Microsoft releases Windows Home Server 2011

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has officially released its new Windows Home Server 2011.

With the release to manufacturing, Windows Home Server 2011 is now slated to reach MSDN and TechNet subscribers in early April where they can download the software via their subscriptions. The latest version should also start to pop up on computers in May, according to Microsoft, which said that manufacturers have already been working with the new home operating system.

The official version of Windows Home Server 2011, codenamed Vail, comes almost a year after the beta was released and close to two months since the release candidate made its debut.

Using the same core operating system as Windows Server 2008 R2, the new version is designed for people who need to juggle multiple PCs, home networks, and an ever growing amount of photos, music, videos, and other hefty content. Running Windows Home Server on a dedicated PC, users can set up network shares to access all their data, back up their networked PCs, remotely access their files, and stream their music and videos. The software offers a central dashboard for people to run the various administrative tasks.

Windows Home Server has suffered a couple of setbacks in recent months.

The previous version offered a much-beloved feature called Drive Extender, which let people extend or "pool" multiple disk drives into a single large volume as they added new storage. But claiming that the drive extender technology "was not meeting our customer needs," Microsoft gave it the heave-ho from the new version late last year. Though Microsoft added a feature called the Move Folder Wizard to move content between different drives, the loss of Drive Extender may turn off many potential users of Windows Home Server 2011.

Microsoft also lost one of its key Windows Home Server hardware partners late last year when Hewlett-Packard, known for its robust MediaSmart Windows Home Server servers, announced that it would no longer make computers for the Home Server operating system. The loss of HP leaves a few key manufacturers, such as Acer, who'll be building dedicated boxes for Windows Home Server 2011.

Windows Home Server 2011 will be released in 19 languages, according to Microsoft, including English, French, Chinese, Russian, and Korean.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20049231-75.html#ixzz1ID8UmwRL

