Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Treyarch invaded the Microsoft Store in Century City!  Alright, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but with the Activision Treyarch development team of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 local to here in Los Angeles, we had a large number of developers on site signing autographs and generally having a helluva time as a team as their product successfully made it to market as likely one of the most highly anticipated Xbox 360 titles of this generation.

At the “Midnight Madness” launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 at the Microsoft Store in Century City, over a 100+ people waited in line to get their copy of CODBO2 at the stroke of midnight, but also play the game for the first time on the Microsoft Store’s 105” screen and compete in a CODBO2 tournament, the winner of which got an Xbox 360.  Numerous prizes were given out via the event sponsor, V-Moda, high end audio equipment & peripherals provider for gamers & audiophiles alike.

Signing posters and game jewel box covers, the Treyarch staff made sure everyone knew that the makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 were “in the house”.  It’s good to know that some companies still know how to party it up & play hard.

The crowd was around that of Halo 4’s launch but more importantly it was LOUD.  There seemed at times like there were twice as many people there due to the amount of sound emanating from the store.  I personally didn’t see him because I arrived late but I was told that earlier in the night, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, stopped by to poke his head in and support his guys.  If this is true, well played, Bobby.

Interestingly, Treyarch has introduced an exciting new “Zombie” scenario in Black Ops 2 where it’s a kill or be killed sort of game mode involving infections and your typical zombie apocalypse type of play… except with the distinction of CODBO2 flair, gamesmanship, & strategy.  In my observation, this new feature seemed to have several adhoc gamers intrigued even more than the campaign or the conventional multiplayer.

Congratulations Treyarch & Activision.  You guys were great launch partners & you made a disgustingly fun game.  I look forward to pwning you all on Xbox Live.

This just in:

We invite you to download and try the MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219165

During the beta period, you can try the latest version of the MAP Toolkit and provide your valuable feedback to the MAP Toolkit engineering team. 

Once you download and try the MAP 8.0 Beta, you will have the opportunity to provide your feedback through a survey, which will enable you to earn a sweepstakes entry to win an Xbox 360 console with Kinect or other prizes!

It all starts with a simple download. Please take a minute to download the MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta now and find out about the new features:

Key features and benefits of MAP 8.0 help you:

• Determine your readiness for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
• Assess readiness for Office 2013
• Assess migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machine
• Track Lync Enterprise/Plus users

We look forward to having you involved in our beta program and hearing your thoughts on the features we’ve added.

Sincerely,
The MAP Toolkit Team

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit 8.0 Beta
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219165

The entire 147 page “Windows 8 for Dummies” (Dell Pocket Edition) is available for free via Dell’s web site.

10.67MB in size, this eBook is is actually a good primer for folks that are completely new to Windows 8.  And there’s a lot of folks that fall into this category.

1. The New Start Screen
2. The Traditional Desktop
3. Storage: Internal, External, and in the Sky
4. Working with Apps
5. Engaging the Social Apps
6. Getting Connected and Having Fun through the Start Screen
7. Ten Things You’ll Hate about Windows 8 (And how to Fix them)

• DOWNLOAD: "Windows 8 for Dummies” – Dell Edition
  https://marketing.dell.com/windows-8-ebook

This is my favorite use case of my Surface, and it’s something that people don’t think of:

SITUATION:

• My wife likes Angry Birds. 
• I like RSS feeds & Twitter. 

…but with Surface, we can do both at the same time on a single device with a large screen!

”SO HAPPY TOGETHER”

What makes this possible is that Surface can multitask two apps at the same time simply by splitting the screen using a mode called “SnapView”.  When we’re sitting at a coffee shop, my wife & I will both huddle around one Surface while we’re sipping our coffee:

• She’ll use the majority of the screen for Angry Birds, launching birds at the pigs in ‘Angry Birds Space’. 
• Meanwhile, I’ll use the minority of the screen for scrolling & reading through the RSS feeds aggregator that I use, which is usually an app called ‘Feed Reader’.

(See below for a snapshot of this.  Incidentally, I noticed that the division of screen real estate on the Surface is a lot like the allocation of space distributed in our master bedroom closet. :-))

MULTITASKING + MULTITOUCH = WINNING
The key here is that we both use one Surface at the same time.  Combine this with the fact that Surface also supports 5 points of touch on the screen simultaneously… both of us can interact with our respective applications on one screen at the same time. 

…and it works really well!  Give it a try!

Angry Birds Space… & Feed Reader (RSS reader)

Angry Birds Star Wars… and MetroTwit (Twitter app)

The other day, I asked myself, “Why would anyone choose the ASUS VivoTab RT TF600T Tablet over a Microsoft Surface for Windows RT?  What, with the VaporMg chassis of Surface, the keyboard technology, the kickstand… why go anywhere else?

