Microsoft has made available the tool designed to help customers migrate from MySQL to SQL Server and/or SQL Azure. The MySQL migration tool is part of the SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) tookit family. Version 1 is available for download from Microsoft’s download center. SSMA for MySQL v1.0 works with MySQL 4.1 and above

The tool allows users to convert/migrate tables, views, stored procedures, stored functions, triggers, cursors, DML statements, control statements and transactions, according to a blog post on the SSMA Team’s blog.

Additionally, Microsoft has also refreshed its family of other SQL migration tools — for Oracle, Sybase and Access — at the same time as part of its 4.2 release yesterday. (The Access refresh also enables migrations to SQL Azure.)

Although MySQL has been a Microsoft partner, it also is a Microsoft competitor. And ever since Oracle bought Sun and (get MySQL in the process), Microsoft has been treating MySQL as even more of a rival.

Microsoft Research has developed a sleek solution which it calls Street Slide, a direct competitor to Google Street View.A multi-perspective street slide panorama with navigational aides and mini-map. It allows you to Zoom out of your panoramic bubble and the street is presented as a dynamic, multi-perspective “strip” giving you an instant visual summary of the surroundings — similar to viewing the entire 360 degree view of street from a distance. Cool isn’t it? Check out the video below.

All Google Android Smart phone owners will be delighted to know that Barnes & Noble Nook content can be downloaded and read on their devices, as Nook for Android is available in the Android Market for FREE. It will provide you full access to your existing Barnes & Noble eBooks with additional support of LendME loan feature. In short it is a free & full featured eBook Reader.

Logitech TouchMouse is a free iPhone/iPod iOS3 and iOS 4 compatible application which when connected with its server software installed on your Mac or Windows computer, turns your iPhone/iPod touchscreen into a fully functional wireless mouse and keyboard.

This is a great utility if you connect your computer to your TV or Media Center and wants to control it lying on couch over wireless.

Looking to boost up speed and performance of your shiny PC running Windows 7 operating system ? Well We’ve got just the right tips and tweaks for you. By Installing a high-speed solid-state drive (SSD) you can say goodbye to slow Windows 7 boot-ups, lengthy application load times, Slow Application performance, and gain blazing fast performance in term of video encoding, video editing and other performance demanding tasks.

Consider the following points for enhancing Windows 7 performance, Windows XP performance and overall applications performance:

Opera Mini was launched about a year back for the Android. It was called Opera 4 then, now we have Opera Mini 5 (Beta) available for download which has some very impressive features. The guys at Opera say that this browser “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.” The new features introduced are:

• Tabbed Browsing: Needs no explaining, but this is feature is a must for smart phones.
• Speed Dial: On opening a new Tab, users are presented with a list of small icons, a click takes them to the desired page.
• Opera Link: With this feature users can synchronize their bookmarks and Speed Dial between their Mobile Phones and Desktop Computers.
• Download Manager: OMG, manage downloads form your smart device. This options lets users Pause and Resume downloads at will.
• Page Compression by about 90% ensures that browsing speed are greatly increased.
• Page Zoom.
• Password Manager: Users won’t have to remember those countless passwords instead the manager will store them on the Phone.
• Landscape Mode.

Download from the Opera Mini Page and better still watch the Demo via a neatly designed Simulator that will leave you dazed.

Sometime back I wrote about a bunch of useful Chrome extensions. Quite frankly one could have a separate Blog for the Chrome extensions because of the rate at which are coming up, and believe me some of them are very useful. This post is dedicated to some of the newer ones.

• Webpage Screenshot. This extension lets users take screenshots of the web pages they are viewing. The screenshots are taken in Jpg format. It is fast and simple to use. Users can choose the exact size before saving/capturing the page. This can also be done in offline mode, thus ensuring a user’s privacy. Download and install at the Webpage Screenshot page. 
• One Number. Remove the clutter on your Chrome toolbar with this extension which lets you have access to Gmail, Google Voice, Google Wave and Google Reader in one go. It also shows previews of unread items. One can can check the status of the desired service selectively or open up all unread items in all the four services. Can be downloaded from the One Number page.

The world at large downloaded and used Windows 7 RC innumerable times. some of us are still doing it. Well nothing comes for free and so the joyride is bound to end soon. From March 1, 2010 people using Win 7 RC will experience shutdowns after every 2 hours and sorry the documents they will be working on won’t be saved. As if this wasn’t enough the Win 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010 completely.

If this wasn’t enough the wallpaper will also change to the default Black with a message urging users to Upgrade or face the wrath of Microsoft. This will be followed by frequent notifications telling users that their Windows 7 version is not genuine. This will off course mean no more Windows 7 updates.

Users therefore should either buy a Windows 7 or switch to their previous version of Windows. More information is available at the Microsoft Knowledge Base and the Windows 7 Blog.

A cluttered Desktop is what we usually have, in Windows I mean. Organizing it is difficult if not impossible. I can tell by experience that most of place files, folders and frequently used app shortcuts on the Desktop. It is easier this way to access them instead of looking deep in to the hard drive or even the Programs Menu. A utility called “Fences” makes it easy to organize those innumerous icons on your desktop. The idea is simple, put fences around folders, icons or whatever and organize the dreaded Desktop.

This makes it easy to access them since they are organized better, besides it gives a good look to the whole setup. The Fences can be customized and given names according to one’s choosing. The utility is free for personal use and works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The Pro version costs $ 20.

Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are supported on Windows 7 and Vista. The application has been developed by Stardock, a company that specializes in Windows experience software and games. The app can be downloaded from download.com. Check out the screenshot below.

A Desktop Organized with Fences

It’s a busy world we are living in. Technology was supposed to make it more easy for us, but now its getting more complicated, we spend more time with gadgets just to make our lives easier and end up wasting more time. But there’s nor escaping it now, either go to the stone ages or do the techie thing. All right enough of this rambling, lets get to the point. Today we talk about online reminders, how do they work, are they useful and finally which ones to use?

Ok first things first, What is an online reminder?. An online reminder is simply an utility that is available via the web for reminding oneself about any upcoming event like a birthday, meeting, anniversary or whatever.

How does it work? Quite simple, you register via web, you are sent an email for verification purposes and you verify it, finally you start getting reminders in your mail box. (Some services also offer reminders via SMS)

Are they useful?  Obviously, that’s why there are so many of them. In order to use them you have to check your mail on daily basis at least, because otherwise it won’t make much sense. Given that most of us have an E-mail address and we check our mails more than once a day so an online reminder is a very useful service and more importantly because it comes for free. Check out some of these, they will do you good.