Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Okay, so the story goes – I won a laptop a couple months ago and had to wait for its delivery.  The problem is that I didn’t know what laptop it was or what its specs were. 

I hypothesized that it might be the Sony Vaio Z here in this post I wrote on my other blog.  But I really didn’t know.  All I knew was that it was a Sony and that it was a well-equipped business laptop.

Lo-and-behold:  It arrived but it’s not the Sony Vaio Z…
…it’s the Sony VAIO S (Model VPCSA25GX)! 

Here’s some of the basic physical specs:

• Black matte finish
• 13.3” antiglare screen
• 3.6lbs in weight (about 1lb more than the Samsung Series 9)
• .92” in thickness (.24” thicker than the Samsung Series 9)
• 5.9 Windows Experience Index (Samsung Series 9 has a 4.7)

Most importantly, what was given to me is NOT the cheapo stock “VAIO S” laptop that you see on the front page of the Sony web site for $899.  It’s a much higher-end professionally configured model with a retail sticker price of $1949.  Yeah.  Seriously.  And I got it free for me to keep!  And I never win anything!

And this is what it comes with:   (Noted “Technological improvements” over my existing Samsung Series 9 are highlighted in BOLD)

• Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor (2.30GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.90GHz
  2nd Generation “Sandy Bridge” CPU w/ clock speeds almost twice that of the Samsung Series 9’s 1.4GHz
• NEW Intel Z68 Chipset
  Including Intel Rapid Storage Technology for SSD caching of magnetic storage; Samsung had older P67 chipset which lacked RST & Hybrid Graphics (see below)
• BOTH Intel integrated-graphics GPU & discrete AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM)
  • 50% better graphics performance over the Samsung Series 9
  • Supports “Hybrid Graphics mode”, enabling low-power integrated-graphics GPU use for most operations & high-performance AMD Radeon GPU for higher octane games & more demanding graphics requirements
• LCD display with 1600×900 screen resolution
  Much greater display real estate for doing work
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (max 8GB)
  User upgradeable near as I can tell to 8GB by installing a single 4GB DDR3 DIMM into open slot – http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=VAIO%20VPCSA25GX&Cat=RAM
• Trusted Platform Module 1.2 (TPM chip)
  Yes, DirectAccess & BitLocker work
• 7.5hr battery
  with optional add on-extended battery for an additional 7.5hrs
• Built-in 3G Cellular Networking
  with AT&T/T-Mobile SIM
• Intel Wireless Display
  Sends display & stereo audio wirelessly to your home HDTV if it has a WiDi receiver
• 256GB Solid State Drive
  Twice the capacity of the Samsung Series 9
• Built-in CD/DVD player/burner
• 720p HD Exmor embedded WebCam + Microphone
• Fingerprint biometric reader
• Integrated VGA port, full size HDMI port, full SDflash slot, integrated gigabit ethernet port
• Physical switch for laptop “performance” vs. “battery life”
• Physical on/off switch for laptop wireless adapter
• Multitouch trackpad with palm detection & physical buttons
  Dependable pointing device requiring no adjustments
• Backlit island-style keyboard
• Intel Centrino-based Wireless Ethernet WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
  (Improved range in WiFi mostly due to antenna placement)
• 1xUSB 3.0, 2xUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.1/A2DP stereo (and a memory stick slot – meh)

One thing: 

• The power brick is MUCH larger than the Samsung’s.  It’s more than twice as big and 3x as heavy.
• The device is definitely thicker than the Samsung and not as light either.  It resembles a more traditional laptop instead of an ultrabook-style device.
• The styling isn’t as attractive as the Samsung.  Clearly the Samsung was designed more for the executive-on-the-go.  This Sony Vaio S is more utilitarian.

SUMMARY: 
This is one heck of a laptop and a solid technological improvement over the Samsung Series 9 in trade off for portability & styling. 

