Kurt Shintaku's Blog

[taken from the Windows Team Blog]

I am sure most of you have seen the Windows Phone night parties that kick off on November 7. Well, today I have another exciting announcement – we’re bringing Windows Phone to 15 more cities across the country!

Called the “Windows Phone Inner Circle” Tour, we’re showing up all over the US –starting at gdgt Live in LA on 10/28 – with a chance for you to get your hands on the latest and greatest Window Phone hardware coming this holiday. In addition to phone play time, we will get a little food and drink in your belly too.

Oh, and did I mention that we are also giving away new phones and other cool prizes! We are…and lots of ‘em. Registration is required, so hit this link soon to reserve your spot.

The schedule is below. Note, for the cities that overlap with the Windows Phone night parties, the link will take you to a separate registration page. Find the party closest to you, register and check out new phones!

…

28-Oct L.A gdgt Live & after party

• REGISTER: Windows Phone Inner Circle party
  Los Angeles, Oct 28th
  Conga Room
  9:30PM-12Mid
  http://bit.ly/udh3Sk

Join us beginning at 10:00PM as we celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3! *

Show off your skills in tournaments and enter to win great prizes.  Bonus:  The first 100 gamers attending a launch event will receive a complimentary gift bag.

Pre-order and score $25!
Pre-order Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and get a $25 gift card per title when you pick up your purchases. **

* Open to guests 17 years and older with proof of age.  Guests under 17 no admitted without parent or legal guardian.

** Limited-time offer value with pre-order of eligible products through 11/14 or while supplies last.  Requires pre-order deposit, which is non-refundable if pre-ordered product is not purchased or refund is not requested within 120days of the product release date.  Offer cannot be redeemed for cash or combined with any other offer or promotion.  Not available online.  Limit one gift card per pre-order game title.  Value of gift card may not be applied to purchased of the eligible products.  Pre-order and gift card terms and conditions apply.  See an associate for details.

Westfield Century City
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
3102283550
http://microsoftstore.com/losangeles

Oooooooh.  Scary!  ROFL!

Did you ever want to get Ink Crossword working for Windows 7 Tablets/Slate devices?

My friend Dan Dickerson got it goin’.  I had everything working except the ability to download the Daily Crossword and he figured it out.

Here’s his instructions on how to get it installed:

• ODE TO MY SAMSUNG SLATE:  “Software Tweaks”
  http://samsungslate.blogspot.com/2011/10/software-tweaks.html

Version 2 of the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM 2) is now available for download!

Security Compliance Manager 2 is a free tool from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team that enables you to quickly configure and manage your computers, traditional datacenter, and private cloud using Group Policy and Microsoft^® System Center Configuration Manager.

SCM 2 provides ready-to-deploy policies and DCM configuration packs that are tested and fully supported. Our product baselines are based on Microsoft Security Guide recommendations and industry best practices, allowing you to manage configuration drift, address compliance requirements, and reduce security threats.

Easily configure Windows® operating systems, Microsoft® Office applications, and Internet Explorer with industry leading knowledge and fully supported tools.

Take advantage of SCM 2 to import the configuration of a “golden master” reference machine or existing Group Policy. Compare your standards to industry best practices, customize them using rich knowledge, and seamlessly create new policies and DCM configuration packs in the user-friendly UI designed to work with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2.

Key Features Include:

• Gold master support: Import and take advantage of your existing Group Policy or create a snapshot of a reference machine to kick-start your project!
• Configure stand-alone machines: Deploy your configurations to non-domain joined computers using the new GPO Pack feature!
• Updated security guides: Take advantage of the deep security expertise and best practices in the updated security guides, and the attack surface reference workbooks to help reduce the security risks that you consider to be the most important!
• Compare against industry best practices: Analyze your configurations against prebuilt baselines for the latest Windows client and server operating systems!

Next steps:

• Download SCM 2.
• Help spread the word: tell your friends about Security Compliance Manager 2.
• Thoughts? Favorite features? Feedback? Tell it to the dev team.

Simplify your cloud migration planning with MAP 6.5
We are pleased to announce that the next version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit—version 6.5—is now available for beta download.

• Download MAP 6.5 Beta

The journey to the cloud is now smoother than ever with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5 Beta. The MAP Toolkit’s new capabilities help users to securely assess heterogeneous IT environments while enabling the evaluation of workloads for migration to Microsoft’s private and public cloud platforms. Consolidate existing server workloads using the updated Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track capacity planning feature. The revamped Azure Migration feature in MAP 6.5 provides more in-depth analysis of the suitability of migrating on-premises applications to the Windows Azure platform. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server.

Key features and benefits of MAP 6.5 help you:

• Analyze your portfolio of applications for a move to the Windows Azure platform.
• Accelerate planning for the private cloud with Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Onboarding.
• Identify migration opportunities with enhanced heterogeneous server environment inventory.
• Assess your usage of Microsoft software with the Software Usage Tracking feature.
• Discover Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers for migration to SQL Server.

MAP works with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Security Compliance Manager to help you plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. Learn more.

Next steps:

• Join the MAP 6.5 Beta Review Program and tell the MAP team what you think!
• Learn more about the MAP Toolkit.
• Send your questions or comments to the MAP Team.

Get the latest tips from Microsoft Solution Accelerators—in 140 characters or less! Follow us on Twitter: @MSSolutionAccel.

