Kurt Shintaku's Blog

The UK MSDN Flash developer newsletter contains great short technical articles written by UK developers both inside Microsoft and in the broader developer community.

This eBook pulls together these great articles in one place. There are thirteen articles in this second edition covering Python, Inversion of Control, Behavior Driven Development, Silverlight and more.

You might also want to check out the first edition of the UK MSDN Flash eBook covering 2008 but still contains lots of relevant information.

READ MORE AT: http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2009/12/08/free-msdn-flash-ebook-of-the-best-13-technical-articles.aspx?qstr=CR_CC=&CR_ID=

So this is pretty cool.  Did you know Bing Maps can create “treasure maps”?

Summarized from Geek.com:

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has been being smart about competing with Google: they realize they might not necessarily have the smartest search algorithms, but they can present their own results in unique ways that Google isn’t doing.

Bing’s latest addition applies this strategy in a wonderfully cool way. In an attempt to pare down a street map’s inherent convolution, Bing Destination Maps has introduced the ability to sketch your location.

The program’s in beta right now, so it’s a bit slow to load, but once it does, all you do is type in an address and Bing will sketch out an overview of the area you’d like to explore, but without any of the labyrinthine information overload of a city grid.

You can choose from four styles: Sketchy, European, American or Treasure. Treasure, of course, is the coolest one.

Read more: http://www.geek.com/articles/news/bing-destination-maps-adds-cool-treasure-map-sketch-feature-2010064

The newest Bing Map App to enter the Bing Maps Gallery uses Facebook APIs to pull in your friends from Facebook. Also, effective today, the Bing Maps preview I discussed in my blog post, “Bing Maps Adds Map App Ratings, Map Overlays and More” is no longer a preview, but is fully supported greatness for the world to see. All the features such as Bing Map App ratings, ICE Photosynth Panoramas, map overlays, etc. can now be viewed on the Bing Maps site (Silverlight 4 required).

My Friends – Finding your Facebook friends just got a heck of a lot easier. The new My Friends map app lets you view all of your friends right in Bing Maps! Fire up the new application, log in via Facebook Connect, select “Allow” to allow Bing Maps to connect to your profile (to get your friend list) and any of your friends who have listed a “Current City” in their profile will have their profile picture pinned to the map. Look at where all of your Facebook friends are at any given time! Clicking their picture will show you their picture and status. We also have the de-clustering algorithm in place so if you have a number of friends in one place it will spin their photos into a circle and tether them back to the location with a line. This is a great new way to watch your Facebook friends move around the world…especially if you’re friends with me! Finally, you can write directly on someone’s Facebook wall from within in Bing Maps. Ah, the power of APIs.

[taken from http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/06/11/bing-mapping-your-friends-with-facebook-map-app.aspx]

Released last December, TMG is the next generation of Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006.  It is a secure web gateway that allows employees to safely and productively use the Internet without worrying about malware and other threats.  TMG provides multiple layers of continuously updated protections against the latest Web-based threats, including URL filtering, antimalware inspection, and intrusion prevention.  Enhancements in TMG Service Pack 1 (Available for download here):

Improved reporting features

• New user activity reports to monitor Web surfing information
• Improved look and feel for all TMG reports

Enhancements to URL filtering

• User override for access restriction on sites blocked by URL filtering, allowing more flexible and easier deployment of web access policy
• Override for URL categorization at the enterprise level
• Customized site access denial notification pages to fit an organization’s need

Enhanced branch office support

• Simplified deployment of BranchCache at the branch office (for Windows Server 2008 R2 users), using Forefront TMG as the Hosted Cache Server
• Forefront TMG and a read-only domain control can be located on the same server, reducing TCO at branch offices

Support for publishing SharePoint 2010

• DOWNLOAD:  Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 Service Pack 1
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f0fd5770-7360-4916-a5be-a88a0fd76c7c&displaylang=en

[taken from Forefront blog]

Expression Encoder is an advanced audio/video-encoding and live-broadcasting application especially suited for generating content that takes full advantage of the rich graphic and interactive capability of Microsoft Silverlight playback scenarios. You can also generate Windows Media video and audio files that are optimized for other web playback scenarios, or appropriate for playback on portable devices.

For more information about what else is new in this release, see What’s New in Expression Encoder 4.

Note: This free version of Expression Encoder 4 does not include support for live IIS Smooth Streaming and H.264 encoding. To use these features, upgrade to Expression Encoder Pro.

Help us improve Expression Encoder by reporting any technical issues.
For more insight into Expression Encoder, please see the Expression team blog.

• DOWNLOAD:  Expression Encoder 4
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b686399e-db71-4c4c-a457-c5b69b60e4d5&displaylang=en

Anyone remember Microsoft Bootvis?  That OEM tool that Microsoft never actually released to the public but end users used it anyway to analyze their boot up sequence for Windows XP?  Then we went and released the Windows Performance Toolkit… which was difficult enough to use that many people avoided it altogether.

