Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft launched its Cloud Guide for IT Leaders, an online digital resource for information technology and business leaders interested in cloud computing.

Wondering how the roles of IT staffers will change with cloud computing? Curious why organizations have left Google Apps? The Cloud Guide for IT Leaders provides access to a steady stream of rich content—highlight videos, executive interviews, images, blog entries and keynote replays—addressing those issues.

Learn more by visiting the Cloud Guide at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/cloud/ and follow us on Twitter via http://twitter.com/STBNewsBytes.

[taken from the Dynamic Data Center Alliance Blog]

Join Flexera Software™, the leading provider in Windows® 7 and App-V™ application readiness solutions, for a discussion of how you can automate and standardize application migration projects to ensure a fast and successful application deployment. This Webinar will explore an end-to-end process for Windows 7 and App-V application migration projects, strategies to reduce cost and complexity, and how a continuous application readiness process creates a repeatable and reliable standard for your next migration project.

In this Webinar you learn the “6 Steps to Faster Windows 7 and App-V Application Migration” and how to:

• Drive down the cost and complexity of preparing for a Windows 7 migration
• Speed conversion time to App-V and other virtualized formats
• Shift from reactive to proactive application management
• Better understand your application estate
• Make sure your applications are ready to move when you are
• Reduce manual migration to save time and resources

Register To Attend A
Live Webinar:
The Fastest Way to Windows 7 and App-V: Automated End-to-End Application Readiness for Application Migration Projects

Date:
Thursday, June 24, 2010

Time:
11:00 CT (12:00 noon EST)

Link:
http://mktg.flexerasoftware.com/mk/get?_EC=SYBKrlXRBw2j7Paa0whGBU

Did you miss E3?  Wanna know what it is that we announced?

• Microsoft-Activision Call of Duty Agreement:  All Call of Duty Add-ons – including those for COD: Black Ops – will be released EXCLUSIVELY on Xbox 360 first from now through 2012
• Metal Gear: Rising from Hideo Kojima, Xbox 360 Exclusive Title:  Showcased; “ultra-violent, very attractive for the hard core gamer”
• Gears of War 3, Xbox 360 Exclusive Title:  New 4-player co-op online, female Gears, gun swapping in-game, new mysterious “Beast” mode announced by CliffyB!
• Fable 3, Xbox 360 Exclusive Title:  Shipping October 26th announced by Peter Molyneux
• Codename: Kingdoms from Crytek, Xbox 360 Exclusive Title:  From the makers of the award-winning Crysis 1 & 2; bloody gladiators!
• Halo: Reach, Xbox 360 Exclusive title:  Feat. space combat with vehicles!  The last Halo title from Bungie after 34M Halo games have been sold.
• Kinect – formerly codename “Project Natal”:
• Control:  Watch movies without a remote; play games without a controller
• Authenticate:  Sign in by simply waving at the camera [facial recognition]
• NEW Kinect Hub shows Kinect specific games, friends, Netflix, Zune, Facebook, last.fm
• Speak:  Voice recognition starts games: “If you can see it, just say it”.
• See:  Video Kinect:  Video chat with friends from Xbox Live & Windows Live Messenge
• ESPN-Xbox 360 agreement:  On-demand access to 3400 games next year; integrated realtime polls/trivia; on-screen stats; free to Xbox Live Gold members
• Kinectamals, Kinect launch title: Play with an interactive digital pet
• Kinect Sports, Kinect launch title:  7 different sports – Soccer, bowling, javelin, long jump, ping pong, boxing, volleyball; playable over Xbox Live against others
• Joy Ride, Kinect launch title:  Kart racer
• Kinect Adventures, Kinect launch title:  River rafting/Mine cart riding w/ split screen for 2 players; takes photos during game ala Disneyland
• Your Shape:  Fitness Evolved, Kinect launch title:  Developed by Ubisoft, includes kickboxing, yoga
• Dance Central, Kinect launch title:  Developed by Harmonix (makers of Rock Band) & MTV Games; feat. 600 moves, 90 routines; Lady Gaga, No Doubt, Beastie Boys
• Available November 4th
• “Unnamed Star Wars Title” – feat. Light Saber battles using Kinect
• “Unnamed racer” – developed by Turn 10, the folks that brought you Forza Motorsport 3
• NEW Xbox 360 model: “Xbox 360 250GB” (Actual marketing name)
• Black, smaller
• 250GB HD (removable), Built-in WiFi-N, 5 USB ports, HDMI/Optical out, Ethernet port
• “Whisper quiet” w/ 1 large fan
• integrated CPU/GPU 45nm chipset
• Custom “Kinect” port on back (Dedicated to Kinect; has extra wattage to support power needs of Kinect; older Xboxes will need Y cable to bond power from 2 USB ports)
• New much much smaller power supply
• $300 – available today!

Here’s a few lessons on App-V Sequencing that are invaluable and you won’t find in the normal papers.

• App-V: Sequencing Deep Dive: Efficiently Making Your Applications Virtual
  This is an in-depth overview of the sequencing process during which you learn how an application is transformed from an installed entity into a virtualized application using the Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) Sequencer tool. See an application virtualized from beginning to end, learn the best practices of the process and how to identify what applications can be virtualized within your application library. The session takes you behind the scenes to show you how to create the virtual environment for an application, define dependencies to a package, manage files in the Virtual File System and the Virtual Registry; and demonstrates how it relates to the Windows OS. Learn how to enable different levels of interaction between the virtual application and other sub-systems with what App-V 4.5 offers, along with good tenets for determining what makes an application a good candidate for virtualization.
  VIEW:  http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/VIR320
• App-V: Effectively Debugging Complex Application Sequencings
  This is an in-depth view of basic and advanced troubleshooting techniques for easily creating virtual packages of complex applications. The App-V sequencer will virtualize the majority of the applications thrown at it, but sometimes you will need to use some advance features to complete creating a virtual package for a complex app. We’ll show you how to use builtin log files and external tools such as Procmon to understand why a virtual package is not working as expected and how to make changes to enable it to work as expected. Areas covered: Sequencing, Client Deployment, Application Deployment
  VIEW: http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/VIR321

Ever wonder why, with all the supposed plans around HTML5’s capabilities Silverlight and Flash bother to continue to develop their own streaming media capabilities?

