Corey Gouker is a Media Center MVP, and he has posted a detailed description of his experiences with a new Creative Portable Media Center Device. Included at the bottom of the article are a couple of Windows Media videos and a gallery of images showing the device in action.

For anyone who has been wondering what these are all about and what you'll really get, check this out - with the videos and his description, it's a view that you've likely not had til now, unless you have been lucky enough to get your grubby hands on one.

Also: Sean Alexander post more links to details about the devices.

[via Scobleizer]

Yesterday, the Application Compatibility Testing and Mitigation Guide for Windows XP Service Pack 2 was published.

This guide considers potential application compatibility issues that may arise after a Service Pack 2 deployment. The guide provides mitigation procedures that can be followed to overcome compatibility issues. Since the mitigation procedures relax the default security configuration, the guide in no way recommends that they should be followed, but if there is no other way of overcoming compatibility issues, they can be applied in the short term.

The Guide also includes a download of example scripts. The scripts demonstrate how to reconfigure a Service Pack 2 computer to overcome compatibility issues. The scripts are designed as functional samples and will require modification for use in a production environment.

I've only flicked though it, but I am very impressed with the level of detail of what I've seen to date.

Robert posts about having to use more than one MSN Messenger account due to limits placed on the service as far as number of contacts you can have on one Messenger passport account. He has to use two computers in order to work with two instances of messenger.

I have the same problem (multiple personalities, that is, but for different reasons than Scoble ), and I am not personally interested in Trillion or other IM interfaces for this purpose, and I Already use Windows messenger for SIP service at work, so I don't want to go there.

It turns out it is possible to run two copies of MSN messenger with different accounts on the same computer at the same time. It used to be that you had to alter the messenger code to do so with a third-party program, which is not allowed under the software license. But more recently there is a program available that starts messenger and acts as a sort of proxy, so you're not (AFAIK - I will promptly remove this if I am wrong, of course...) in violation of the MSN Messenger software agreement, which specifically says you can't modify the MSFT binaries.

It also starts up in "appear off-line" state by default, which for some people is helpful. It's not a perfect program, but it works pretty darned well.

JnrzLoader 6.2.0137 is the program name, and it is available to download from http://www.mess.be (along with a lot of other nifty stuff).

Of course this advice is totally without warranty, your mileage may vary, scan your files, yada yada. But it works for me. :)

This was hot stuff in '89... In 1986 I has an IBM Model 5150 that I ran two BBS'es on, and 1200 baud was huge. 

The one about how using RSS opens up information to me in a way that is so reliable I could only do it this way manually if there were two of me...

Okay, so maybe it's a little exaggerated. But seriously, I read an incredible amount of information these days. So much more than I ever did, and a lot of it on the Internet. Not only that, but I get the information I need (or want) so fast now that I can practically always act faster than most people when news breaks. Research that used to take hours and hours of searching and browsing now takes just minutes. I'm consuming much, much more information and doing so in much, much less time. What I can accomplish today in the information gathering department would have taken two of me just a year or so ago, before I found the real beauty of RSS.

I use RSS feeds for practically everything now. Rarely do I browse to a web site these days as my first method of gathering my daily doses of information. The data comes to me, based on my subscriptions. I know what I need, and I use the tools to get it. I find information sources just once, and then let the tools take care of the rest. I update my information world in real time, using tools like FeedDemon to do the dirty work for me. I focus on consuming, and the rest is practically magic.

RSS has made me a more productive, and therefore (in theory ) more valuable employee where I work. A huge part of my job is staying up to date with the latest technology, trends and issues. I subscribe to a couple hundred feeds that I review several times daily, some of which are aggregated feeds or feeds that are the result of a search of thousands of blogs and other sources for certain keywords or subjects. Then there's the couple hundred others that I review periodically, both work-related and otherwise.

When news breaks, when someone writes a new article that I might care about, when new security patches or alerts are released, when Woot! posts their latest great deal for cheap geeks on the web, it all comes straight to me.

In a nutshell, RSS has enabled me to work (and play) on the 'net in a way that would not be practical (or even possible) without the technology.

By way of Jonathan Hardwick, a list of webcasts scheduled covering the upcoming release of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005:

"The MOM 2005 release date is fast approaching, and they're setting up a series of webcasts for customers to learn more about it."

• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 2^nd, 9:30am-11:00am.
  Exploring Microsoft's new event and performance management tool for Windows Server System and beyond.
• Managing Exchange Server with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 7^th, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Increasing service availability and reducing email outages with MOM 2005.
• Managing SQL Server with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 14^th, 8:00am-9:30am.
  Increasing SQL availability and reliability with specialized knowledge and tools in MOM's SQL Management Pack.
• Monitoring your E-Business Solutions with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 16^th, 12:30pm-2pm.
  Using built-in knowledge in MOM 2005 to reduce downtime.
• Using Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 at Microsoft IT - Sept 21^st, 10:00am-11:30am.
  How to manage 6,000 servers across 225 worldwide sites for maximum performance and availability.
• Installing Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 from Start to Finish - Oct 5^th, 8:00am-9:30am.
  Your guide to setting up and testing MOM 2005.
• Monitoring Solutions to Extend Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Capabilities - Oct 14^th, 9:30am-11:00am.
  Service Monitoring Solution Accelerator.
• Real Stories of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Oct 19^th, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Lessons learned from our MOM 2005 early adopters.
• Monitoring Active Directory with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Nov 4^th, 12:30pm-2pm.
  Using MOM 2005 to improve availability of one of your most critical services.
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 at MSN - Dec 1^st, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Using MOM 2005 to monitor one of the largest web portals in the world.