If you:

• Want twice the CPU speed
• Want twice the SSD storage
• Want to play Crysis 2 or Starcraft 2 with better graphic detail
• Need a built-in DVD player or built-in 3G cellular networking
• Need the availability of an extended battery for 15hrs of use
• Hate VGA or Ethernet dongles

…and don’t mind the heavier, .24” thicker, less stylish form factor with a similar profile, this may very well be the laptop for you to check out.

—————————-

DRIVERS:
If you need to update the drivers – although the machine was only manufactured last month – go here:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VPCSA25GX&region_id=1

While it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone attending, SteveB will be keynoting CES 2012 again this year and you can bet it’ll be a good one considering Microsoft’s increasingly intense focus on consumer-side products & services.

• Windows 8 & Slates.
• Xbox 360 & beyond.
• Windows Phone Mango & Apollo.
• Kinect & Kinect innovations like Windows integration.
• Microsoft Sync & Car Integration Technologies.
• Bing w/ Bing Travel, Bing Maps, Bing Translator, Bing Shopping, etc.
• Windows Live, Skydrive, and Cloud Services.
• Skype, Lync, and other VOIP technologies.

…and so on and so on.  See you there.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Deliver Preshow Keynote Address at 2012 CES

Jul 06, 2011 10:27:28 Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, will deliver a preshow keynote address at the 2012 International CES. Owned and produced by CEA, the 2012 International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, is scheduled January 10-13, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“We are pleased to welcome + MoreMicrosoft back to the CES keynote stage,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “From mobile to desktop to gaming and beyond, Microsoft has a significant impact on all aspects of the consumer technology industry, and Steve Ballmer’s keynote is a great way to kick off the exciting 2012 International CES. We are excited to hear Microsoft’s latest initiatives and Ballmer’s vision for where consumer technology is heading.”

Ballmer’s preshow keynote address is slated for 6:30 p.m., Monday, January 9, in The Venetian. Microsoft has used the CES keynote stage in previous years to unveil innovative new products, including the original Xbox and Avatar Kinect.

We released this title from Katherine Murray – “Microsoft Office 365:  Connect & Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime” – a 13 chapter, 300 page eBook, available completely free.

Office 365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing.  Using the various programs in Office 365, you can do all the tasks you’re use to doing in your favorite Office applications – write documents, create presentations, check email, manage your calendar, crunch numbers, and more – and then share what you create in real time on a team site, design and publish a website, and even create and host live online meetings while you’re travelling on the train, sitting in a coffee shop, or dialing in on your phone.

This book shows you how you can use cloud computing – and specifically Office 365 – to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more flexibly than you ever have before.  From the necessary how-tos about creating and administering your Office 465 account and working with the various Office 365 programs to sharing files with your team, creating a team site, using Office Web Apps, and holding online meetings, you’ll discover how easy it is to work online and off, accessing and sharing your files whenever you need to.  After you learn about each of the core programs, you can try strategies for building successful teams, and get some good ideas on practical ways you can put all this cloud power to work.

DOWNLOAD:  Office 365:  Connect & Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime"
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/2/F/12F1FF78-73E1-4714-9A08-6A76FA3DA769/656949ebook.pdf

This is a little hard to find.  Personally, I use Colligo Contributor against our SharePoint infrastructure here at Microsoft to manage files online/offline so I rarely have to do this sort of web-based file access.  (But that’s another topic entirely)

Today, I had to access a SharePoint doc repository and pull a bunch of files off of a folder hierarchy that was deep within a single SharePoint site.  If you’re in SharePoint 2010 (either Server or Foundation) and found it difficult to get the ol’ “Explorer View”… that’s because it doesn’t exist any more.  The product group took it out between 2007 and 2010.  GRRR.