bios beep codes

AMI (American Megatrends') BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one short	DRAM refresh failure (Problem with memory)
two short	Parity circuit failure
three short	Base 64K RAM failure
four short	System Timer failure
five short	Processor failure
six short	Keyboard Controller / Gate A20 failure
seven short	Virtual Mode Exception error
eight short	Display Memory Read/Write failure (fault with video card)
nine short	ROM BIOS Checksum error (fault with BIOS chip)
ten short	CMOS Shutdown Read/Write error
eleven short	Cache memory
one long	Passed (no errors)
one long, two short	Video failure
one long, three short	Base / Extended Memory failure
one long, eight short	Display / Retrace Test failure
AST Research BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one short	Low level processor verification test failed (POST 1)
two short	Clearing keyboard controller buffers failed (POST 2)
three short	Keyboard controller reset failed (POST 3)
four short	Low level keyboard controller interface test (POST 4)
five short	Reading data from keyboard controller failed (POST 5)
six short	System board support chip initialization failed (POST 6)
seven short	Processor register read/write verify test failed (POST 7)
eight short	CMOS timer initialization failed (POST 8)
nine short	ROM BIOS checksum test failed (POST 9)
ten short	Initialize primary video (POST 10)
eleven short	8254 timer channel 0 test failed (POST 11)
twelve short	8254 timer channel 1 test failed (POST 12)
thirteen short	8254 timer channel 2 test failed (POST 13)
fourteen short	CMOS power-on and time test failed (POST 14)
fifteen short	CMOS shutdown byte test failed (POST 15)
one long	DMA channel 0 test failed (POST 16)
one long, one short	DMA channel 1 test failed (POST 17)
one long, two short	DMA page register test failed (POST 18)
one long, three short	Keyboard controller interface test failed (POST 19)
one long, four short	Memory refresh toggle test failed (POST 20)
one long, five short	First 64 KB memory test failed (POST 21)
one long, six short	Setup interrupt vector table failed (POST 22)
one long, seven short	Video initialization failed (POST 23)
one long, eight short	Video memory test failed (POST 24)
Award BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one short	Passed (no errors)
two short	Any non-fatal error
one long, two short	Video failure
one long, three short	Keyboard Controller failure (applies to 286, 386 and 486)
Compaq BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one short	Indicates that the system is booting properly
two short	General BIOS error - remedy unknown
one short, two long	Memory Module
one long, one short	BIOS ROM checksum error
one long, two short	Video error
7 Beeps: one long, one short, one long, one short, pause, one long, two short	AGP Video
one long continuous tone	Memory Module
IBM BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
none	Power Supply or System Board failure (possible short)
one short	Passed (no errors)
one short (blank screen)	Video error (check cable)
one short (no boot)	Floppy Drive error
two short	Configuration Error (displayed on screen)
repeating short	Power Supply or System Board failure
continuous	Power Supply or System Board / Keyboard stuck
one long, one short	System Board failure
one long, two short	Video (Mono/CGA) failure (check cable)
one long, three short	Video (EGA) failure (check cable)
three long	Keyboard Card error
Mylex BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one	Normal boot
two	Video adapter error
three	Keyboard controller error
four	Keyboard error
five	PIC 0 error
six	PIC 1 error
seven	DMA page register error
eight	RAM refresh error
nine	RAM data error
ten	RAM parity error
eleven	DMA controller 0 error
twelve	CMOS RAM error
thirteen	DMA controller 1 error
fourteen	CMOS RAM battery error
fifteen	CMOS RAM checksum error
sixteen	BIOS ROM checksum error
Mylex 386 BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one long	Normal boot
two long	Video adapter error
one long, one short, one long	Keyboard controller error
one long, two short, one long	Keyboard error
one long, three short, one long	PIC 0 error
one long four short, one long	PIC 1 error
one long, five short, one long	DMA page register error
one long, six short, one long	RAM refresh error
one long, seven short, one long	RAM data error
one long, eight short, one long	RAM parity error
one long, nine short, one long	DMA controller 0 error
one long, ten short, one long	CMOS RAM error
one long, eleven short, one long	DMA controller 1 error
one long, twelve short, one long	CMOS RAM battery error
one long, thirteen short, one long	CMOS RAM checksum error
one long fourteen short, one long	BIOS ROM checksum error
Phoenix BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one, one, three	CMOS Read/Write
one, one, four	ROM BIOS Checksum failure
one, two, one	Programmable Interval Timer failure
one, two, two	DMA Initialisation failure
one, two, three	DMA Page Register Read/Write failure
one, three, one	RAM Refresh Verification error
one, three, three	First 64K RAM Chip/Data Line failure
one, three, four	First 64K RAM Odd/Even Logic
one, four, one	First 64K RAM: Address Line
one, four, two	First 64K RAM: Parity failure
one, four, three	Fail-Safe Timer Feature (EISA only)
one, four, four	Software NMI Port failure (EISA only)
two (followed by various combinations)	First 64K RAM Chip/Data Line failure (combinations indicate which bit)
three, one, one	Slave DMA Register failure
three, one, two	Master DMA Register failure
three, one, three	Master Interrupt Mask Register failure
three, one, four	Slave Interrupt Mask Register failure
three, two, four	Keyboard Controller failure
three, three, four	Display Memory failure
three, four, one	Display Retrace failure
three, four, two	Video ROM search proceeding
four, two, one	Timer Tick failure
four, two, two	Shutdown failure
four, two, three	Gate A20 failure
four, two, four	Unexpected Interrupt in Protected Mode
four, three, one	RAM test above 64K failure
four, three, two/three	Programmable Interval Timer, Channel 2 failure
four, three, four	Realtime Clock failure
four, four, one	Serial Port error
four, four, two	Parallel Port error
four, four, three	Math Co-processor failure
(tone) one, one, two	System Board Select
(tone) one, one, three	Extender CMOS RAM
Quadtel BIOS
Beep Codes	Message
one short	Indicates that the system is booting properly
two short	CMOS IC error
one long, two short	Video error
one long, three short	Peripheral controller error

Windows Azure

Windows Azure™ is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft® datacenters.

Windows Azure is a flexible platform that supports multiple languages and integrates with your existing on-premises environment. To build applications and services on Windows Azure, developers can use their existing Microsoft Visual Studio® expertise. In addition, Windows Azure supports popular standards, protocols and languages including SOAP, REST, XML, Java, PHP and Ruby. Windows Azure is now commercially available in 40 countries.

Application Scenarios:

Windows Azure is a service that allows developers to run applications and store data on servers owned and operated by Microsoft. These cloud applications can be targeted at businesses, consumers or both. Some examples are:

• Enterprises that use Windows Azure to run their own line-of-business, batch processing or large-volume computations.
• An independent software vendor (ISV) that creates a SaaS application targeted towards business users.
• Perform large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations
• An ISV that creates a SaaS application targeted towards consumers.

