Kurt Shintaku's Blog

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Developers, we’re pleased to announce another free offering: Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (Microsoft Press, 2011; 336 pages), written by Patrice Pelland, Pascal Paré, and Ken Haines.

Here’s a little bit about the authors: Ken Haines is a software development engineer at Microsoft, working in the Consumer and Online Division. He has a passion for distributed applications in the cloud and strives to help customers and partners find the right solution for their needs. Pascal Paré has worked at Microsoft since 2006, where he has held positions as a software engineer on both development and testing teams. Patrice Pelland is a principal development manager at Microsoft, working in the Consumer and Online Division. He leads a development team that is focused on innovation and incubation across all Microsoft consumer products.

Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 was written with three audiences in mind:

Part I is for developers moving from Visual Studio 2003 to Visual Studio 2010.

Part II is for developers moving from Visual Studio 2005.

And Part III is for developers moving from Visual Studio 2008.</!–ENDFRAGMENT–>

Please see this post for an extensive description of the book’s content, including “Who Is This Book for?,” “What Is the Book About?,” and “How Will This Book Help Me Move to Visual Studio 2010?” (Note that the links in that post are to a draft preview version of the book. Links to the final and complete book appear immediately below in this post.)

• You can download a PDF of the book here.
• You can download an XPS of the book here.
• And you can download the book’s sample code here.

If you haven’t seen this, this is an very impressive web site that leverages Silverlight & Microsoft Live Labs Pivot technology to graphically show the front pages of over 1000+ Sharepoint-based Internet facing Web Sites throughout the world. 

You can select criteria to rapidly filter and “re-pivot” around the following sorting categories:

• Country (US, UK, Japan, Canada, etc.)
• Industry (Healthcare, Financial, Prof Services, Manufacturing, Entertainment, etc.)
• Rating (1-5)
• Platform (MOSS2007, WSS v3, SPS2010, SPF 2010)
• When Added (i.e. “age”)

As you filter, the images of the web sites reorganize themselves in a visually appealing manner to the eye. Live Pivot makes sorting and sifting through data a pleasant task for end users.  Give it a look see and at the very least, share it with other Sharepoint users so they can see how many people aren’t just using Sharepoint but using it as the basis of their External Web sites for its content management, search, and other out-of-the-box capabilities that minimize custom development.

• LINK:  “Top Sharepoint Sites" – WSS Live Pivot
  http://www.wssdemo.com/livepivot/

We’re excited to introduce Microsoft Lync, the new name for the next generation of our real-time communications products, known until today as Communications Server and Communicator. 

Lync Server 2010 ushers in a new connected experience transforming communication into an interaction that is more collaborative, engaging and accessible from any location with internet connectivity. A single interface unites voice, IM, audio-, video-, and web-conferencing into a richer, more contextual offering and a single identity makes it easier and more efficient for users to find contacts, check their availability and connect with them.  Lync Server 2010 works consistently with Microsoft Office, enriching the experience of familiar applications like Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft SharePoint, and more.

For folks looking to understand the “rebranding” analogies, here’s a table:

Some interesting features to look forward to:

1. Switch between your head-set and phone in the middle of a call with device switching.
2. Gotta run? Leave the office and take your call with you on your mobile phone.
3. Select multiple people and click to make a group call, and then drag-and-drop someone into the conference from Outlook.
4. Connect with family while you’re travelling – start a high-definition voice and video conversation with a Windows Live Messenger user.
5. Hush that annoying meeting participant.   When someone is causing bad audio on the conference call, Lync will identify which phone to mute to improve quality – and productivity.

Public Announcement is available here:

• Microsoft Lync: A New Name for a New Generation of Unified Communications Solutions
  http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/sep10/LyncPR.mspx

Release Candidate download available here:

• Download Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010 Release Candidate
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff808407.aspx

We’ve been pretty tight lipped about this but Internet Explorer 9’s BETA is launching on September 15th.

The event will be in San Francisco and available for viewing online at http://www.beautyoftheweb.com.

Ed Bott’s got a post about the event or at least what he knows/surmises about what to expect.

• LINK:  Some Clues for the IE9 Launch
  http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2010/09/some-clues-for-the-ie9-launch/

Interested in avoiding company-wide “Reply-All Storms”?

Microsoft Research released a new version of the NoReplyAll Outlook Add-in to prevent Enterprise-wide “reply all storms” to known provocative emails or messages to get sent across distribution groups that are known to be large.

