I created a document in Word 2007 Beta a few months ago; I opened it just now in Word 2007 RTM, and I'm greeted with:
"This file was created in a pre-release version of Word 2007 and cannot be opened in this version."

Now what do I do?  My file is gone?

As usual, Google provides the answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926054

I'm out of luck.  I have to install Beta 2 Technical Refresh, and/or my old beta 2 build:
These methods will not enable you to open an Open XML file that was saved in the Beta 2 version of Word 2007. The only workaround is to open the file in the original release version of Word 2007 and then resave the file. When you do this, the file will be saved in the newest file format. The recipient of the document can then use an earlier version of Word with the Compatibility Pack to open the file.

Yes, I clicked the link, and told Microsoft that the information was completely useless.

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0)

XP client: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=26f11f0c-0d18-4306-abcf-d4f18c8f5df9&DisplayLang=en

XP x64 client: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=160ce316-bf2b-48d0-a035-e2abbc55d8e8&DisplayLang=en

2003 Server client: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cc148041-577f-4201-b62c-d71adc98adb1&DisplayLang=en

2003 Server x64 client: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=43c0eae9-6b64-428f-a9dc-f97f5a1b4493&DisplayLang=en

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) helps you to install, customize, and deploy the Microsoft Windows Vista™ family of operating systems.

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Microsoft Windows Vista™ family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&DisplayLang=en

If you are planning to create and deploy OS images for Windows Vista, I encourage you to take a look at the Windows Vista deployment step-by-step guide at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx for some helpful information.  The following sections are included in the deployment guide:

• Tools and technologies - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_TOOLS 
• Requirements and prerequisites - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_REQS_AND_PREREQS 
• Step 1: building a lab environment - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_BUILD_LAB 
• Step 2: building an answer file - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_BUILD_ANSWER 
• Step 3: building a master installation - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_BUILD_MASTER 
• Step 4: creating an image - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_CREATE_IMAGE 
• Step 5: deploying an image - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx#BKMK_DEPLOY_IMAGE

In addition, it is worth reviewing the content of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), which is located at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=53552.

Design and Build

The ThinkPad T60 is a premium product with a durable build.  For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the difference between a sub $1,000 starter notebook and a premium workhorse is obvious.  The ThinkPad T60 stands out with its durability via choice of components, very sturdy case material and a strong protective chassis.  You pay a lot more for these features of a T60, but if you're on the road, away from support, and miss a time sensitive opportunity because of hardware problems -- you might just wish you had spent extra dollars for a better built notebook such as the T60.

So how does the T60 excel build-wise?  Basically the same as its predecessor T-series notebooks did.  The T60 body is a rugged plastic that does not flex.  The magnesium reinforced lid won't flex and provides amazing protection for the screen.  The keyboard does not flex -- at all.  The thick metal hinges that attach the screen are very rigid and ensure the screen does not wobble.  The keyboard is spill proof and has two drain holes to make sure if you do happen to spill your morning Starbucks coffee, the liquid is carried away from sensitive components and out through the bottom of the notebook.  The hard drive is shock mounted and the entire chassis is a newly designed magnesium "roll cage" (it offers 30% more protection that past T-series chassis), and even if your T60 is dropped and broken the Active Protection System (APS) will stop hard drive activity to prevent data loss.  The double screen latch system locks securely to make sure the screen stays down when being carried around.  In other words, there's  no shortcuts being used in build quality from past ThinkPad notebooks since the Lenovo takeover of IBM -- only enhancements.

Aesthetically the ThinkPad T60 remains pretty much the same as past ThinkPad T series notebooks, meaning from a few feet away you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between a T40, T41, T42, T43 or T60 (assuming they're all the same 14" size -- the 15" size was not introduced until the T42 came about).  But with the T60 there are definitely some changes in overall layout and aesthetic looks.

Full Reviews

http://laptoplogic.com/reviews/detail.php?id=112&part=full&page=1
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2767
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/thinkpad-t60/index.x?pg=1
http://laptopmag.com/Review/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T60.htm

Even during the beta process, the Sync Center exhibited XP-like behaviour - similar annoyances/similar interaction nags, and it always seemed to be asking pesky questions, and ultimately failing to automatically connect and synchronize upon my return to my home network.  I'm happy to say that this is no longer the case - Offline files now works properly in Vista - and I'm totally hooked.

My files are stored on a RAID-5 storage server, with VSS backing up to a 2nd volume, and nightly backups to another system.  I've built a highly-reliable and robust storage platform, and my workstations keep their data synchronized off that source.  Specifically, I now have two Windows Vista Enterprise boxes synchronized in this fashion, against a Windows 2003 R2 server.  There's a mapped drive on each workstation (defined via GPO on domain account logon) and properties are set on the file share to ensure that synchronization automatically happens to any client that connects to the share.  Standard configuration.

So I log into my domain accounts on my laptop and my desktop; the drive is mapped, and the offline files cache is automatically established.  The little green synch icon shows up next to the Documents folder (which I have redirected to the mapped drive.)

I made changes while on the road today, came back home, plopped my T40 into its dock, checked my email/RSS feeds for content, then opened up Word and promptly continued working.  On my desktop which is also on my desk, I opened up another document that I use in conjunction with this one (Writing a paper on the laptop, and have my outline and research on the other system) - and without even realising it, the changes I had made today on the road had gone on.  No pesky pop up window telling me it was ready to synch - it just did.  No stupid conflict messages that I really don't care about anyway.

