Kurt Shintaku's Blog

On-Demand: Surface 2 Launch Event
Watch the on-demand presentation of the Monday, Sept. 23, Surface 2 launch event in New York City here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/surface/surfaceevent.aspx

Review the Press materials & the Announcement here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/sep13/09-23surface2pr.aspx

For those without the time to review everything in the video, here are my notes from the event:

————————

Surface Pro 2

• Best selling device in it’s class
• Cleartype 1080 HD display
• 46% more color accuracy to the screen – true colors! Really important for professionals, photos, editing movies
• Speakers – Boosted, added Dolby to dramatically improve audio
• FAST – Fastest device ever; faster than 95% of all laptops today
• Graphics improvement by 50%
• CPU performance improvement by 20% – lightning fast
• Kickstand
• Disappears when you don’t need it
• Sounds like a high end car door, feels good
• Now two tilted angles for the kickstand for taller people or people using it in their la
• Battery
• Added Haswell
• Cooler, quieter
• Focused on more battery 75% improvement in battery life 4-5 to 7-8.7

Surface 2 (ARM)

• Performance Improvements
• Double bus speed for wifi
• Double bus speed for memory
• Dramatically increased compute
• Overall 3-4x faster
• 72 cores on GPU
• Silver Magnesium casing
• 3 pieces to 2 pieces of magnesium – thinner walls
• Lighter & thinner
• Upgrades
• Now USB 3.0, not 2.0
• 1080 resolution, doubled the pixels of the display
• 50% less reflectivity of any other tablet
• Two level kickstand
• 25% battery life added (12 hours)
• HDMI out
• USB Wireless
• Windows 8.1
• Will run 3 apps on the same screen simultaneously now
• User switching for families with multiple people logging in with different profiles
• Lock down for children – personalization
• 100,000 apps – Mint, Facebook, Flipboard, NFL Fantasy
• Multitasking gaming & desktop
• Office
• Word, PowerPoint, Excel… and now Outlook!
• Surface 2 camera
• Back camera – 5MP
• Front camera – 1/3^rd in sensor, lowlight camera
• Skype for Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2
• Free international calling for 1 year
• Free Skype WiFi for 1 year
• SkyDrive – Everything saved
• Sync seamlessly
• 200GB for 2 years
• $449 Price

Accessories

• Power Cover
• New Type Cover with 30Whr battery addon
• 2.5x battery life from original product 4-5 to 10-12.5 (3-3.75)
• Feels good, forms like a book, looks beautifu
• Dock
• Never need to remove cover
• Displayport, Power, 2 monitors, 1 USB 3, 2 USB 2
• Drives 4K monitors
• DEMO: Red Dragon demo from Assimilate
• 6K raw video
• Input & edi
• Type Cover 2
• Took a lot of feedback around Productivity
• Colors! New Purple, Pink, Blue, Black
• Keyswitch is shorter, thinner, stronger, faster & silent, backlit (Fades on & off) – Almost as thin as Touch Cover
• Touch Cover 2
• Uniformly backlit
• 2.5mm thin
• Turns off when not being used, auto turns on whe
• 1092 sensors – Touch cover
• Faster scanning rate – pick up typing faster. Can’t miss a key
• Predictive typing
• Type Cover 2, Touch Cover 2 works with old and new Surface
• GESTURES available on Touch Cover
• “Blades” – Design Concepts & Ideas (These are just ideas & not production!)
• Solar Panel
• Painting
• Toy interactive
• Jewelry
• Piano
• Surface Music Kit – Available 10/22
  This last one, “Music Kit”, is real – coming to provide base level DJ capabilities to Surface

Estimated Price

• Surface Pro
• 64 GB/4GB of RAM + Surface pen $899
• 128 GB/4GB of RAM + Surface pen $999
• 256 GB/8GB of RAM + Surface pen $1,299
• 512 GB/8GB of RAM + Surface pen $1,799
• Surface 2
• 32 GB $449
• 64 GB $549
• Accessories
• Touch Cover 2 $119.99
• Type Cover 2 $129.99
• Power Cover $199.99
• Touch Mouse $69.99
• Dock Station $199.99
• Wireless Keyboard Adapter $59.99
• Car Charger $49.99

Usable storage (for North America)

• Surface 2
• 32 GB - 18 GB free
• 64 GB 47 free
• Surface Pro 2
• 64GB 37 free
• 128GB, 97 free
(Additional space by moving 4GB recovery image from drive to USB recovery key.)