It turns out… there’s a LOT of reasons.  Here’s a list of capabilities that the ASUS VivoTab RT comes with for $599:

• SonicMaster Audio 
  (Surface has basic audio)
• 2MP front facing camera, 8MP rear facing camera
  (Surface as a sub-1MP front facing camera for both front & rear)
• 1.19lb Weight
  (Surface is 1.49lbs)
• KEYBOARD DOCK (INCLUDED):  Firm keyboard included
  (Surface’s keyboard is thin & light, but less rigid for on lap use)
• KEYBOARD DOCK (INCLUDED):  Extended battery built-in
  (Dock doubles battery life to 16hrs; Surface kybd does not extend battery)
• KEYBOARD DOCK (INCLUDED):  Extra USB Port
  (Surface keyboard does not provide USB port)

I certainly don’t think it’s as durable as Surface given that I have first hand knowledge of how strong the casing is, however if that’s a trade off you’re willing to make, the Asus may be a good choice for you.

• Read for more information about the Asus VivoTab RT:
  http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/ASUS-VivoTab-RT-TF600T-Tablet/productID.258320000/search.true?WT.mc_id=Email_NewWin8PCs_Online_11-2-12_CTA_Asus
• For more information about the FREE keyboard dock: (Until Dec 31st, 2012)
  http://event.asus.com/Vivotab/Mobile_Dock/?Icid=Asus_Dock_Offer

Attention Contoso fans!  Have we got a line of fashionwear for you:

• Men’s T-shirts
• Women’s fitted t-shirts
• Magnets
• Coffee mugs
• Magnets
• Water bottles

Next up… Adventure Works branded gear?  Fabrikam stock certificates?  Windermere paraphernalia?  Oh wait a second… that last one is REAL. 

• LINK: Contoso Merchandise
  http://www.cafepress.com/windowsphone/9195652

Until yesterday, I’d never encountered any problem with the Surface worth writing about.  My issues were mainly usability concerns and basic 1.0 sort of issues.

APPS CRASHING TO THE DESKTOP
However recently an issue has been cropping up every so often.  When I run the "Finance" application, the requisite ‘Loading…’-ish screen comes up… then after a few seconds, it suddenly displays the Desktop, as if the application crashed and the default reaction is to go to the Desktop environment instead of the START menu.  Also the Explorer environment (the taskbar, system tray, etc.) looks like it’s crashed & is being reloaded, as if I’d killed EXPLORER.EXE and it was bringing itself back.  This in it of itself isn’t that big a deal in that usually if I attempt to run the app again, it will load.

A SUDDENLY EMPTY TASK BAR?
The issue is that immediately after the crash, if you bring up the Windows 8’s "Task Bar" a.k.a. WinKey-Tab/Swipe Left to view the running apps in memory, NOTHING APPEARS.  It’s as if all the running apps got deregistered from the Task Bar… but they’re still running in the background.  The reason I know they’re still running is that there’s no load time if I attempt to run any programs I believed were previously loaded. 

For example:  If I had previously run Mail, Calendar, MetroTwit, and Internet Explorer M-tro before this "Finance crash" occured, I can return to the START page, run "Mail" and it’ll pop right up without any load time.  Because it was still in memory.  Once I do this, the app (in this case, “Mail”) does appear in the Task Bar and can be switched to.

I considered a few possibilities:

• The Finance App is buggy.
  The problem with this theory is that the crash clearly affects the operating system.  By having a “blank” Task Bar from Windows 8, that tells me that there’s more at work here than the app itself – especially considering every app is sandboxed to protect one apps issues from impacting another running app.
• My Surface is damaged.
  Some of you may know about the well-publicized fall of my Surface from the roof of my car while driving.  This did occur to me that the fall might have somehow caused some damage from the impact… however I’ve now seen these symptoms on BOTH of my Surface RT devices (I own 2) and I’ve seen it also on the Windows 8 LAPTOP that I’m typing this post on right now.  The Mail app did the same behavior as the Finance app not more than 5 min ago.
• Windows 8 has a bug.
  This is the most likely scenario.  The question is where?  And how do we fix it?

This is a problem. I don’t want my Surface crashing on a customer who’s just having fun jamming away on it.  Must.  Fix.  Now!

• FIX ATTEMPT #1:  REBOOT
  I tried the ol’ tried and true tactic of rebooting thinking it was a temporary condition.  Unfortunately in this case, it was not.  I’ve heard that this has fixed the issue for some but definitely not for me.  The Finance app still resulted in the same issues.
• FIX ATTEMPT #2:  UNINSTALL/REINSTALL
  I attempted to uninstall the Finance app and reinstall it from the Store but an interesting thing happened: The reinstall appeared to leverage some locally cached copy because there was NO download time (the app is 16.5MB and should have at least taken a second or two over my 3Mb DSL) and the installation was near instantaneous despite "supposedly having uninstalled" the Finance app. And of course the issue remained.  <sad trombone here>
• FIX ATTEMPT #3:  “REFRESH YOUR PC WITHOUT AFFECTING YOUR FILES”
  Running out of things to try, I attempted my very first SETTINGS – GENERAL – “Refresh your PC with affecting your files”. It’s supposed to be a complete OS refresh while keeping applications, user data/documents, and application & profile settings completely intact.  I’ve never actually done this before and if this didn’t work, I was going to shift gears and try "Remove everything and reinstall Windows" as a last ditch attempt to get things fixed. Because clearly something was either wrong with the Finance app… but probably something was likely wrong with the OS as well given the sudden "task bar" corruption that I was experiencing.

