There is an upcoming series organized by Windows IT Pro and SharePoint Pro on the best practices for deploying SharePoint. They are coming to 8 cities namely:

WindowsITPro is sponsoring a PC on demand training for SharePoint Migration.

The speaker is Andrew Yeung, Director of Product Management, AvePoint.

TechCrunch has posted an article on the recent milestone of Google enterprise who just went out with their 5th generation of search appliance. The search appliance is a yellow box based on a Dell server. The latest release has the following features:

1. Indexes 10 million documents
2. Twice, even three times faster than its predecessor
3. Indexes data from Oracle, SAP, Documentum, SharePoint, Salesforce.com, HR, etc.
4. Personalized views depending on role

I am reading an article from BusinessWeek making a case about how cloud computing is changing the world. Rachel who wrote the article presented some interesting facts which are as follows:

1. IBM announces on Aug. 1 that they are spending $ 360 million dollars on a cloud computing data center.
2. Dell supplies Web 2.0 heavyweights Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo products that they have specifically tailored for these types of clients.
3. Microsoft is implementing their Software-plus-Services business model which gives clients and option between the two.
4. Analysts predict that annual global market for cloud computing is going to reach $95 Billion in the next five years; accounting for 12% of the worldwide software market.

For those planning to take any Microsoft developer or dynamic certifications; Microsoft Second Shot Promo is back. This is especially useful for exam takers as it allows you for one retake of a failed exam for free. The vouchers would be valid until July 31, 2009 and as such; you can register for multiple exam vouchers and use it for the next year.

The Second Shot Promo is found here.

Someone from the audience of Hungary’s University of Economy got angry and started to talk violently at Steve Ballmer. He topped his performance by throwing eggs (?) at him.

Paul Andrew (Microsoft Technical Product Manager for the SharePoint Developer Platform), Andrew Connell (SharePoint MVP) and Rob Bogue (SharePoint MVP) are working together to provide a series of SharePoint developer ramp-up webcast starting May 20 until June 18. The schedule are as follows:

Web Parts, Rob Bogue
Tues, May 20 : 12-1p

Bill Gates demoed Microsoft Touchwall during the Microsoft CEO Summit. This is similar to Microsoft Surface and Bill Gates says they are working on making different kinds of surfaces including horizontal and vertical to have interactive capabilities and a software that powers it.

In this demo he clearly shows a new experience of doing presentations other than the standard powerpoint slides. I am sure at least 1 of the 115 CEOs who attended the summit might test drive this technology within the year especially when it gives more engaging talk in front of shareholders.

The video presentation and screenshots

The SharePoint Learning Kit was released a few months back via CodePlex and is an e-learning delivery and tracking application built in WSS 3.0.

In an excerpt from the product page:

You can view the keynote of Bill Gates during SharePoint Conference 2008 here.

As provided on Microsoft site:

Live Webcast: Bill Gates Keynote at SharePoint Conference

March 3, 2008

During this keynote presentation, Bill Gates will discuss the industry trends and how Microsoft and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is uniquely positioned to not only address the issues facing organizations today but also serves as the platform that links users to structured and unstructured content.