Pre-Ordering/Availability:

• Preorders available NOW online (9/24) – http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/pre-order
• Preorders available at Microsoft Stores – CALL STORE
• Shipping/Available October 22^nd

Another free eBook from Microsoft Press.  This one is for System Center Orchestrator!

Welcome to Microsoft System Center: Designing Orchestrator Runbooks. We believe that orchestration and automation are becoming increasingly important in IT organizations of all sizes and across all infrastructure types ranging from on-premises to cloud-based. Orchestration and automation can help reduce the cost of IT while improving consistency and quality of IT service delivery. Like any powerful technology. however, it can be both used and abused.

Our objective with this book is to provide a framework for runbook design and IT process automation to help you get the most out of System Center Orchestrator 2012 and to help you utilize Orchestrator in concert with the rest of the System Center for an enterprise-wide and systematic approach to process automation. We will provide detailed guidance for creating what we call “modular automation” where small, focused pieces of automation are progressively built into larger and more complex solutions. We detail the concept of an automation library, where over time enterprises build a progressively larger library of interoperable runbooks and components. Finally, we will cover advanced scenarios and design patterns for topics like error handling and logging, state management, and parallelism. But before we dive into the details, we’ll begin by setting the stage with a quick overview of System Center 2012 Orchestrator and deployment scenarios.

Download the PDF version of this title (186 pgs, 8.77MB) here and the companion content here (296 KB). You can get the EPUB version here and the MOBI version here.

Read more here:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2013/09/18/free-ebook-system-center-designing-orchestrator-runbooks.aspx

Interested in Surface 2 & Surface Pro 2 in Los Angeles? 

Come see an exclusive briefing on the new releases, directly from Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Panos Panay – the creator of Surface.

Get an insider’s glimpse into the most productive tablet on the planet! You’re invited to a one-of-a-kind sneak peek at the brand new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. Panos Panay, the creator of Surface, will demonstrate its cool new features for a select audience at our exclusive launch event. Test drive the brand new devices before anyone else and before it’s even available for purchase. Space is limited, so register today.

TIME/DATE:
Oct 2nd
5:30PM-6:30PM

LOCATION:
Microsoft Store Century City
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, California

REGISTRATION:
https://www.facebook.com/events/339370852875627/
(Click JOIN to register)

We keep talking about how Microsoft is entering a New Era.  This is usually in the context of our shift to a company focusing on devices & services.  But apparently this applies to Microsoft in more than one way.

Here’s something that I never thought I’d see:

That’s Microsoft Corporate VP of Windows Devices, Panos Panay, hugging ZDnet blogger & Microsoft reporter, Mary Jo Foley, who is mentioned immediately before Panos refers to a funny hypothetical situation involving the media.  (And if you look carefully, you can see Windows expert & all-around-curmudgeon Paul Thurrott to the right, facing her and laughing as she holds Panos’ locked down Surface 2 which contains the Surface product roadmap for the next 3 years)

My how times have changed.

But then again, there’s been other things announced recently that I only thought would happen when pigs flew.  In the meantime, check out a rather humorous & historic moment at 44:50 in the Surface 2 On-Demand Launch video below.

• VIDEO: Surface 2 Launch Event – On-Demand
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/surface/surfaceevent.aspx

As many of you know, Oracle Openworld was held this week in San Francisco. Below, is a link to Brad Anderson’s keynote address which outlines the Microsoft Oracle partnership in more detail and also speaks to the opportunity for Microsoft customers to leverage a singular cloud platform supporting multiple workloads.

