My friend Scott Savage has acquired himself a copy of the Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh, Build 4228. He has discovered all of the new Office icons I’ve talked about months ago has been implemented in this build. I was right in some areas identifying what each icons represented, but wrong in others. He also have some of the file-type icons for the appropriate documents.

Click above image to see Scott’s full post with more icons of the file-types.

Apparently there is a problem with this build’s installation procedures on Windows XP. But since he doesn’t have Vista installed on any of his workstations, he is unable to test it out. But he did uncover some of the SKU’s of Office 2007 in an XML file.

• Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
• Microsoft Office Mondo 2007
• Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional Hybrid 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Standard Enterprise 2007
• Microsoft Office Basic 2007
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
• Microsoft Office Personal 2007

The most interesting out of all would have to be Office Mondo, which has been believed to be the codename for Office 12, but as an SKU it doesn’t make any sense. Mondo by definition could be used to describe something “very large”. There is already an Office Ultimate, so what can it be?

Update: Mondo could also mean “a question to a student for which an immediate answer is demanded, the spontaneity of which is often illuminating.” Could this be a research tool?

Office Personal and Office Professional Hybrid sounds interesting too. Could Professional Hybrid be the combination of internal combusting word processing and battery-powered spreadsheet we’ve been all waiting for? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Nick White from the Windows Vista Team blog writes about the process involved when building Windows Vista. He interviews the director of Windows Release Management to find out how all the branching and build numbers works. It’s all awfully complicated, so here is a diagram to help explain it.

Windows Vista is a series of tubes branches. Idea adapted from Tony Schreiner.

Update: I want to clarify the above diagram a little. Some people has been lead to believe that because I have labeled “New Feature – Boot Screen” as something to be injected to the RC1 build, that a new boot-screen is definitely coming. I want to just state this is NOT my original intention. The diagram is purely for illustration purposes, and may/may not reflect what will actually be injected into the RC1 build. However having said that, I am confident a new boot-screen is coming in RC1 or post-RC1. I say this because to compliment the new startup sound, they need some visuals.

This would explain why 5700 (RTM branch) is ‘newer’ than 5536 (Pre-RC1), but built at an earlier date.

I think their reason to have a separate RC1/RTM branch as opposed to a single branch is because they are going to be adding new ‘features’ in to RTM that will not be shown in RC1. I know Microsoft said Beta 2 was “feature lock-down”, that no more features would be added post-Beta 2, but the definition of ‘features’ can be fairly broad. For example, the new system sounds are yet to be included in 5536, yet they are definitely a ‘feature’. If my assumptions are correct, then the slightly updated Aero Glass UI could even appear after RC1.

It’s all too exciting.

If Windows Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) could prompt you for this?

With possibly the worst-designed website promoting a computing industry event, the eGames & Entertainment Expo is going to be kicking strafing off in Melbourne from the 17-19th of November 2006. I have high hopes for this event because the E3 has been scaled down, giving a great opportunity for any entertainment exhibition to gain a large amount of visitors and exhibitors. But the seriousness and professionalism of the organisers has me worried.

• Did anyone actually check-over and approve this website? Look at the document title, “Entertinment”?
• Who designed the site? If you turn off CSS styles, it actually looks better. Did this designer know how to use padding?
• The lack of content about anything is distressing.
• The “Visitor Info” page has “computers” listed as some of the things you’ll see at the expo.
• “Video games” and “computer games” are different somehow?
• There isn’t even a list of exhibitors. Is anyone coming?
• Under “Exhibitor Info – Floor Space”, apparently there is “Space only available”. It kills me to ask, what isn’t available?
• It’s always frightening when one of the pages has the heading “under construction”. Did someone bring back Web 1.0?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. To the organisers, if you’re reading this, I wouldn’t mind a press-pass for the VIP media event on the 17th.

This is the Microsoft Partners marketing video for Windows Vista. I had a look to see what all the fuss is about. Apparently Windows Vista is all about “see(ing) the difference”, and I definitely see it.

0:11 — Shiny. I get the whole Aero Glass thing, but this is just iCandy.
0:18 — Afro girl! Funky music begins.
0:20 — Superman!
0:25 — Revenues makes the chairs go spin-spin!
0:33 — You look left, you look right. Then BAM, the red guy comes out from the left and knocks you out.
0:37 — Doing the whole Matrix thing is cool, but doing it in an air-tunnel is not on.
0:43 — Everyone spin 270 degrees and walk like you knew where you were actually going.
0:52 — Crossing your arms makes all the virii and trojans go away.
0:56 — I hope someone catches the red guy. He’s awfully confident.
1:01 — Steal my laptop! Steal my laptop!
1:17 — Let’s collaborate on the smallest IKEA desk you can find.
1:27 — Must be some really groovy music to get that sort of reaction.
1:29 — I’ll change the channel, flick my hair AND rotate 360 degrees left. It’s that fun.
1:36 — Did I just see a hybrid of ballad and ice skating?

Looks like someone hired the wrong creative agency.

It’s all over. After 4 days with 2520 attendees, everyone from Microsoft and Jack Morton needs a big hug and a million thanks. TechEd is the only technology event I’ve been to, but it has set the standards pretty high. I went in thinking TechEd Australia was going to be the forgotten child of the big TechEd family, but it turned out to be a rather special.

Having no major announcements or any product launches with most of the technology showcased already been on the market for quite some time, nothing really “wow”ed me, but didn’t suck either.

The most interesting part of TechEd for me was Student Day. Not because I got the opportunity to present something to an audience, but because when you try to compact all of Microsoft into a 6 hour event, you end up with the very best.

I think TechEd could be better with the following improvements:

• Kinder security guards
• More varieties of food (or rotational daily menus)
• Bigger venue for closing party
• Closer distance between expo and session rooms
• More product showcases
• More freebies
• More chairs

After the expo closed at 3:15pm on Friday, it felt like evacuating a war-zone.

Suddenly, everything was gone and ready to be shipped off.

Here’s a bunch of very cool people who I enjoyed TechEd with, in a very particular order: Frank Arrigo, Bernard Oh, Scott Savage, Alex Shamis, Ken Soedjatmiko, Sarah Hatton, Jeza Ann Mancenido, Marty Gnanananthan, David Burela, Susan Grant, Jeff Alexander, Hugo Ortega, Neil Roodyn, Paul Woods, Chris Boulton, and everyone else who thinks they should be here.

Maybe (*cough* *wink* *nudge*) I’ll see everyone there at the post-Vista and post-Office07 TechEd Australia 2007 on the Gold Coast.