10 gifts to give your development team this holiday season

Show your developers how much you appreciate their hard work and loyalty by choosing from this list of gift ideas. Some are more tangible than others -- and some won't cost you a dime. view

Ten Quick Windows Phone 7 Tips and Tricks

I have disseminated the most useful tips into a handy list below. Here they are:  

1. Press and hold the Start button to access voice controls
2. Sync Windows Phone 7 with Outlook (sort of)
3. To quickly hard reset, hold volume up and down during phone startup.
4. When flipping through photos, pinch to zoome out to film-strip view.
5. When pinning a website to your Start screen from IE, the zoom level determines the picture used for the tile. So, zoom into the website's logo to get a more accurate photo.
6. When connected to headphones, you can change the volume without turning on the screen.
7. If you want to silence your phone and ignore a call when it comes through, tap the power button while the phone is ringing.
8. Tap and hold in about 25 places to bring up hidden options.
9. Use your device as portable storage (difficult).
10. Use wireless sync from Zune software to send multimedia wirelessly to your phone.


Microsoft said last week that nearly 3,000 apps are now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Ontrack Data Recovery

Disaster recovery and beyond:
2010 Data Disasters Challenge

Most Expensive Spirits in the World

10. $5,500 – Jenssen Arcana

Aged 98 years in Oak barrels, Jenssen’s Arcana is powerful, “ extraordinarily” concentrated and only bottled, sealed and certified upon request.

9. $6,000 – Hine Triomphe Talent De Thomas Hine Crystal Decanter

Each bottle of Hine’s high-end Talent de Thomas is bottled in a Baccarat decanter and placed within an actual cigar humidor made from Maccasar ebony and Honduran Mahogany which helps preserve the spirit’s delicate floral bouquet.

8. $6,400 – Frapin Cuvée 1888

A rare blend of Cognacs from Frapin’s reserves, the Cuvée is bottled beneath a 24-karat gold stopper in a twisty crystal decanter that looks like a prop from a community Shakespeare staging. Flowery flavors combine with sweet spices, honey and toasted vanilla notes.

7. 7,500 – Martell Creation Cognac In Handcarved Baccarat Decanter

Martell’s rare cognac is a “ reinterpretation” of a batch first casked at the start of the 19th century. The Grand Extra has a soft flavor that starts as dried fruit and marmalade and fades into notes of walnuts and cedarwood.

6. $7,900 – Le Voyage de Delamain

A blend of cognacs from Delamain, Le Voyage was bottled in 500 crystal decanters, most of which were quickly bough tor reserved by eager collectors. It’s rumored to have a complex taste that fades from Russian leather to tobacco, coffee and Eastern spices.

5. $12,900 – Hardy Perfection 140 years Cognac

Supposedly the “World’s oldest known unblended cognac”, this offering from Hardy was limited to 300 Daum crystal decanters. It’s an exceedingly rare cognac that is said to taste of coffee, chocolate and oak. 

4. $55,000 – Remy Martin Cognac Black Pearl Louis XIII

When you swish Remy Martin’s deep amber-colored Black Pearl Louis XIII around in your mouth, you’re actually tasting 40 to 100-year old cognacs blended together. The swill is said to smell of flowers, fruits and spices,it’s flavor a mixture of ginger, cinnamon and Cuban cigars. 

3. $200,000 – Hennessy Beaute du Siecle Cognac

Insert a bronze key, turn, and Hennessy’s Baccarat crystal-bottled Beaute du Siecle rises up on a tray. Housed in a melted aluminum and mirrored glass case this mixture is blended from Hennessy’s reserves of 47 to 100-year-old cognacs.

2. $1,060,000- DIVA Premium Vodka

Made with natural spring water and triple-distilled: first ice-filtered, then filtered through Nordic birch charcoal, and finally passed through a sand made from crushed diamonds and gems. Each bottle contains a glass center filled with precious or semi-precious jewels, including diamonds. The jewels vary and so does the price, depending upon which jewels you choose.

1. $2 million – Henri IV, Cognac Grande Champagne

This cognac comes in a crystal bottle dipped in 24K yellow gold and sterling platinum (four kilograms of precious metal) and decorated with 6,500 certified brilliant-cut diamonds, master-crafted by the well-known jeweler, Jose Davalos. Inside is 100 cl. of Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne that has been aged in barrels for more than one hundred years to produce an alcohol content of 41 percent.