Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Since being launched 2 months ago, Windows Phone has grown to 7% marketshare, overtaking iPhone which sits at 6%.  Yes, you read that correctly.  And this was accomplished with the release of the Nokia Lumia 800c, the Chinese CDMA version of last year’s smaller, less advanced model of the Lumia line which lacked 4G LTE capability:

• NEWS: “Windows Phone opens a can of whoopass in China, takes 7% of the market”
  http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-phone-opens-a-can-of-whoopass-in-china-takes-7-of-the-market

The bigger news is that Nokia’s flagship device, the Nokia Lumia 900, has been approved by China Telecom & the State Radio Regulation Committee and is set to be released for purchase in June 2012, just on the heels of the Lumia 800c’s incredible success:

• NEWS: “Nokia Lumia 900 approved for China and reportedly arriving in June”
  http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-900-approved-china-and-reportedly-arriving-june

The Nokia Lumia 900 is, for those unaware, the ‘showcase’ design that is taking the United States by storm through AT&T, effectively DOUBLING Windows Phone US Marketshare in it’s 2 months of existence from 1.8% to 3.6%.

• NEWS: “Kantar: Windows Phone climbs to 3-4% market share in major markets, may have overtaken Blackberry in USA”
  http://wmpoweruser.com/kantar-windows-phone-climbs-to-3-4-market-share-in-major-markets-may-have-overtaken-blackberry-in-usa/

For those looking at worldwide markets, this news follows the recent revelation that Windows Phone is outselling iPhone in Russia, with Nokia doing an effective job making the Lumia series the phone of choice for Symbian owners moving into the smartphone market.

• NEWS: “Windows Phone Devices Outselling iPhones In Russia”
  http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-devices-outselling-iphones-in-russia/

[photo taken by WPCentral, Daniel Rubino’s awesome Windows Phone web site, a member of Mobile Nations]

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted a list of the podcasts I’m currently listening to.  I realized that I’m asked for this list more often than I ever thought I would so I guess it’s time to promote this list to it’s own blog page as well as publish some of the new podcasts that got added to the ol’ OPML file for my Windows Phone podcast list.

In addition to the podcasts I’d listed before, here’s a little more of the stuff that keeps me awake while I’m driving from Irvine to Simi Valley to Pasadena to Downtown Los Angeles:

• Freakonomics Radio
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio 
  This isn’t obviously a ‘tech’ podcast however I think it appeals to the same audience in many ways because it’s thoughtful and insightful.  Stephen Dubner carries on the Freakonomics torch past the books he co-wrote with Steven Levitt, “Freakonomics” and “SuperFreakonomics”.  Every topic discussed on the show is backed by economic statistics, direct interviews, and reveals unlikely linkages between things like the motivations of public school teachers & Japanese sumo wrestlers.  Easy to listen to and entertaining to think about, this is one of my favorites.
• PC Perspective
  http://www.pcper.com/rss/podcasts.rss 
  Ryan Shrout, renown PC hardware expert and master of gaming rig components, continues to run his long-time podcast on the latest hardware, the most recently published benchmark tests, and the plans that hardware manufacturers have for evolving their product lines.  Always on the spot for improvements to components from Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and other major label manufacturers, this is an IT person’s must listen to podcasts.  Note that this is a different podcast that what is published by TWiT’s podcast network run by Leo Laporte. Ryan does a podcast called This Week in Tech Computer Hardware (TWiTCH) on that network that I also subscribe to but I think PC Perspective is better in some respects.
• What The Tech
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/Whatthetechgfq
  Andrew & Paul Thurrott talk openly about all thing techie, with a major on Microsoft related subjects being that Paul’s an expert on the subject.  This is a more free form discussion compared to the Windows Weekly podcast Paul does with Leo Laporte and can be more diverse and thus sometimes more interesting.  I listen to it when I can but I usually start with Windows Weekly because they talk about more timely matters but on the other hand, I don’t find myself facepalming like I do when listening to Leo’s “WTF?” type questions so often times, What The Tech is less aggravating to listen to.

I was looking something up and discovered that Quickstart Intelligence is delivering the BETA training (Official Microsoft Curriculum) for System Center 2012 Operations Manager & Configuration Manager.

