Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Lock & load, folks.  28 days ’til it’s ‘go’ time. 

A New Generation Revealed. Be part of this historic online event, featuring a live stream, video, images, updates and more.

DETAILS:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
10:00am

EVENT UPDATES: A New Generation Revealed

Yesterday, Microsoft launched an initiative focused on online privacy in order to communicate Microsoft’s concern for customer privacy and to empower users with knowledge that can help them protect their privacy online. 

It is also a reflection of the importance that our company’s leadership places in our privacy work.  The www.microsoft.com/yourprivacy web site guides consumers to learn how Microsoft can protect your privacy. 

There are also blogs on:

• Microsoft on the Issues blog from Mary Snapp
• Windows blog from Ryan Gavin

Recycle your old technology at the Microsoft retail store.

To get started, simply bring your computer, phone, or other device to the Answer Desk at the Microsoft retail store. We will appraise its value based on condition and current market value. If it’s determined to have value,* we will provide you with a Microsoft retail store credit.* If it doesn’t have value, we will wipe it of all data and safely recycle it for you. The process is fast, easy, and free of charge.

Devices accepted:

• Qualifying laptops and tablets.
• Cellular phones.
• Digital-audio players.
• Video-game consoles and games.

LOCATION:
Microsoft Store Los Angeles
(Westfield Century City)
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 228-3550

• OFFER: Recycle for Rewards Program
  http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Recycle

Wow.  Virgin Gaming just kicked it up a notch.  Presenting 3 ways to get PAID TO PLAY video games on Xbox 360.  Introducing the new “Xbox Tournaments” app featuring Virgin Gaming.  Here’s a video on how to download this FREE app and get started:

From Vertigo:

Gamers can participate in a variety of games and challenges for prize money. The platform supports several top games so it’s likely you can win prizes playing games that you already know and love. If your game isn’t there yet, no worries, more will be added in the future.

You don’t need to be a hard-core gamer to enjoy the platform either. Virgin Gaming has something for every skill level; even free tournaments if you’re not yet up to accepting a paid challenge. And if you’re not interested in a tournament, the app offers “Head to Head” matches, where players challenge each other to a game with a mutually agreed upon jackpot and rules. In addition, the application has deep integration with Xbox LIVE friends to make it easy to see what your friends are playing and then compete against them. After you win, share it with the world through in-app Facebook sharing.

Since your money is on the line, the application offers extensive information about gamers’ reputations, win/loss history, and feedback. Virgin Gaming also supports you through match support, instructional videos, and FAQs. You can also monitor your complete transaction history and make deposits directly into your gaming account via your Xbox LIVE account.

• WEB SITE:  Xbox Tournaments from Virgin Gaming
  http://xbox.virgingaming.com/
• ANNOUNCEMENT:  Xbox Tournaments App – 3 ways to get paid-to-play
  http://blog.virgingaming.com/2013/04/xbox-tournaments-app-3-ways-to-get-paid-to-play/
• GUIDE:  Step-by-step Instructions on how to set up the Xbox Tournaments app
  http://support.xbox.com/en-US/apps/xbox-tournaments/xbox-tournaments-setup

Mouse without Borders is a free tool that makes you the captain of your computer fleet by allowing you to control up to four computers from a single mouse and keyboard. This means that with Mouse without Borders you can work across computers.

• Drag and drop files
• Copy & past text and images
• Share one keyboard & mouse
• Lock & login all PCs at once
• Send screen cap from one PC to another

DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders (v2.1.2.1212, 1/28/2013)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35460

ANNOUNCEMENT: Original 1.0 Release Announcement (9/9/11)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/09/09/microsoft-garage-download-mouse-without-borders.aspx#.UXQI2Crn8eM

Interested in a tool that delays email transmission by 10 seconds minimally and provides both the ability “undo send” as well as send future transmission times for outbound email?