MEASURING BOOT PROCESSES
Introducing Soluto.  Soluto is a 3^rd party utility that installs on your computer (Windows XP/Vista/7 (32bit & 64bit)) and runs at boot time.  It times the boot sequence as your computer is coming up. It then indexes and measures each process that executed and tells you what order drivers and services are loading at and specifically how long each takes.

RATIONALIZING WHAT’S LOADING
What’s more interesting about Soluto however is that it gives you the ability to understand the importance of each process.  It leverages a central web-based database called the “PC Genome” which is designed to help people understand which processes are important and which aren’t. Based on this information you can ascertain which processes should load and which should be deferred to a later time – like when the PC is idle. You’re able then to set each process to specifically DEFER loading until later or DISABLE them altogether, giving you better insight & control over what it is that your PC is doing, now that OEM drivers and 3^rd party software have been installed on your computer.

REDUCING YOUR BOOT TIMES
At the end of the process, you may find that you have cut your boot up times in HALF simply by cleaning out boot-time junk that you previously had no knowledge of.  Remember that this isn’t the junk that’s in STARTUP or RUN in the Registry: These are the processes that load at boot time. 

• DOWNLOAD: Soluto – Anti Frustration Software (BETA)
  http://www.soluto.com

The beta version of the Windows® Server 2008 R2 Security Baseline is now available!

Meet your business-critical needs and elevate the security of Windows Server 2008 R2 with this new security baseline. It combines best-practice guidance with the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to help you plan, deploy, and monitor the security of your Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. Preview this new security baseline, and get the knowledge to effectively deploy and monitor your security baseline for Windows Server 2008 R2 faster and easier.

This beta security baseline for Windows Server 2008 R2 is formatted for easy import using SCM. You must first join the program (https://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=5758&InvitationID=SOLC-2WBV-24MY&SiteID=715) and then use the Download link found in the upper left hand corner of the Connect page. You will find detailed instructions about how to import the download file into SCM on the program description page.

If you are not already a member of the beta program, click here to join.

For members, click here to go to the program description page.

• Learn more about the Security Compliance Manager.
• Download the Security Compliance Manager.

Please send any questions or comments to the Solution Accelerators security team: Secwish@microsoft.com.

Visual Voicemail Update 1.1.12.9 is available for Verizon HTC Touch Pro 2 owners.

Download the .CAB below directly to your device through IE or Opera and double click on the file.
http://mobile.vzw.com/download/vvm/Rhodium/VVM65_Pro_1.1.12.9.CAB

(It still works on MR0/Original 6.1 ROM)

Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 was just made available.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3) has been designed specifically to meet the challenges facing our customers and to help address the needs of all the different businesses and organizations utilizing our Exchange Server 2007 enterprise messaging system.

Exchange Server 2007 SP3 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts.

For administrators, Exchange Server 2007 SP3 provides further flexibility with the addition of Windows Server 2008 R2 support for server roles and Windows 7 support for the Exchange management tools. These additions, along with enhancements for the advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses and the tools which help manage internal compliance and high availability needs provide Exchange administrators with the tools they need to manage their Exchange 2007 environments efficiently.

Clean installations of Exchange 2007 SP3 on a new server are possible by using this download in the same manner as you would install Exchange 2007 RTM, Exchange 2007 SP1 or Exchange 2007 SP2.

The Exchange Server 2007 SP3 bits are available online in 11 languages and on two platforms (32/64bit). The accompanying documentation includes: Release Notes and What’s New in Exchange Server 2007 SP3.

As highlighted in the EHLO blog post by KevinAl a moment ago Ask and you shall receive – Exchange 2007 SP3 w/support for Windows Server 2008 R2 Now Available, this service pack was created in response to strong customer demand for Windows Server 2008 R2 support for Exchange 2007. In addition to the newly supported OS, this service pack also provides updates to a number of core components and the re-introduction of the password reset functionality within OWA for customers using Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

• DOWNLOAD:  Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1687160b-634a-43cb-a65a-f355cff0afa6&displaylang=en
• RELEASE NOTES:  Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=188604
• WHAT’S NEW:  Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=193965

For you Verizon HTC Touch Pro 2 users:

Looks like the Verizon Touch Pro 2 just received a maintenance ROM update called ‘MR2’. Still a bit early to know all the changes, but so far it looks to be some subtle, under the hood type fixes as opposed to a whole new "experience":

• "This is a general software upgrade for the XV6875 that updates VZ Navigator, Contact Cards and the Time Stamp"

So shall we play "what else is different"? If you find anything, hit us up in comments.

You can grab the ROM update right here from PCD.
http://www.pcdphones.com/phone_downloads.aspx?bid=128&cid=1&mid=356&carrier=VerizonWireless

• Visit WMExperts for a full listing of what’s New in this ROM update:
  http://www.wmexperts.com/verizon-touch-pro-2-gets-second-rom-update-mr2