• Brad Anderson’s keynote address at Oracle Openworld
  http://medianetwork.oracle.com/video/player/2689606459001

What was announced by Microsoft:

• Microsoft is offering a preview of license-included Windows Server virtual machine images running Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java Development Kit. You can download it now here.
• Oracle is also offering bring-your-own-license Oracle Linux virtual machine images running Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server in Windows Azure

What was announced with Oracle?

• Fully-supported Oracle software, including Java, Oracle Database, and Oracle WebLogic Server, on both Windows Server Hyper-V and Windows Azure.
• A Windows Azure preview of license-included Windows Server virtual machine images running Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, and the Java Development Kit.
• Bring-your-own-license Oracle Linux virtual machine images running Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server – published to the Windows Azure image gallery by Oracle.

What is being announced with Azul Systems & MS Open Tech?

• Free and open source technology preview for Azul Systems Zulu: OpenJDK for Windows Azure
• Offering is based on the Java 7 SE OpenJDK implementation and has passed all Java certification tests in the Java SE 7 version of the OpenJDK Community TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit)
• Supports Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 on Azure
• Simplified deployment of Java applications on Windows Azure through the existing Windows Azure Plugin for Eclipse with Java

Read more here:

• Oracle OpenWorld 2013: Oracle’s Mission-critical Software and Microsoft’s Enterprise-grade Cloud
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/2013/09/24/oracle-openworld-2013-oracle-s-mission-critical-software-and-microsoft-s-enterprise-grade-cloud.aspx)

PROBLEM:
When opening a rights-managed email within Outlook, have you ever seen an error with Windows Rights Management on your desktop that reads:

“You do not have permission to open this message.”

And this occurs even though you know should have permission to access the email.

Or maybe when you attempt to “Connect to server to download rights management templates” from within an email message or an open Word document, you either get NO RESPONSE or you get the following error dialog:

“To use content with restricted permission you must reinstall and repair the Windows Rights Management components.  If the problem continues, contact your administrator.”

SOLUTION:
This took a while for me to dig up internally here at Microsoft so I figured this might be useful for others to know.

OUTLOOK 2013:
The following troubleshooting steps (below) resolved my issue for Outlook 2013.  More specifically, the specific resolution was using the following command using an admin elevated command prompt:

rd /q /s "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSIPC"

After a quick restart of Outlook, I was able to not only open rights managed emails but also create rights managed content throughout Office. Yay!

OUTLOOK 2010:
I’m told that Outlook 2010 is slightly different.  I’ve never tried this since I don’t run Outlook 2010 but for those interested:

1. Go to the path:
c:\users\username\appdata\local\microsoft\DRM

2. Delete all the contents under the folder DRM except for the folder “cc” under it.

3. Restart Outlook

Yesterday, our CEO, Steve Ballmer delivered Microsoft’s message to financial analysts.  During the presentation he “clarified” where Microsoft stands in terms of ongoing profit & investor return.

If you really want to understand Microsoft’s business, may I recommend following the money?  This is where you’ll get real insight into Microsoft’s present & future business.

For example, Microsoft sells on volume:  We’re pretty good at it & we do this across 12 different $1B businesses, diversifying how we make money.  See the graphic to the right.

And by the way, I have the say, the slide below presented by Steve is awesome.  And it’s just a taste of what’s in the video recording.  Have look see.

• VIDEO: Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting
  http://www.microsoft.com/investor/Events/FAM/2013/default.aspx

We will be holding the next meeting of the Southern California System Center Users Group at Microsoft in Irvine.

If you’re interested in participating, you’re welcome to join. The agenda & presentation will be delivered by Microsoft Datacenter specialists along with community members leveraging Windows Server & System Center technologies.

We currently have over 25 people registered from various businesses in SoCal so this should be an interesting discussion amongst birds-of-feather.