You can find some example Windows Azure customer and partner success Stories here.

Benefits:

• Agility: Take advantage of development tools, automated service management and global datacenter presence to respond faster to customer needs, focus on your competitive differentiators, and reach new markets.
• Efficiency: Windows Azure improves productivity and increases operational efficiency by lowering up-front capital costs. Customers and partners can realize a reduction in Total Cost of Operations of some workloads by up to 30 – 40% over a 3 year period . The consumption based pricing, packages and discounts for partners lower the barrier to entry for cloud services adoption and ensure a predictable IT spend. See Windows Azure pricing.
• Focus: Focus on delivering services and value to your customers – and not on managing technology infrastructure. Windows Azure enables you to spend less time on operational hurdles and more time focusing on your competitive differentiators.
• Simplicity: Utilize your existing skills in familiar languages such as .NET, Java and PHP to create and manage web applications and services.
• Trustworthy: Enterprise class service backed by a reliable service level agreements and a rich online services experience. 

AMD Releases Their High-End Graphics Card Radeon HD 6990

After its leaked specs, AMD has finally released their high-end offering HD 6990 to the public. AMD claims it to be the fastest graphics card in the world as this beast scored astounding P11865 in 3DMark11 benchmark. The reason of this great power comes from dual HD 6970 GPUs on the same board. It can power 6 screens at their maximum resolution and also has dual BIOS for overclocking and normal operations with a flippable switch.
In a related news, iBuyPower has officially announced that it will incorporate AMD Radeon HD 6990 in their gaming systems.
HD 6990 Price & Features

• 830MHz default clock speed and 880MHz overclocked speed
• 4GB GDDR5 memory @ 1250MHz
• 3072 stream processors
• 192 texture units
• supports up to 6 displays
• DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution of 2560×1600 per display
• Requires 750Watts or higher SMPS
• Price: $699

Check Out Related Posts:

1. Fastest Graphics Card XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 4GB Black Edition Showcased in India
2. Radeon HD 6990: AMD Releasing Its Most Powerful Video Card on March 8
3. Black GTX 460: ECG High-End Graphics Card At An Affordable Price.
4. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460: DX11 Compatible Mid-Range Graphics Card for PC[$199]
5. ATI’s Fastest Graphics Card Ever

Internet Explorer 9 RTM Released|Offine Setup Links

The most talked over Internet Explorer 9 RTM is now finally available for public download. This version of Internet Explorer comes with many advantages over the previous versions. It is also claimed to be one of the fastest browsers available today and has faster java script engine than IE 8.

This new Internet Explorer can only be installed by Vista and Windows 7 users. With IE 9 you can manage add-ons better. It supports 39 languages. It has better display with Hardware Acceleration support and also supports HTML 5.

Some New Features of IE 9

• Website Pinning on taskbar
• Security-enabled Download Manager
• Add-on Performance Advisor
• Enhanced Tab and  Tab page
• Advance Address Bar Search

How to Batch Convert DOC, EXCEL and PPT to PDF Format

Considering portability and protection, we all prefer PDF files. Let us see what the advantages of a PDF format files are for us. Firstly PDF is a very simple format that can be handled by most of the system. Then compared to a PPT this format’s file is lesser in file size. PDF can be easily compressed and also be sent from one place to the other easily. Another very important feature of a PDF is that it can be password locked, this is a very big advantage for those how wishes to keep their documents safe. You can also compress it and put password and then send it over any network without having to worry about its security or size of upload.
Thus it is very natural that we will want our files to be in a PDF format. It will be of great help if we can also convert our PPT files to PDF. Then the space taken by the files of PPT and portability of it increases many folds.

Moyea PPT to PDF converter is free software that can be installed in your system easily. You can use it to convert PPT, DOC, or Excel to PDF format. This gives a very wide range of performance to this stand-alone tool. It can also help you change color or settings of the file and even compress it. Also an important thing about this software is that its quality of conversion is very good.

The functioning of this software is very simple. After installing we need to go to the window and click on the add button. This will select a file that needs to be converted.

This tool supports batch conversion of a number of files together. So you can add multiple files at a time and perform batch conversion.

After this you will be required to add the destination folder of these PDF’s after they have been finished. If it is desired then you can go to the settings to change the layout of the PDF that may be landscape or portrait, specify color options, change fonts or give command to compress the final files.