Having some sort of Explorer view s important for obvious reasons:

• Multi-select documents using rubber banding
• Drag & drop files to-and-from from your desktop (again, ca
• Right mouse click a file for “Properties”
• Preview documents in Explorer pane

In order to get a similar “Explorer View” to access the files in the SharePoint document repositories in your sites, you need to:

1. Go to the site’s document repository (See below)
2. Click on ‘Library’
3. Click “Open in Explorer” to the far right. 
   It may be hidden so expand the browser window to reveal it 

We recently released a bunch of the Microsoft Press books that we have available for free in two new formats:

1. Amazon ‘Kindle’ (MOBI)
2. Barnes & Noble ‘Nook’ (ePUB)

Here’s the titles that just got published:

• Programming Windows Phone 7 by Charles Petzold (EPUB, MOBI)
• Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 by Patrice Pelland, Pascal Paré, and Ken Haines (EPUB, MOBI)
• Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner (EPUB, MOBI)
• Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 by Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker with the Windows Server Team at Microsoft (EPUB, MOBI)
• Own Your Future, Update Your Skills with Resouces and Career Ideas from Microsoft by Katherine Murray(EPUB, MOBI)

[taken from the Microsoft Press blog]

From time to time Microsoft Press has been pleased to offer free downloadable eBooks available as either PDF or XPS files. We are now very happy to announce that five of these same eBooks can be downloaded in two additional formats, DRM-free EPUB and MOBI. These new formats enable you to read these eBooks on ereaders such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Sony Reader and Kobo eReader, as well as on iOS devices such as the iPad. Of course these files can also be read with ereading apps for the various devices (and other reading applications like Adobe Digital Editions) on netbooks, laptops, and desktop PCs. The key difference between these formats and the previously-offered PDF and XPS files is that the text is “reflowable,” meaning that it recomposes depending on the width of the screen (or as you resize a Window). For reading on Kindles, Kindle apps, or the Mobipocket readers for various devices, use the MOBI files. For reading on most other ereaders and ereading apps, including Nook, Sony, and iPad, as well as on PCs, use the EPUB files.

…

Sigh.  It turns out that Facebook will, by default, recognize your photo in other people’s photos and suggest that they tag you with your real name.

In other words:  If a friend has a photo with your picture in it, Facebook will automatically identify you by placing a square around your face based on other places you’ve been tagged, using facial recognition, and autosuggest that your friend tag you in the photo.  And as you get tagged more and more, the richer the photo recognition gets.  It’s self-perpetuating.

This is enabled by default and while I like Facebook as much as the next person I ain’t wild about this for variety of reasons.   Carnegie Mellon University did a study that concluded that this kind of technology used with Facebook can potentially end anonymity altogether.  Their comment about Facebook and privacy was telling:

Facebook also integrated facial-recognition technology into the social-networking platform to auto-suggest users to be tagged in photos. As all things privacy-related in Facebook, all users were included in the recognition database by default.

So… what do you do to prevent this?

TO DISABLE AUTORECOGNITION OF YOUR FACE IN OTHERS PHOTOS:

• Login to Facebook.
• Click the “Account” dropdown and select “Privacy Preferences”.

• Scroll to the bottom & click “Customize Settings” hyperlink.

• Scroll down to “Things others share” and click on the “Edit Settings” button next to “Suggest photos of me to friends”.
  A dialog box will appear.

• Look under “Suggest photos of me to friends” and ensure that the dropdown box is set to “Disabled”.

• Click “Okay” button.  That’s it.

Whoa.  Check this out.  A video that goes through all the stuff folks can anticipate with System Center Configuration Manager 2012.  Top to bottom.

System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Overview and Infrastructure: Module 1: Technical Overview

Explore the major changes coming in System Center Configuration Manager 2012 in this video. This video provides an overview of the product, showing how it empowers users, unifies infrastructure and simplifies administration.

This video is part of the Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA). The MVA is a free program delivering structured learning paths for IT Professionals on various Microsoft products and solutions.

After watching this video, visit www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com, enroll in this course and take the self-assessment. For every module you take and every self-assessment you complete, you will be awarded points. These points build up to levels and the higher the level you achieve, the more opportunities you have to participate in MVA offers.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/system-center-configuration-manager-2012-overview-and-infrastructure-module-1-technical-overview

Nice.  Outlook 2010 integration & Web Password Reset credential mgmt.