AGENDA: (September)

• System Center and Windows Server 2012 R2 Overview
  Join us to learn about the news features coming in System Center and Windows Server 2012 R2- Preview. Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview and System Center 2012 R2 Preview offer a great foundation for our customers to deliver private and hybrid cloud services to their constituents. Learn more about how to make it easy and cost-effective to set up on-premises or hosted cloud infrastructure while meeting critical multi-tenancy, manageability and chargeback requirements. This will includes the following : Service Manager, Operations Manager, Orchestrator, Virtual Machine Manager, App Controller, Configuration Manager, and Data Protection Manager.
• Windows Azure Pack
  With the Windows Azure Pack, Microsoft is bringing Windows Azure Web Sites to the private cloud. By enabling easy provisioning, deployment, and administration of web sites, hosting service providers or enterprises can now deliver web platform services outside of Azure datacenters. Products covered include Windows Server, Windows Azure Pack, IIS, Application Request Routing, Web Deploy, and Web Farm Framework.

Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Please be aware that the Microsoft office does not provide parking validation.

DATE:
Monday, September 23, 2013 from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (PDT)

LOCATION:
Microsoft Irvine Office
3 Park Plaza Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

REGISTRATION:
http://mscscug-irvine-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Q: What’s the point of having touch on a laptop display? 

If you’ve ever had a laptop with a touch screen, you’ve probably had the experience of working on a non-touch laptop and intuitively reaching out to the screen to “scroll” down a page, then laughing at yourself when it doesn’t work & resolving to have to find the mouse to accomplish the same task.

But that’s exactly it:  Why’d you reach out to touch the screen?  Why didn’t you instinctively reach for the mouse or press the down arrow on your keyboard instead?

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH NATURAL USER INTERFACE
It’s simple:  Because it’s faster, easier, and more natural to touch a screen when your hands aren’t already on the mouse/keyboard.  The fact is that we don’t always have our hands on the keyboard or the mouse, and during the times when we don’t, by reaching out to the screen and scrolling, we eliminate the process of changing our mind’s context, if ever so slightly, to first suddenly having to find the mouse or the down arrow on the keyboard and then refocusing on the screen to scroll/zoom/slide to where we want.

The simple elimination of this “locate-the-mouse” step is not just gratifying in it’s embrace of the natural user experience – it’s actually more productive, if for just that moment, and our mind’s subconsciously recognize this & appreciate the ease by which we were able to accomplish the scrolling, sliding, zooming, or whatever it is we needed to do on the display.

Personally, I believe this little bit of productivity allows people to work for longer periods of uninterrupted time.

KEYBOARD & MOUSE JOCKEYS:  LET IT GO
I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch (touchscreen laptop) and the freedom to touch the screen and scroll/zoom/slide, as I mentioned, is actually a productivity enhancer.  You know it’s more productive when you use it… you just can’t put your finger on why.

It’s all about eliminating context changes while working.  Refocusing on the mouse.  Refocusing on the display.  Refocusing on the keyboard.  Instead, when you use your finger, you cut short that context change because your brain doesn’t need it.  It’s like a shortcut.

And the proof is in the pudding:  The number of people I’ve talked to that have actually made the transition to a touch laptop and laughed about being one of the “converted” are more than I can count.

This increased productivity during the workday is tangible and a sort of “secret sauce” of Windows 8-based laptops.  This is what a lot of people who cavalierly dismiss touch laptops don’t understand.

Please join us this Sunday, September 22^nd at 2pm for our Cre8tive Workshops Launch Event on Film Making.

Aspiring filmmakers will not want to miss actor and Academy Award winning director Adam Davidson as he debuts his digital short film in-store utilizing Windows Movie Maker. Adam is best known for his work as Director of The Lunch Date, which won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1991 and the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. He is a notable an in-demand director of many television series including Community (NBC), Friday Night Lights (NBC), Entourage (HBO), and True Blood (HBO).

While there, you’ll get an insider’s look at Hollywood filmmaking with an up close and personal exclusive Q&A with Adam. You can also register to attend a two hour hands-on Cre8tive Movies workshop where you’ll learn how to breathe life into a photographic story by adding motion. Using Windows Movie Maker, learn to bring together photos, videos, art, sound effects and music to make a vivid vibrant animated presentation. Get ready to write your very own Academy Award acceptance speech!

Register today!
http://content.microsoftstore.com/en-us/event/detail/westfieldcenturycity?eid=26793afa-410f-e311-87cf-00155d7d361b

You can also check us out on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/events/1413102112235422/