows on a Mac made plenty of headlines this year. We chose the slick virtualization software Parallels ($80), because it's arguably the most useful way to run key Windows apps on your Mac.

4. Nintendo Wii

The $250 Wii video game console boasts powerful new motion-sensing controllers that make game play both more entertaining and more active.

5. Samsung 32GB SSD

Bringing a flash drive of usable size to notebooks and sets the stage for upcoming hybrid drives.

6. Sony Reader

The device boasts a glare-free screen and innovative E Ink technology, which gives you the same resolution as newsprint and looks better than typical LCDs do in bright light, easy to use and weighs only 9 ounces.

7. YouOS

A whole Ajax-based applications-in-a-browser. Link: YouOS

8. Dell XPS M2010
 
A cutting-edge design, not quite a desktop and definitely less portable than a standard notebook, this hybrid system neatly balances elements of both.

9. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB
 
A perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which allows vendors to pack more data onto one platter than in the traditional approach, which outperforms standard drives especially in write tests and on tasks that involve sustained throughput with sizable files.

10. T-Mobile Dash

Combining a stylish, superthin design with sculpted keys that correct the deficiencies we found on the Q, and offering both cellular service and integrated wireless capabilities, the Dash makes a great impression.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128176-page,1-c,electronics/article.html

It's finally official. The Ecma General Assembly voted almost unanimously to approve the Office Open XML formats as an official Ecma standard. They also voted to submit the standard to ISO for fast track certification. The official press release from Ecma International can be found here: http://www.ecma-international.org/news/PressReleases/PR_TC45_Dec2006.htm

Here's a quote from Jan van den Beld, the Secretary General of Ecma International:

"The broad spectrum of sponsors from the industry and public institutions ensure the creation of an open standard that can create a wide range of possibilities for document processing, archival and interoperability" said Jan van den Beld, Secretary General of Ecma International. "The Open XML standard recognizes the benefit of backward compatibility preservation of the billions of documents that have already been created while enabling new future applications of document technology."

Read more on: http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/

I've installed Vista Ultimate Build 6000 and Office2007 Build 12.0.4518.1014 (RTM Versions) all works fine ... still some drivers are not working with vista ...

Today Microsoft reveals the packaging for the upcoming products, going with a rounded design reminiscent of a 1950s toaster:

"Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that's designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation. The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system."