The recent Windows Live Essentials beta, brought together two programs, Windows Live Sync and the Live Mesh beta, into one: Windows Live Sync beta.

With the addition of remote access and cloud storage, the program does more than sync files and so following the beta period, the name Windows Live Mesh will be used going forward. Also good news that the 2Gb cloud storage will be increased to 5Gb ... this is addition to the 25Gb Skydrive storage.

Windows Live blog announcement

Windows Live beta download

Can happen when you recreate Virtual Machines from the VHD files (rather than export/import).

Solution:

At a command prompt, enter the following:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc

Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Manager.
The ghost NICs then appear and can be uninstalled.

Visual Studio LightSwitch is available for download. In LightSwitch, you create a data structure (SQL Server Express) or use an existing data source (SharePoint lists, WCF RIA Services), choose from common patterns and the wizard-driven tool applies the templates to the data to build an VB or C# application.

Visual Studio LightSwitch creates a Silverlight 4 out-of-browser desktop application which can then be customized in LightSwitch or handed off to developers for further development in Visual Studio 2010 Professional.

Lightswitch

LightSwitch Beta 1 Download

Channel 9 Introducing Visual Studio LightSwitch

Ive been trying out LastPass - a robust password manager.  With LastPass, you create a master password, and then it uses automatic form filling and one-click log-in to simplify password entry.

More interesting is understanding how it works with encrypted data being stored online so it can be synced across multiple devices, and then decrypted locally. Steve Gibson explains in detail how it works in Security Now 256

LastPass

The Fab 40 templates were free templates released by Microsoft for SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3.0 to address some of the common scenarios  to demonstrate and show case some of the capabilities of SharePoint to end users.

Tech Solutions are now making the templates for SharePoint 2010 available.

Fab 40 Templates for SharePoint 2010

At Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Microsoft have announced the first wave of games available for Windows Phone 7

Press Release

XBOX Live on Windows Phone

Its been a brutal few weeks for Google …

Google misses deadline for L.A. city e-mail system
Link

Core business is slowing, its stock is down, its Android mobile platform generates scant revenue, and competition (hello, Facebook) is fierce. Can Google find its footing in this brave new world?
Link

Wave Goodbye … one of the most hyped products of 2009, but within months of its launch, the buzz had almost completely disappeared.  Now support for Google Wave has ended due to lack of users.
Link | Gartners response: Link | Link | Link

Two customers who left Microsoft for Google Apps, then switched back, discuss their pain points
Link

Protesters denounce Google plan for 'two-tier internet'
Link | Link

Google accuses California of rigging bidding process for e-mail contract .. seems Google think they know better than the customer their requirements … or have come to market with a product lacking basic expected features ?
Link

Business software maker Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the search engine giant of infringing patents on its technology.
Link

Older blog entries have been archived at http://old.markharrison.co.uk/blog/

Just back from hols - another Microsoft financial year has started ... again, working as a Solutions Architect / Technical Specialist for SharePoint and soft aligned to the 'Comms, Media and Entertainment' sector.

Also in September will be starting a Masters Degree - MSc Information Security - at Royal Holloway College, University of London.  The Royal Holloway Information Security Group is where French cryptographer Sophie Neveu studied.

So a busy time ahead.