NoReplyAll Outlook Add-In
The primary function of this add-in is to add a couple of buttons to the Outlook ribbon to prevent people from replying to all the recipients of your message or forwarding it. The add-in uses a facility built into Outlook and Exchange that is more lightweight than information-rights management but is not exposed in the existing UI. The add-in also includes a check for common email errors, such as omitting attachments or subject lines.

For more information visit the blog page for the “NoReplyAll Outlook Add-In” at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/researchdesktop/noreplyall.aspx for details on usage.

• DOWNLOAD:  NoReplyAllAddin.zip
  Version 2.0.0.3, Published August 25^th, 2010, Download size 0.29MB
  http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/60860f41-88ab-4bb4-8104-765feca9cfed/default.aspx

Let’s say you’re managing many desktop computers and you need to patch them all or upgrade the version of Office on all of them.  And you discover… you don’t have enough drive space on many of the computers to do the update.  What do you do?

AUTOMATING DISK CLEANUP TO FREE DRIVE SPACE
It turns out that we’ve documented how to automate/script the included “Disk Cleanup” tool in Windows to clear disk space across the desktops in your environment, assuming you have the ability to run a logon script on them or execute a script package across them all using a Desktop Management system like System Center Configuration Manager.

Cleanmgr.exe is designed to clear unnecessary files from your computer’s hard disk. You can use command-line options to specify that Cleanmgr.exe cleans up certain files. You can then schedule the task to run at a specific time by using the Scheduled Tasks tool.
To start the Disk Cleanup tool, either run the Cleanmgr.exe command, or click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
Disk Cleanup supports the following command-line options:

• /d driveletter: – This option specifies the drive that you want Disk Cleanup to clean.
  Note: The /d option is not utilized with /sagerun: n.
• /sageset: n – This option displays the Disk Cleanup Settings dialog box and also creates a registry key to store the settings that you select. The n value, which is stored in the registry, allows you to specify tasks for Disk Cleanup to run. The n value can be any integer value from 0 to 65535. To have all of the options available when you use the /sageset option, you might need to specify the drive where Windows is installed.
• /sagerun: n – This option runs the specified tasks that are assigned to the n value if you use the sageset option. All drives on the computer are enumerated and the selected profile runs against each drive.
  For example, in Scheduled Tasks, you could run the following command after you run the cleanmgr /sageset:11 command:

  cleanmgr /sagerun:11

  This command runs Disk Cleanup and includes the options that you specified with the cleanmgr /sageset:11 command.

…

• INFO: How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315246

A favorite tool of mine is Hagel Technologies, “DU Meter”.  It tells you in real time what your upload and download performance is like and what connections your PC has open.  The tool remains on the top of your desktop and gives you an idea as to whether or not a given application is transmitting, receiving, and so forth. 

• SIDEBAR/GADGET INTEGRATION
  It would even integrate with Windows Vista’s/7’s desktop sidebar as a desktop gadget.  Or if you wanted it hovering elsewhere, you could have it be a freeform program that just hovered on the desktop.  (See the photo to the right for a glimpse.
• NETWORK CONNECTIONS
  Another thing it does is breakdown what it is that your software is connecting to externally.  It will tell you the actual domain name or IP address that a given application is transmitting or receiving from and how active the connection is, through something called the Network Connections Viewer.

SOUNDS GOOD.  WHAT’S WRONG THEN?
Here’s the thing:  Historically, this tool’s not exactly cheap relative to what it does as far as I’m concerned.  However in the past, DUMeter used to really be the only app that did what it did, as well as it does, for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7. 

Over time however, some glaring issues became evident with the 4.0 revision:

1. NO x64 SIDEBAR SUPPORT
   However with the release of Windows Vista/7 x64, it no longer supported the sidebar as a true desktop gadget.  This is of course really annoying if you depended on Windows Sidebar support to arrange and align your gadgets.
2. EXPENSIVE
   There are other tools – like the FREE Network Meter 6.3 Windows Gadget from Addgadget.com – that provides much of the same functionality as a Windows Desktop Gadget at no cost.  DU Meter still to this day costs $29.95 PER PC.  They released a “family pack” of 5 installations for $59.90 which for IT pros makes more sense… however $60?  For a bandwidth meter?  CRIPES – You can buy a full copy of Microsoft Word for the same price on eBay.

