Kurt Shintaku's Blog

CIO Magazine recently published an article discussing the motivations of executives in the area of cloud computing.  An interesting point became evident.

“…Business agility, not cost savings, is the leading reason U.S. companies are interested in cloud computing, according to a survey of 500 senior-level IT and business-unit managers Sand Hill released in March. Forty nine percent of respondents listed business agility as their most important goal; 46 percent listed cost efficiency. The No. 3 response — freeing IT resources to focus on innovation — got less than half that support, with 22 percent.”

• CIO MAGAZINE:  “Which Apps Should You Move to the Cloud? 5 Guidelines”
  http://www.cio.com/article/603702/Which_Apps_Should_You_Move_to_the_Cloud_5_Guidelines

AT&T Tilt 2 Update available for download
http://www.wmexperts.com/att-tilt2-official-update-available

HTC Tilt 2 (AT&T) ROM Update 2.10.502.4 | 08.30.2010
This software update is intended for the HTC Tilt 2 for AT&T only and users should not load or attempt to load this version on any other device as it may cause serious issues/damage.

Please note that during the update process, the device will be Hard Reset and anything that is NOT part of the Operating System (contacts, calendar, music, etc) will be permanently deleted; always make a point of backing up your device’s data on a regular basis!

What’s included:

• HTC Sense replaces TouchFlo 3D
• Ability to Format the SD Card directly in the device
• Inconsistent Caller ID function Hotfix
• TILT 2 Freezes in SMS application Hotfix
• Phantom SMS/MMS Count Hotfix
• Overall improvement in the devices stability/operation

DOWNLOAD:  HTC Tilt 2 (AT&T) ROM Update 2.10.502.4
http://member.america.htc.com/download/RomCode/HTC_Tilt2_ATT/HTC_Tilt%202_2.10.502.4.exe

The Remote Desktop Services Migration Guide is now live on TechNet.  This document provides guidance for migrating the Remote Desktop Services role services in Windows Server® 2008 R2 and for Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 to Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2.

This migration guide contains step-by-step instructions for migrating the following role services:

• Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host)
• Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RD Virtualization Host)
• Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RD Connection Broker)
• Remote Desktop Web Access (RD Web Access)
• Remote Desktop Licensing (RD Licensing)
• Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway)

The migration guide provides an overview of the Remote Desktop Services migration and what will be migrated for Remote Desktop Services role services, tasks that apply to migrating all the role services, and the migration process.

• LINK: Remote Desktop Services Migration Guide
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff849223(WS.10).aspx

We have just released the Expression Encoder Screen Capture codec as a separate download package.

This will to allow users to playback screen capture output files (XESC) on machines without having to install Expression Encoder on the machine.  Installing the package will install and register the codec so the files can be played back in the Windows Media Player.  You can find the download package here.

• DOWNLOAD:  Expression Encoder Screen Capture codec 
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=71895f93-d804-4b70-8440-6b726ea0f12c

AND A NEW BUILD OF EXPRESSION ENCODER
Additionally, there is a new build of Expression Encoder which fixes some screen capture issues.  Some machines with Expresion Encoder 4 Pro were incorrectly limiting the screen capture time limit and we had an issue with XESC files being played back in the Windows Media Player on 64-bit Vista and Windows Server 2008.  

In order to upgrade, simply grab the newest version of the free Encoder (available here) and install over the current one. The version number will go from 4.0.1639.0 to 4.0.1651.0. Note that there is no need to uninstall the older version, setup will upgrade it for you. Please also take note that those international versions already have the fixes mentioned above, so there is no need to upgrade them.

• DOWNLOAD:  New build of Expression Encoder now available
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=75402be0-c603-4998-a79c-becdd197aa79

The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables you to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone to build e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, including interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other instructionally engaging elements.

New v2.5 features include:

• LCDS authoring is 64 bit–compatible
• E-learning created is compatible with Firefox 3.5.9 and Firefox 3.6.3
• New Silverlight 4 Media Player for animations that includes closed captioning and full screen option
• Enhanced keyboard accessibility for the sort and tile games, adventure interactivity, and Voice of the Expert element
• LCDS authoring and e-learning created are completely Microsoft Silverlight 4.0–compatible
• Content is now permitted at the Lesson level

Also available on the site are seven localized LCDS v2.3 versions: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese Simplified, Russian, Hindi, Polish, Turkish, and Spanish.

• Download LCDS v2.5 now!
  http://microsoft.com/learning/tools

This is somewhat old news but it’s worth noting considering the vast number of applications and titles being released for Windows Phone 7.  It’ll become more an more apparent as time goes on just how incredibly huge the Windows Phone development community is but for now, just know the following points:

1. Xbox 360 & Xbox Live Development Community
   Every Xbox 360 & Xbox Live game developer uses the same tools today to develop for the Xbox as are used to develop for Windows Phone 7.  Porting games from Xbox Live Arcade in particular is a easy transition for developers to make and otherwise sell their games in a completely green field group of customers in precisely the same manner in which their games are sold today:  On a Microsoft Marketplace.

   …and best of all, the Windows Phone 7 display resolution & processor is actually BETTER than what the original Xbox had.

2. Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelist Team
   Developer & Platform Evangelism is a group of very smart individuals that exist worldwide and concentrate on helping independent developers use Microsoft development tools to build products that leverage our platforms such as Windows, Windows CE/Embedded, Silverlight, Windows Azure, Windows Phone, etc. 