• MS-10750 – Beta Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/Beta-Monitoring-Operating-Private-Cloud-System-Center-2012_2049.aspx
  Price: $2,795.00
  Software Assurance Value:5
  Duration:5 Days
• MS-10747 – Administering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/MS-10747-Administering-System-Center-2012-Configuration-Manager_2011.aspx
  Price: $2,795.00
  Software Assurance Value:5
  Duration:5 Days
• MS-10748 – Deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/MS-10748-Deploying-System-Center-2012-Configuration-Manager_2012.aspx
  Price: $1,795.00
  Software Assurance Value:3
  Duration:3 Days

They are also delivering 2 CUSTOM COURSES, which appear to be produced by Quickstart themselves.  They are NOT eligible for Software Assurance since they aren’t Official Microsoft Curriculum, but they may be interesting to the individual looking for this training.

• SCCM2012 – Mastering System Center Configuration Manager 2012
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/Mastering-System-Center-Configuration-Manager-2012_1991.aspx
  Price: $3,195.00
  Software Assurance Value:Not Eligible
  Duration:4 Days
• SCOM2012 – Mastering System Center Operations Manager 2012
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/Mastering-System-Center-Operations-Manager-2012_2015.aspx
  Price: $3,195.00
  Software Assurance Value:Not Eligible
  Duration:4 Days

We are pleased to announce the release of a new version of our Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) – EMET 3.0.

EMET it is a free utility that helps prevent vulnerabilities in software from being successfully exploited for code execution. It does so by opt-ing in software to the latest security mitigation technologies. 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 update has not yet been applied.

This new version of the tool being released today addresses top feedback themes we have heard from users: EMET needs more enterprise configuration, deployment and reporting options. We have seen growing interest in adoption from enterprise and large scale networks and this new version includes enhancements for that segment. Here are some of the highlights of and new features in EMET 3.0.

• Making configuration easy
• Enterprise deployment via Group Policy and SCCM
• Reporting capability via the new EMET Notifier feature

—————————-

BLOG POST ANNOUNCEMENT:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/05/15/introducing-emet-v3.aspx

SUPPORT ARTICLE:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2458544

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29851

Today we’re excited to share all session recordings from Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona with the greater Project community.

Over 1250 people from 44 countries made the trip–75% for the very first time. The week featured 94 handpicked sessions with 20 delivered by customers eager to share their experiences.

Many sessions were standing room only and from the evaluations, many only wished they could have attended more of them. Zach Heisinger, first time attendee, tells us he’s already looking forward to the next Project Conference. His only complaint? "I wish certain sessions could be offered more than once during the conference. That way I wouldn’t have to pick one great session over another great session." So, we’re excited to share these recordings with all of you as it represents a collection of the best content out there from our customers, partners, and industry leaders.

This year’s Conference focused on Project 2010 momentum and offered attendees both networking as well as training opportunities. We’ve said before, 2010 marks the biggest release in over a decade, but product innovation didn’t end with its release. You’ll find 87 recordings totaling over 100 hours of content. We suggest getting started by viewing both keynotes, first from Microsoft Office Division CVP Kirk Koenigsbauer and then from Microsoft Project GM Ludovic Hauduc. Then jump into some of the top rated sessions at the conference:

1. Deliver SharePoint Success: Key Steps to Reap the Business Benefits
2. Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for Using Project Server 2010
3. The painters, the policemen and the Pope…understanding task movement in Microsoft Project 2010
4. Take Your Project Reporting To the Next Level: Dashboards and Other Tools
5. YJTJ (Your Job Tool’s Job) ™ – Working in Concert with Microsoft Project
6. Unleashing the Value of Earned Value: Applying Schedule and Cost Controls to Measure Project Performance
7. Turning Project Data into Real World Reports: An Overview of Business Intelligence Options
8. Leveraging Project 2010 with Office 365 for Project Management Success
9. Be Loved By Your Development Teams: Using the Team Foundation Server – Project Server Connector
10. Microsoft Project Conference 2012 – Microsoft Project 2010 Desktop Overview

You can view all sessions on the Microsoft Project Showcase Channel:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/Search.aspx?phrase=microsoft+project+conference+2012&sf=ActiveStartDate

The Project Conference 2012 web site is here:
http://www.msprojectconference.com/Pages/default.aspx

For those of you attending E3 as our guests, here’s a few things to know:

NOT PUBLIC:
Something to remember is that E3 is not a public event & is 18 & over only.  It’s reserved for individuals in the Electronic Entertainment industry that have credentials to back it up.  They usually require that you provide two forms of proof that you are actually affiliated with the gaming industry.  Registration is typically several hundred dollars unless you have press credentials.