Here’s a free addin for Outlook that will allow you to do that:  “Mañana Mail”, a Microsoft Research add-in for Outlook.  Here’s the product description:

Faster is not always better. With the Mañana Mail add-in for Outlook, you can send an e-mail at 9am with a single click, and you can edit or cancel it up until that point. It also gives you about ten seconds to undo sending any email. Research shows that important emails are often not urgent. Give yourself the chance to think it over, and let the recipients read it carefully at work instead of while they are distracted at dinner.

The following are the instructions for the tool which are deposited into your inbox once installed on Outlook and you “stop & restart” the application.

Mañana Mail Instructions

Canceling or editing pending mañana mail
You can undo or edit mañana messages up until their scheduled delivery time.  To do this, click on the Outlook “Outbox” folder (on a computer with the Mañana add-in installed).  A separate window will open displaying the list of pending messages.  Mañana messages do not appear in your Outbox.  Clicking on the “x” next to a message will cancel the delivery and will re-open the message.  You may then either delete the message or edit it and send it again (either immediately or mañana).  Unfortunately, you cannot do this from your phone at present because there is no add-in available for the phone.

Sending mañana mail
If you send a message mañana, it will be delivered at 9:00am (or whatever your designated time is) regardless of whether or not your computer is on.  For example, if you are using a laptop computer, you may turn it off after sending.  It will appear in your “Sent Mail” after it is sent.  There are two ways to send mañana messages, but you must be using a computer with mañana mail installed (i.e., not from your phone).  First, when you are composing a message, you may press the “Send at 9:00am” button located in the Mañana section under the “Message” tab of the ribbon.  Alternatively, you have about ten seconds after you press send on a regular message to reconsider and click on the “Send at 9:00” button that appears in the floating blue box on the screen.  Note: mañana mail can only be sent when your computer is online and can connect to the Exchange server.

Changing the outgoing time for mañana mail
Click on “File”, “Options”, “Add-Ins”, “Add-in options” to change the time mañana messages are sent.

Undo
In the spirit of sending well thought out email, the Mañana add-in delays all outgoing messages by about ten seconds in order to give you an opportunity to cancel (undo) or send them mañana.  Simply look for the floating blue box after you click send.  Warning: if you close Outlook before the ten seconds have elapsed and the blue window has disappeared, mail may remain in the Outbox.

• DOWNLOAD: Mañana Mail – Outlook add-in (3.70 MB)
  http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/51921c43-790c-439c-bed4-b1823f937afd/default.aspx?utm_source=feedly
• MS Research Project Team for Mañana Mail
  http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/manana/default.aspx

If you’re looking for improved, manageable protection & monitoring of

Great news!  Today we are proud to announce a beta release of the next version of the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) – EMET 4.0.  Download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38761

EMET is a free utility that helps prevent memory corruption vulnerabilities in software from being successfully exploited for code execution.  It does so by opting in software to the latest security mitigation techniques.  The result is that a wide variety of software is made significantly more resistant to exploitation – even against zero day vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities for which an available update has not yet been applied.  We encourage you to test out the beta release by downloading and installing it, asking questions about the new features, and reporting any issues you find for us to address before the final release.  We plan to officially release EMET 4.0 on May 14, 2013.

…

Read more at:

• Microsoft Security Research & Defense: “Introducing EMET v4 Beta”
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2013/04/18/introducing-emet-v4-beta.aspx

Have you ever wanted to hand out a bunch of Windows tablets to an executive audience to allow them to view a PowerPoint presentation you were delivering from the tablets?

It’s not really that hard to set up.  The key is the ability to efficiently share your desktop screen across all the tablets over a wireless network.  This isn’t a problem if you have good bandwidth to the Internet & have a Lync 2013 infrastructure since delivering PowerPoint presentations over Lync is an inherent feature of the product.  But what if you don’t have good bandwidth (or ANY bandwidth to the Internet)… or maybe you don’t have the luxury of having access to a Lync infrastructure?

INTRODUCING TIGHT PROJECTOR:  MULTI-BROADCAST SCREEN SHARING
There’s a product called TightProjector that allows you to share your Windows desktop screen in real-time to multiple computers.

It is a very lightweight VNC-based solution that has a Windows ‘host’ agent and a Windows ‘client’ agent that installs on the respective PCs.  It lurks in the SysTray of your Windows computers and operates over a multicast UDP port. 