Microsoft is pleased to announce the availability of Forefront Identity Manager 2012 R2 beta. Some of the key areas we’re enhancing with this release include:

• Credential management with web based password reset
• Historical reporting using integration to the System Center Service Manager data warehouse
• Greater ease of use through enhanced initial load performance, improved diagnostics and and enhanced load and scale performance
• Additional support for Microsoft Outlook 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

To join the beta program and download the software, click here.

We are also pleased to announce that the Forefront Identity Manager Community Evaluation Program will commence on the 2nd of August with our first session. Community members are encouraged to attend and new members are certainly welcome. Community Evaluation Programs are a great technical resource for deeper understanding of Microsoft products and to connect with other users. With over 2000 people engaged in various CEP programs, you’re able to not only connect directly with key engineering resources from Microsoft, but also a broad community of like-minded users. Further details on the Community Evaluation Program for the R2 release of Forefront Identity Manager 2010 can be found here.

• Read more at:  Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 beta now available
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/forefront/archive/2011/08/01/key-improvements-in-forefront-identity-manager-r2.aspx

I bought an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 – Network adapter (Mini PCI-E). Why’d I do that? Because the adapter in the Samsung Series 9 is a little questionable:  The Bluetooth was unreliable and the range on the adapter wasn’t great, despite having replaced the original with another Broadcom adapter twice.

If you’re interested in doing the same thing, here’s the instructions on how to accomplish this:

1. Purchase a Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 – Network adapter (Mini PCI-E) for $19 each.  This is the cheapest that I was able to find the adapter at.  Other places sell it for as high as $60… the hell?
   http://www.macmall.com/p/Intel-Wireless-Networking/product~dpno~8355777~pdp.gdicdec
2. Replace the Broadcom WiFi Bluetooth adapter on your device. Be extra careful reattaching the antenna as it’s fragile and not easily replaceable… if at all.  TechRepublic has a photo of the adapter location on the unit here:
   http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/cracking-open-the-samsung-series-9-ultraportable-notebook/6235888?seq=50&tag=thumbnail-view-selector;get-photo-roto
3. Download & install the latest driver for the Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility (for Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 series):
   http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3227&DwnldID=19856
   (Note: You won’t need Bluetooth drivers as the existing Bluetooth drivers on your system should work just fine.)

EXTRA CREDIT: SETTING UP INTEL WIDI

Incidentally, if you want to enable your computer for Intel WiDi (Wireless Display technology that allows you to send your display to your home big screen/LCD television), here’s the web site on how to do this once you have the Intel Centrino 6230 installed on your computer. It’s similar to Apple’s Airplay.
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wtech/iwd/sb/CS-031109.htm

The above will work for normal, non-protected content like YouTube, Hulu, or locally stored videos.  For playback of DVDs, Bluray, or rights protected streams like Netflix, you’ll need to enable WiDi protection by following these steps.
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wtech/iwd/sb/CS-032474.htm

Like most companies today, you rely on your IT infrastructure to keep your business running. You need to find out about and fix IT problems before they lead to any downtime or loss of productivity and revenue. This becomes even more challenging when you depend on a combination of physical, virtual, and cloud resources to run a diverse mix of operating systems (Windows, Linux, and Unix) that support any number of critical business applications. Microsoft understands these challenges and is dedicated to helping customers address these issues.

System Center Operations Manager 2012 provides the solution to the challenges mentioned above by:

• Delivering flexible and cost effective enterprise-class monitoring and diagnostics while reducing the total cost of ownership by leveraging commodity hardware with standard configurations to monitor heterogeneous environments.
• Helping to ensure the availability of business-critical applications and services through market-leading .NET application performance monitoring and diagnostics plus JEE application health monitoring.
• Providing a comprehensive view of datacenters, and private and public clouds.

Here’s what’s new

• Rich application performance monitoring and diagnostics for .NET applications plus JEE application health monitoring
• Support for monitoring heterogeneous environments
• Integrated network device monitoring and alerts
• Simplified management infrastructure
• Common console across datacenter and clouds with customizable dashboards

Download the beta here.

For more information, visit the new Operations Manager 2012 beta page.

[taken from the SCOM blog]