ENTER RELEASE 5.0 OF DUMETER
To be honest, I never anticipated upgrading DU Meter again, being that it seemed to lack innovation relative to the free tools available on the market.  But along came 5.0 and I changed my mind.

Yes, they fixed the sidebar support.  Yes, they now fully support x64.  Yes, it’s still relatively expensive to license for a simple desktop gadget.  For folks that had licensed previous versions, they did knock 40% off the retail price dropping a family pack of 5 licenses to $35.95, so I think I can personally swallow that.

SO THAT’S IT?  THAT’S ALL THEY DID IN 5.0?
Actually no.  They’ve introduced a new “discriminate between Internet & LAN connections” feature.  As they describe it:

“DU Meter can discriminate between Internet and local LAN traffic, and monitor either of them. It can figure out what is Internet and what is LAN traffic automatically, or you can supply a list of IP subnetworks you wish to monitor or ignore.”

There are obvious benefits to this.

Also they’ve introduced a new “deskband view” along with numerous other graph types.  DU Meter can attach itself to Windows taskbar for unobtrusive and prominent display.

PERSONAL BENEFITS TO ME
I’m very bandwidth conscious, mainly because I connect via 5 means:

1. WORK LAN CONNECTIVITY – Wired/Wireless connections to IPv6 networks while in the office.
2. HOME DSL INTERNET CONNECTIVITY – Wired connections to my home router
3. HOTEL WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY – Wireless connectivity while in the airport/hotel
4. WORK VPN CONNECTIVITY – Tunneled connectivity over L2TP/IPsec connections over the Internet
5. CELLULAR/DIAL UP CONNECTIVITY – EvDO Internet connectivity using tethered cellphone

Keep in mind:  Your computer views all of these networks differently so they’re represented differently in the OS.  What has made DU Meter special is that no matter WHAT the connection method, it automatically reports the bandwidth activity & consumption without reconfiguration.  You don’t need to change the networking source or anything to view stats within the graph.  Virtually every other tool requires this making their usage inconvenient compared to DU Meter.

CONCLUSION
So, if you have some disposable income and bandwidth monitoring is of critical importance to you, you may want to consider purchasing DU Meter.  It’s a very solid product that can be very useful to folks in IT.

Did you ever wonder how it is that the Internet is connected worldwide?  Contrary to popular belief, most of the connectivity is done via underwater cable which has tremendously higher bandwidth than satellite transmission.  A single, thin Transpacific cable can have 9.6Tbps connectivity.

Greg Mahlknecht designed a very rich map that shows graphically the layout of all these cables and equally interesting, shows cable faults – i.e. breaks in connectivity.

Give it a look see!
(Note the usage of Bing Maps to articulate worldwide connections)

• LINK:  Greg’s Cable Map
  http://www.cablemap.info/

Join a select group of developers for an event near you and get hands-on experience with Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 Developer Launch

Windows Phone 7 is here – and with it comes a new world of opportunity for passionate, creative developers. Windows Phone 7 gives you the power to build complex, robust applications using consistent hardware specs, a comprehensive development toolkit, and the all-new, full-service Marketplace for selling your apps. Get ready to capitalize on this exciting new frontier with two days of fast-paced learning and Windows Phone 7 development sessions. Pick the day that best fits your needs – or join us for both. Either way, you’ll get the information you need to build high-demand apps with Windows Phone 7.

Day 1: Jump-Start Your Mobile Development | 8:30am – 5:15pm
In the first of this two-day launch event, we’ll take you under the hood of Windows Phone 7 and the Windows Phone 7 platform with a progressive set of learning sessions. We’ll start with the basic tools and fundamentals of Windows Phone 7 application development and as the day unfolds, we’ll go deeper into development scenarios using Silverlight, XNA and the Windows Phone 7 SDK. You’ll also see how to earn cash for your apps in the fully loaded Marketplace.

Day 2: Unleash Your Best App Workshop | 9:00am – 4:00pm
This hands-on workshop is designed to help you turn those napkin sketches and subway scribbles into real, sellable apps. You’ll apply fundamental Windows Phone 7 design principles to build an app and upload it to the fully revamped Marketplace. Go at your own pace or follow along with a proctored group lab. Either way, you’ll get step-by-step advice from Microsoft and community experts. It’s an unprecedented opportunity to stake your claim in the marketplace – using familiar tools and consistent specs.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

LOCATION:
Orange County, CA
Hilton Orange County
September 29 – 30, 2010

• Day 1: Jump-Start 
• Day 2: Workshop