And lo and behold, it seemed to work. After about 15 mins of reinitializing the device, everything works great.  All my Windows Store bought apps were still there as was my documents & configuration information information.  There was a little bit of resetting that needed to be done to my START page layout but other than that, things were tip top.

So if you’re running into the same problem, maybe this will work for you!

Did you know that Microsoft has produced and is proactively patching the Flash Plug-in in Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8/RT?  Yup.  That’s one less thing to have to worry about if you deploy Windows 8.

I think it’s lost on some people that the Flash plug-in that comes with IE 10 is a MICROSOFT-MANAGED PRODUCT.  It’s proactively patched & maintained as part of the Windows operating system through Windows Update as you can see from the above snapshot from on one of my Windows 8 PCs.

And it’s good thing too:  If you’ve seen Kaspersky’s latest list of “Top 10 vulnerabilities”, you’ll see a familiar name shows up several times:

1. Oracle Java Multiple Vulnerabilities: DoS-attack (Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges) and Cross-Site Scripting (Gain access to sensitive data). Highly Critical.
2. Oracle Java Three Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Extremely Critical.
3. Adobe Flash Player Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Gain access to sensitive data. Highly Critical.
4. Adobe Flash Player Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Bypass security systems. Highly Critical.
5. Adobe Reader/Acrobat Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Extremely Critical.
6. Apple QuickTime Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Highly Critical.
7. Apple iTunes Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Highly Critical.
8. Winamp AVI / IT File Processing Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Highly Critical.
9. Adobe Shockwave Player Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Highly Critical.
10. Adobe Flash Player Multiple Vulnerabilities: Gain access to a system and execute arbitrary code with local user privileges. Bypass security systems. Gain access to sensitive data. Extremely Critical.

SharePoint Mobile app for Windows Phone 7.5/8 is now available for free off the Windows Phone App Store.

SharePoint Mobile for Windows Phone makes it easy to stay connected with your colleagues using SharePoint’s social features. You can post to newsfeeds on all your SharePoint sites, follow people, documents, and tags, and lots more.

I’ve had the fortune of using this in beta for a while now and it’s definitely great for folks setting up microblogging in their environment and want direct access to feeds within their SharePoint environment from their Windows Phone.

There are some caveats however.  The SharePoint app was designed to work both online with the new Office 365 and SharePoint 2013 on-premises deployments (which require additional UAG components to make SharePoint data beyond any established firewalls). However, the current Windows Phone 7.5 app does not support NTLM authentication for on-premise deployments.

• DOWNLOAD: SharePoint Mobile for Windows Phone
  http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=a4bc0440-f01e-4ca0-ba04-a01ab2e5b9d2

I asked some folks in “a position to know” some questions about the Mail client within Windows 8 / RT and here’s some of the responses:

• Does the Mail app include calendar and contact support?
  Yes.  The Mail application is actually one component of the larger “communication” app that provides the Mail, Calendar, People, and Messenger functionality.  (It’s one app with four entry points.)
• What mail protocols does the Mail app support?
  Exchange ActiveSync and IMAP.  (There is no POP3 support.)
• Can you use the Mail app without specifying a Microsoft account?
  No, you must connect a Microsoft account (a.k.a. Live ID) before you can add other mail accounts.
• Can the Mail app read RMS-protected (IRM) e-mails?
  No.  It is possible to open RMS-protected Office documents, but these would need to be attached to unprotected e-mails.
• Can the Mail app accept or reject e-mail appointments?
  Yes, using the recently-released Mail app update.
• Can the Mail app access mail folders?
  Yes, with some limitations.  For example, it can’t create folders.
• When using Exchange ActiveSync, can you do a remote wipe of the entire device?
  No, the Mail app will remove all mail, contacts, and calendar entries, but it will not touch anything outside of that.
• When using Exchange ActiveSync, will the configured policies by enforced by the Mail app?
  Yes, the Mail app will set several policies on the Windows RT device based on the required Exchange ActiveSync settings.  See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.security.
  exchangeactivesyncprovisioning.easclientsecuritypolicy.aspx for the policies supported.  Note that you can’t set a policy to require encrypted external storage because Windows RT does not support encrypting external storage.
• Does the Mail app support client-side rules?
  No.
• Can I see free/busy information when scheduling an appointment using the Calendar app?
  No.
• Does the Mail app support S/MIME for signed e-mail?
  No.