DATES/TIMES:
Show registration is open June 4-6^th from 8AM-6PM.  This is when you’d get your badge.
Show/expo floor opens June 5^th at 12Noon-6PM. On June 6^th and 7^th, it opens at 10AM and closes up at 5PM.
http://www.e3expo.com/show-info/1461/e3-2012-show-hours/

LOCATION:
Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, California 90015
http://www.lacclink.com/

PARKING:
Parking is $12 in the convention center however it may be full if you get there in the middle of the day.  The next available parking is “around” LACC including at LA Live, the restaurant and bar complex next door, which is typically $20.
http://www.e3expo.com/show-info/1103/frequently-asked-questions/

NEWS:
Upcoming news & pre-announcements are made on the E3 Insider web site – not on the E3EXPO.COM web site.
http://www.e3insider.com/

KEYNOTE:
The E3 keynotes are usually when the biggest news bullets are revealed.  Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Electronic Arts, and a couple others are usually the big keynotes that are covered by the press. 

The one that matters – the Microsoft keynote 🙂 – will be available on SPIKE TV but for those without SPIKE, it will be also available via Internet streaming over Xbox Live, so for Xbox 360 owners with Gold Accounts, there won’t be any need to try to attend the keynote since they’ll be able to watch it from the comfort of their own home.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/04/spike-tv-live-microsoft-xbox-entertainment-evolved-e3/

The first week of June 2012.  That’s the release week of the Windows 8 Release Preview. 

It was announced in Japan at the Windows 8 DevDays event by Microsoft’s President of the Windows Division, Steven Sinofsky.

Not much more to say than that.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dohollan/archive/2012/04/23/windows-8-release-preview-coming-june-2012.aspx

Join the MAP Toolkit 7.0 Beta Program!

Accelerate your journey to the cloud with MAP 7.0 Beta!
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit’s new capabilities help you assess the readiness of your environment for deploying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Beta. This update adds eight new scenarios that help you build the fabric of the future while supporting your business needs of today. Included are hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments to plan your deployment of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Beta, size your desktop virtualization environment, ready your information platform for the cloud with SQL Server 2012, and virtualize your existing Linux servers onto Hyper-V. The VMware migration assessment helps you identify opportunities to lower your virtualization costs with Hyper-V, and the licensing assessments now cover Lync 2010 Standard and reporting for active users. Download the MAP Toolkit 7.0 Beta and jumpstart your future today!

Key features and benefits of MAP 7.0 Beta help you:

• Determine your readiness for Windows Server 2012 Beta and Windows 8
• Virtualize your Linux servers on Hyper-V
• Migrate your VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V
• Size your server environment for desktop virtualization
• Simplify migration to SQL Server 2012
• Evaluate your licensing needs for Lync 2010
• Determine active users and devices

Key features and benefits in more detail:

Determine Windows 8 readiness
MAP 7.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT environment for your Windows 8 deployment. This feature evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which machines may require hardware upgrades.

Key benefits include:

• Assessment report and summary proposal to help you to understand the scope and benefits of a Windows 8 deployment.
• Inventory of desktop computers, deployed operating systems, and applications.

Assess Windows Server 2012 Beta readiness
MAP 7.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 Beta deployment. This feature includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating the machines that meet Windows Server 2012 Beta system requirements and which may require hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Virtualize your Linux servers on Hyper-V
MAP 7.0 Beta extends its server virtualization scenario to include Linux operating systems. Now, MAP enables you to gather performance data for Linux-based physical and virtual machines and use that information to perform virtualization and private cloud planning analysis for both Windows and Linux-based machines within the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track scenario.