This has the benefit of:

• Unlimited Recipients: A single display stream can serve as many clients as you want on one network segment without degrading the quality of the transmission
• Client Auto-start:  When you begin transmitting from your ‘presenter’ PC, all clients can automatically clear their screens & switch to your display FULL SCREEN, effectively allowing you to “take command” what your clients see on their screens regardless of what they were doing previously.
• Display Only:  This transmits the display to all clients/recipients:  It does NOT allow clients to ‘take control’ of your PowerPoint or mess around with your desktop from their client screens.  It forces the viewer to watch what you’re displaying and follow along like a classroom.
• Works on all Windows:  To date, I’ve found this to work on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, AND Windows 8.  All work equally well and stream fine.

KNOWN ISSUES
It’s not a flawless configuration but it’s still very good. 

• Windows 8 Start Page: The only catch has been that since this is a desktop application, Windows 8 clients/recipients must be in the ‘desktop’ itself to see the screen broadcast, of course.  If the user goes to the Windows 8 “Start Page”, they will of course, no longer see the content you are broadcasting until they return to the desktop.
• Wireless Network:  You’ll obviously need a wireless network.  This can be rectified by bringing your own wireless access point with it’s own pre-tested DHCP server & having all the clients pre-configured to use it.  I have a Portable/Travel TrendNet Wireless Access Point that I use. 
  (WARNING:  Do NOT attempt to use a Portable/Cellular MiFi Access Point.  This should be obvious but in my experience, these devices sometimes don’t transmit Multicast UDP packets and more importantly, the lag from transmitting all the way to your cellular providers network and back is horrendous.)
• Lag/Frame Rate:  The frame rate over even the fastest networks will show a bit of lag and operates at ~10fps – not 30fps.  This is noticeable particularly during PowerPoint animations & transitions so be aware of this when planning.
• Esc key:  Users can ‘get out’ of the viewing session if they press ‘Escape’.  I’m working on a workaround for this however be aware that this can happen. 
• Client Hyper-V:  The virtual networking that is installed when the Client Hypervisor is installed on Windows 8 messes with Multicast UDP transmission specifically over WiFi.  In other words, you can’t ‘project’ or be the host if you have Client Hyper-V installed, but you can be a receiver.  I haven’t quite figured out why yet.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT FREE
For the “frugal” types, I’m sorry to say, this isn’t a free product but good things frankly usually aren’t.  If unregistered, the software will allow you to use it for 20min then it will shutdown.  If registered for $29, you can use a single host “projector” and an unlimited number of clients. 

Also remember:  This is ‘multicast UDP’ meaning that it will only likely work on a SINGLE LAN SEGMENT in your organization if you’re connected to a LAN.  It is in fact possible that your organization is passing multicast UDP across routers, but be aware that it is unlikely.

• DOWNLOAD: Tight Projector – Screen-sharing Utility ($29)
  http://www.tightvnc.com/projector/
  (Note:  There is also a site license option available for $99)

Wow.  Look what I uncovered.

You’ve been waiting for it and now it’s here!

We’re excited to announce that all of the great content from Lync Conference 2013 is now available for FREE! Go to LyncConf.com and click on Get Access Now to see all the session recordings and PowerPoints that made Lync Conference a bigger hit than we imagined.

Regardless if you are a novice user of Microsoft Project 2013 or you want to learn about IT Professional or developer topics, please consider our new quick start training for Project 2013 – it’s free and available on-demand!

Its over 9 hours content is divided into 13 modules and each module is broken down into individual videos so it’s even easier to pick the desired content – demos, slides or the entire module.

Modules 2 through 4 are providing overview of the new capabilities of Microsoft Project 2013 while modules 7 to 13 go deeper into IT Professional and developer topics. Please find the detailed description of individual modules below.

To review the training go here:

• TRAINING: Microsoft Project 2013 On-Demand Training
  http://technet.microsoft.com/projectserver/jj906608

[Hat tip to Angie Li-Clevenger, Microsoft Premier TAM, for forwarding this to me]