Interested in Xbox 360 game launch promotions/events at the Century City/LA Microsoft Store? 

Join the Meetup group!  This appears to be really the only way to get local notifications about events and launches going on at the Microsoft Store.  There’s a Facebook site but it’s driven exclusively by corporate notifications and nothing local.

So join up!

• LINK:  Meetup group for Microsoft Store Century City
  http://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Century-City/

The Microsoft Stores are having an anniversary sale until October 31st.

• Buy $100 at the store, get 15% off.
• Buy $500 at the store, get 20% off.
• Buy $1000 at the store, get 25% off.

Let’s review this in English, shall we?

• Buy an Xbox 360 4GB, get at least 15% off. 
  This is a sale price of $169 for the base console, normally $199. ($30 off)
• Buy a Dell Zino PC, get at least 20% off. 
  This is a sale price of $559, normally $699. ($140 off)
• Buy a Samsung Series 7 slate, get 25% off. 
  This is a sale price of $975, normally $1299.  ($325 off)

Yes, this is a pretty big deal.  After all, where else are you going to see discounts like these on these products?  Microsoft NEVER discounts Xbox 360s.  Even Dell doesn’t discount the Zino.  And the Samsung Series 7’s in such demand, no one’s going to discount it – if you can even find one available.

So get down to your local Microsoft Store.  If you live in Los Angeles:

• LOCATION: Microsoft Store – Westfield Century City Shopping Mall
  10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City
  310-228-3550
  http://www.westfield.com/centurycity/directory/detail/store?retailer=44263

PSSST.

In case you’re interested in such things or have family members that want to participate, here are the details for the next upcoming “Midnight Launch” event that we are doing at the Microsoft Store in Century City. 

MIDNIGHT LAUNCH:  “BATTLEFIELD 3” –
10/24-10/25 10PM-1AM

• $25 gift cards for anyone that pre-orders Battlefield 3
• $5 off immediately for anyone that pre-orders Battlefield 3
• Launch attendee tournament to compete for free Xbox 360 games, Special edition Xbox 360s, Kinect sensors, Wireless racing wheels, gift cards, etc.
• $25 Microsoft Store gift cards handed out to the first 100 that attend
• Free Dominos pizza & soda provided by Microsoft
• Live DJ’d event by Power106 [subject to change]
• Major League Gaming Xbox 360 Tournament professionals to provide tips; play against ‘the Pros’
  http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/
• “SPECIAL GUEST(S)” [tba – day of show]

LOCATION:  Microsoft Store – Westfield Century City Shopping Mall
10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City
310-228-3550
http://www.westfield.com/centurycity/directory/detail/store?retailer=44263

Consider yourselves & your families invited.  Line gets let in at 10:00PM.  You may want to preorder the title just to make sure you get one at the store in the event there aren’t enough for everyone. (Pre-orders are guaranteed a copy)  And don’t forget that pre-orders are discounted by $5 and get a free $25 gift card when you pick it up.  Note: This is one of the “Big 4” Xbox 360 titles that are launching this year.  (Gears of War 3 launched last month)  Parking is free underground. 

Hope to see you there!

According to GigaOm, Silverlight will be the framework upon which applications will be developers for the Xbox 360 when Microsoft releases the November 2011 dashboard update which provides a new Xbox App Marketplace:

We’ve confirmed that the apps expected to be added with the next major update to Xbox Live will be based on Silverlight — at least to a point. The framework they’re being built on is codenamed “Lakeview”, which is essentially a prettied up version of Silverlight with new features like Xbox Kinect’s voice recognition and gesture control. Surprisingly enough, partners are not using Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming for video delivery, but have chosen to use H.264-encoded video with Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) instead.

[taken from GigaOm]

This is in addition to the 30,000 applications written & published for Windows Phone 7 that are ENTIRELY based on either Silverlight & XNA:

If you have Silverlight and C# experience, you are significantly prepared to build applications on Windows Phone 7, but the fact of the matter is, the phone is very different device from the PC, with limited battery life, poor network connectivity, different performance characteristics, smaller screens, and wildly different input mechanisms like touch and accelerometer. All of these factors need to be considerations in phone software development from the very beginning, when designing your end user experience.

These principles were at the front of people’s minds here while designing and building Windows Phone 7. They were also in the front of the minds of the folks who built the new Windows Phone 7 version of Silverlight. In order for you to build outstanding, high performance applications in Silverlight, you’ll need to understand the steps that were taken to optimize the Silverlight runtime on Windows Phone, and take advantage of defined characteristics like the discrete GPU, (required on every Windows Phone 7 device). To better do so, we’ve published the following resources:

• A video interview with Shane Guillet, Test Lead of the Silverlight team, available on Channel 9 at: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Inside+Windows+Phone/Inside-Windows-Phone-03-Optimizing-Windows-Phone-Silverlight-applications/
• A full white paper, complete with code samples, documenting strategies and best practices, available for download at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3a8636bf-185f-449a-a0ce-83502b9ec0ec. Rohan Thakkar, a PM on the Silverlight team, has also posted the full text of this paper on his blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rohantha/archive/2010/09/09/optimizing-silverlight-applications-for-windows-phone-7.aspx. The entire article will be online in the MSDN Library shortly.

[taken from the Windows Team Blog & MSDN]

Interesting for a supposedly “dead” platform.