Key features allow you to:

• Incorporate non-Windows machines into your virtualization planning.
• View consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures, including computing power, network, and storage architectures.
• Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures to help accelerate your planning of P2V migration to Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.
• Review recommended guidance and next steps using Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.

Migrate your VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V
MAP 7.0 Beta performs a comprehensive inventory of VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere and recommends which virtual machines are ready to migrate to Hyper-V. Use MAP along with the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) for an end-to-end migration solution. Key features include:

• Support for virtual machine migration requirements for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).
• A list of underutilized servers that can be virtualized using Hyper-V.
• A VMware Discovery Report that identifies already-virtualized servers running under VMware that can be managed with VMM or migrated to Hyper-V.
• A Microsoft Workload Discovery that identifies SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Exchange Server workloads deployed on VMware guests along with recommendations for migration to Hyper-V.

Size your server environment for desktop virtualization
MAP 7.0 Beta extends its desktop migration and virtualization capacity-planning capabilities with a new feature that supports desktop virtualization. With this, you can create a set of desktop workload models based upon performance data gathered from your environment and perform host capacity sizing for both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and session-based virtualization. Additionally, your desktop machines and devices are assessed for their ability to run Windows Thin PC. This feature helps customers and partners target candidate user populations for desktop virtualization, migrate to Windows Thin PC, and plan for the server capacity required to host and run session-based virtualization and VDI-based environments.

Simplify migration to SQL Server 2012
MAP 7.0 Beta simplifies your SQL Server inventory efforts. The latest version of the toolkit supports SQL Server 2012, with an updated SQL Server summary proposal, an overview of the benefits of SQL Server 2012, and a list of SQL Server editions discovered. This feature also includes a comprehensive report on the SQL Server licensing within your environment, reflecting the new SQL Server 2012 Licensing Models.

Assess your software usage and evaluate your licensing needs for Lync
The Software Usage Tracking feature in MAP 7.0 Beta is broadened to include Lync 2010. For Lync 2010, MAP provides a server inventory and software usage by device and user for Lync Standard features. MAP’s updated Software Usage Tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft products including Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and now Lync.

Enhance active devices scenarios
In response to the prevalence of user-based Enterprise Agreements, this MAP 7.0 Beta feature extends the existing active devices scenario by providing the ability to count users. Within an Active Directory environment, customers and partners can access both user and device counts in order to evaluate and manage their licensing requirements.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Assessment & Planning Toolkit 7.0 Beta
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219168

In all the hype over ARM this and ARM that… did you forget about Intel Clover Trail?

Dual core.  32 nm trace size. Integrated graphics acceleration. 9+ hrs of battery life.  And 100% x86 compatible.  It’s the more powerful big brother of Medfield.  In a small ceramic package.  Fit for portability.

Shipping in November.  Right after Ivy Bridge.  People that have ignored Intel, haven’t been very successful so y’better get ready.  Just sayin’.

• NEWS: Hybrid-Heavy Windows 8 Intel Tablet Lineup to Land in November
  http://www.dailytech.com/HybridHeavy+Windows+8+Intel+Tablet+
  Lineup+to+Land+in+November/article24672.htm

Are you a SharePoint administrator?  Does your company lack a Learning Management System?  Do you wish they did?

Guess what?  SharePoint has a FREE lightweight Learning Management System available for it.  It’s been around for a quite a while but a lot of folks don’t know about it because it’s essentially open source.

It’s called the SharePoint Learning Kit for SharePoint Server 2007 or 2010 and it’s pretty amazing for a free tool.

• E-learning delivery and tracking application built as a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 solution
• Supports SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and Class Server content, allowing users to store and manage this content in SharePoint document libraries
• Supports learner-centric and instructor-led (assigned) workflows
• Allows assignment, tracking and grading of both e-learning and non-e-learning content
• Certified SCORM 2004 compliant

This means that Microsoft eLearning downloads made by administrators should be able to import them into the SLK LMS for internal training purposes, negating the need to use the online facilities at http://www.microsoftelearning.com.

Download the entire module from the Codeplex site at:
http://slk.codeplex.com/

(The lead coordinator for the project has a blog here about the work he’s doing.  He’s pretty active and last posted late April.  http://blog.salamandersoft.co.uk/)