   The DPE guys at Microsoft were given marching orders more than a year ago to turn their a huge amount of their attention & focus to Windows Phone 7 developers, away from virtually every other area – except for cloud development.

The current Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta includes the following:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone Beta
• Windows Phone Emulator Beta
• Silverlight for Windows Phone Beta
• Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone Beta
• XNA Game Studio 4.0 Beta

And of course the release tools will be available for download soon.

• DOWNLOAD: Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8496c2a-54d9-4b11-9491-a1bfaf32f2e3&displaylang=en

UPDATE 9/17/12:
Well, the changed their domain name for some reason, but here 2 years later, the program is still available and in v 1.7.1 (back in 2010 it was 1.3.7).  There’s now a paid version of the app available that does very precise comparisons and adds some other functionality.  I bought the paid version.  It’s useful software.

———————-
ORIGINAL POST:
“Similarity” is an interesting tool for Windows that I heard about on Paul Thurrott’s podcast.

WHAT IS IT?
It compares all the music files in your library to each other in a search to find duplicates.  What makes it special however is that it doesn’t compare tags or titles or the metadata.  Instead it looks at the wave form and compares it to other waveforms it finds.

This effectively finds songs that may be labeled differently but otherwise are the same music file as another.  It more importantly, can distinguish between different file formats (WMA, MP3, OGG, etc.) and different recording resolutions (128kbps vs 192kbps, etc.)

WARNINGS
One thing I noticed is that it only appears to compare the first part of the music file.  For example, I have some music that is identical to each other in the first 20 seconds but change later in the file – it miscatagorized these and identified them as all duplicates.

Also, avoid the temptation to simply “install & run” the tool without any configuration.  There is a “network database” that the tool depends on for comparing file signatures.  It requires that you create a network login for the tool to use the database over the Internet.  Without this feature, the tool isn’t nearly as accurate as one would like.

FREE!
It’s free – so why not give it a try?  It discovered 219duplicates 20% into my very first run, representing about half a gigabyte of duplicate music.

• DOWNLOAD:
  http://www.similarityapp.com/

What is Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)?  MOF 4.0 provides relevant, practical, and accessible guidance for today’s IT pros. MOF strives to seamlessly blend business and IT goals while establishing and implementing reliable, cost-effective IT services. MOF is a free, downloadable framework that encompasses the entire service management lifecycle. (More information can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx)

Just one aspect of MOF is the MOF Technology Library.  The MOF Technology Library provides guidance and best practices to help IT pros better understand how to use MOF with Microsoft technologies. The first component of the library is a new series of reliability workbooks. These resources provide the knowledge, specific tasks, and schedules needed to keep technologies running smoothly so IT can deliver the services an organization expects. Each workbook includes maintenance and monitoring tasks, common risk areas, and standard changes for the ongoing care of specific technologies.   The workbooks can be found at (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee923724.aspx ). 

Downloadable Workbooks: (.ZIP files)

• MOF Reliability Workbook for SQL Server® 2008
• Administrator’s Guide for Reliability Workbooks.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Active Directory.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Active Directory Certificate Services.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Hyper-V.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Internet Information Services.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Microsoft Application Virtualization.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Network Load Balancing.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for System Center Operations Manager.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for User State Virtualization.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Windows Server 2008 DNS Server.
• MOF Reliability Workbook for Windows Server 2008 R2.

We are pleased to announce the availability of the first version of the SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit. In this toolkit we’ve included a couple of tools that were shipped releases and are now adapted to SharePoint 2010, along with two new tools.

• User Profile Replication Engine 2010 (UPRE2010): this tool got a complete overhaul and was converted to PowerShell. It now allows you to replicate Profile and Social data between SharePoint 2010’s User Profile Application (UPA), as well as backward compatibility with SharePoint 2007’s SSP. You can replicate between SSP’s or UPA services, as well as across versions. (Note that only Profile data can be replicated across versions, as SSP contains no Social activity tracking).
• The Security Configuration (SCW) Manifest: SCW is an attack surface reduction feature in Windows Server. This manifest adds roles for SharePoint 2010 Products to Windows Server 2008 with SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
• The Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Connector: enables SharePoint users to interact with content stored in any repository that has implemented the CMIS standard, as well as making SharePoint 2010 content available to any application that has implemented the CMIS standard.
• The Load Testing Kit (LTK): LTK generates a Visual Studio Team System 2008 (VSTS) load test based on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 IIS logs. The VSTS load test can be used to generate synthetic load against Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 as part of a capacity planning exercise or a pre-upgrade stress test.

The toolkit can be downloaded from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=718447d8-0814-427a-81c3-c9c3d84c456e&displaylang=en

The toolkit documentation can be found here:

• SharePoint Foundation 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc508986.aspx
• SharePoint Server 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc508851.aspx

You Don’t Want to Miss Out on 24 Hours of SQL Server Training
It’s that time again…24 Hours of PASS is upon us with 24 free live webcasts focused on the hottest SQL Server topics — due to be showcased at PASS Summit 2010 in Seattle this November. 

Join us for 24 Hours of PASS on September 15 and 16 and enjoy our Summit Preview.  This installment is set up with a twist. Instead of running continuously for 24 hours, the September event divides the webcasts across 2 days, with each day beginning at 12:00 GMT (UTC).

The roster of phenomenal speakers features many MVPs and top rated presenters who will give you a taste of what’s on offer at PASS Summit 2010. Check out all the great SQL Server sessions you can attend for FREE. 

We’re looking forward to having you join us. Please contact us at 24hrs at sqlpass dot org with any questions.

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