The reality of being able to work anywhere you are - and still have your data protected - is finally here.  Just as Outlook's RPC over HTTPS did it for email (hey, do you still forward emails around just so you have them on two computers, in two separate mailboxes?  Or have you given up and simply used a service like Gmail, and sacrificed that offline usage scenario, whilst maintaing state information?), this Sync Center in Vista solves my document management problem.  I can now work on the road, without fear that I'll be stuck without a document I worked on, on my desktop or on another computer.  As far as I can see - it works.

I see this as one of the biggest problems for mobile users - the ability to have a timely, useful, and functional backup of all relevant data.  It will be nice once SMB over HTTPS (or similar encapsulation) allows this kind of synchronization to happen over HTTPS - just as it allows Outlook data to flow over HTTPS now.

A wonderful discovery for a Friday afternoon, after a long week.

Stream Control Transmission Protocol - for beginners

SCTP is a reliable transport protocol operating on top of a potentially unreliable connectionless packet service such as IP. It offers acknowledged error-free non-duplicated transfer of datagrams (messages). Detection of data corruption, loss of data and duplication of data is achieved by using checksums and sequence numbers. A selective retransmission mechanism is applied to correct loss or corruption of data.

http://tdrwww.exp-math.uni-essen.de/inhalt/forschung/sctp_fb/

The dasBlog 1.9 release comes almost a year since the release of dasBlog 1.8 and brings a number of new features, fixes, and some new themes. This readme file assumes that you have already downloaded the dasBlog 1.9 Web Files (if you downloaded the Source, please download the Web Files unless you know how to build the source yourself).

Release date: September 21st 2006

readme: http://www.dasblog.info/ct.ashx?id=da105cde-4eff-4f5c-a8a9-319ccf3e4c55&url=http%3a%2f%2fdasblog.info%2fCategoryView%2ccategory%2cFeatures%252cV1.9.aspx

Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dasblogce

XML Notepad 2007 provides a simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents.

Handy features include:

• Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
• Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
• Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
• Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
• Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
• In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
• Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
• Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
• Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
• Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
• Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
• Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
• Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
• Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
• Built-in XML Diff tool.

New features included in this version:

• Added keyboard accelerators for find again (F3) and reverse find (SHIFT+F3).
• Added support for loading IXmlBuilder and IXmlEditor implementations from different assemblies using new vs:assembly attribute.
• Made source code localizable by moving all error messages and dialog strings to .resx files.
• Added a default XSL transform.
• New icons, a play on the Vista "Notepad" icons.

Bug Fixes included in this version:

• Fixed install on Windows Vista machines using Windows Installer XML 3.0.
• Performance of expand node when validating.
• Fixed bug where changed schemas and transforms were not being re-loaded.
• Fixed spurious warnings about file being changed on disk.
• Fixed handling of very long text nodes.
• Fixed round trip of DTD content in <!DOCTYPE> tags.
• Fixed validation of elements with xsi:type attributes.
• Scroll bar not updating when node expanded/collapsed in some cases.
• Tree view needs horizontal scrollbar.
• When XML Notepad is minimized and file changes on disk, the file reload prompt is confusing. Notepad should be restored first.
• XSL output window should pick up new xsl-transform based on input document.
• Fixed unhandled exception when closing a group of XML notepad windows.
• Added registration of "Edit" action for .xml file extension.
• Move source code to CodePlex.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=72d6aa49-787d-4118-ba5f-4f30fe913628&DisplayLang=en

Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)

Use this tool to configure unattended setup answer files (Unattend.xml) and capture images.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP
Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Windows Vista

Includes WinPE 2.0 (Vista)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7e5752f7-4e64-474f-9069-d2694eff2245&DisplayLang=en

The Calendar Printing Assistant 3.0 for Outlook 2007 is a program that provides an easy way to print and customize Outlook 2007 calendar information. It puts you in control of the tools you need and helps you plan and create designer-quality output.

With this download you can:

• Print dynamic calendar views
• Customize and personalize your calendars
• Adjust information to changing views

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3f28d5dc-25a4-41bd-9c98-67c47c6cd8ff&DisplayLang=en

Grabbed a copy of Vista and Office 2007 off the Select licensing site.

Did a fresh install of Vista RTM (Ultimate) in ~35 minutes on my T40 (2373-92U) which is a P-M 1.6 GHz, 1.5 GB of RAM, 100 GB HDD, with a 2X DVD burner.

The IBM a/b/g wireless MiniPCI card, ATI Mobility RADEON 9000, and the IBM Power Management device were not detected and required user intervention for driver installation.

Exchange Server 2007 will be released to manufacturing in December and be available to customers within a number of days after that, Microsoft officials have confirmed.

The formal announcement of Exchange 2007's RTM date was made in David Lemson's keynote on November 7 at the Exchange Connections conference.

Lemson is the product unit manager for Exchange, and his keynote was blogged by Exchange MVP Paul Robichaux.

This means that the product will not be immediately available to Microsoft's business customers at the company's Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 launch event on November 30.

Source: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/messaging_collaboration/exchange_2007_to_rtm_in_december.html

Catalyst Beta Driver for Windows Vista RTM

Please Note:
The Catalyst Beta Vista RTM driver will work under Windows Vista RC2.

Product series supported:

Radeon® 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, X300, X550, X600, X700, X800, X850 series
Radeon® X1300, X1600, X1650, X1800, X1900, X1950 series
All-in-Wonder® 2006, 9600, 9800, X600, X800, X1800, X1900
Theater™ 550 PRO/TV Wonder™ Elite
Mobility™ Radeon® 9550, 9600, 9700, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800 series
Mobility™ Radeon® X1300, X1400, X1600, X1800 series
CrossFire™ Xpress 1600, 3200 series
Radeon® Xpress 200, 200M, 1100 series

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html