It’s because contrary to what the media seems to believe, HTML5 is going to have only the most basic media capabilities, and for most organizations streaming content, it lacks all the most important functions that allow for the monetization of content.  All you have to do is look at the features in the new IIS Smooth Streaming Client to see all the important features – such as CONTENT PROTECTION, REAL TIME AD PLAYBACK & INSERTION, ANALYTICAL REPORTING OF USAGE STATISTICS, etc.

—————

The IIS Smooth Streaming Client allows you to build rich Silverlight user experiences that take full advantage of live and on-demand IIS Smooth Streaming capabilities. Examples of available client-side features include simple controls, such as Play, Pause, and Stop, as well as more complex functionality, such as Instant Replay, Live Ad Insertion, Multiple Camera Angles, and Fast Forward / Rewind.

The Smooth Streaming Client consists of the Smooth Streaming Media Element (SSME) SDK. It enables developers and designers to build rich IIS Smooth Streaming player experiences using a .NET Framework-based SDK for Silverlight with full XAML support. It is a core component of the broader open source Silverlight Media Framework. The Smooth Streaming Client APIs provide an easy interface for developers and designers to create rich Smooth Streaming experiences using the Silverlight platform. Documentation for the Smooth Streaming Client APIs is available on MSDN.

For most scenarios, the Silverlight Media Framework is the simplest, most robust way to build a new Silverlight player that supports Smooth Streaming, skinning, analytics, live ad insertion, etc. The Smooth Streaming Client may be ideal for some scenarios, however, such as adding rich Smooth Streaming features to a Silverlight media player based on a different framework, or where unique scenarios cannot otherwise be addressed.

The Smooth Streaming Client supports these high-level features:

• Basic Playback controls
  • APIs such as Play, Pause, Stop, etc.
  • Events for Playback and Diagnostics
  • Properties to track position, etc.
• Advanced Playback support
  • DVR support for Live Smooth Streaming
    • Support for keeping track of the Live event while in DVR mode
  • Trick Play: Slow Motion
  • Trick Play: Fast Forward / Rewind
• H.264 / AAC support
• Monetization
  • Ad Playback integration – scheduling capabilities, tracking Ad progress
  • Live Ad Insertion with Live Smooth Streaming
  • Rich Analytics with IIS Advanced Logging
  • Support for specifying markers and ad ingestion points outside the main manifest
• Content Protection – PlayReady integration for VC1 content
• Composite Manifest Support for scenarios such as Rough Cut Editing
• Selecting Tracks for playback (e.g., restrict the bit-rates available, support multiple camera angles in a single stream, etc.)
• Support for progressive download ads and content

DOWNLOAD:  IIS Smooth Streaming Client
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C12FD70B-4297-47F1-9898-8879716ECDF8&displaylang=en

[taken from http://www.iis.net/download/SmoothClient]

Whether you have libraries of content or a steady stream of user-generated content that you want to convert from one video format to another, IIS Transform Manager can help. Transform Manager, part of the upcoming IIS Media Services 4.0, provides simple integrated video encoding and batch conversion of video files to the IIS Smooth Streaming format and the MPEG-2 Transport Stream adaptive streaming format supported by Apple devices.

Transform Manager integrates directly with Expression Encoder 4 to allow you to use “watch folders” to queue up multiple encode jobs on your server and deliver them directly to IIS Media Services 4.0 Web folders as IIS Smooth Streaming presentations, complete with Silverlight player templates. Transform Manager can also convert your IIS Smooth Streaming presentations directly into MPEG-2 Transport Streams and .m3u8 manifests for delivering content to Apple devices. An SDK comes with Transform Manager, allowing you to write your own plug-in Tasks that can be used with Transform Manager to support custom actions, third-party encoders, or your own encoding applications.

Scenarios
Transform Manager 1.0 Alpha has been designed and tested for the following scenarios:

• Convert existing content library. Using the integrated Expression Encoder 4 task, transcode an existing content library of Windows Media Video (WMV) or MP4 files and schedule for multiple-bit rate (MBR) encoding to the IIS Smooth Streaming file format. Using this workflow, you can set up watch folders that point to existing content, transcode, and deliver full Smooth Streaming and Silverlight player experiences to your Web server.
• Constant ingest/ transcode. Create a new watch folder that allows an incoming run rate of up to 100 files per minute to be queued and encode to Smooth Streaming file format with the integrated Expression Encoder 4 task, using a configurable preset and a Smooth Streaming player template. This scenario assumes files continuously arrive at the watch folder at a fairly constant incoming rate.
• Transmux to Apple HTTP Live for on-demand. Drop existing Smooth Streaming presentations into a watch folder to batch-transmux the Smooth Streams to MPEG-2 TS format and convert the Smooth Stream manifest to an .m3u8 playlist file, enabling delivery from the IIS Smooth Streaming module in IIS to Apple mobile devices.
• Task-chaining. Create custom job templates that combine multiple tasks into a unique workflow.
• Custom tasks. Use the Transform Manager Task API to create custom tasks that integrate third-party encoding applications, media processing, asset upload, or Web services into the workflow.

Workflow
Several of the Transform Manager 1.0 Alpha scenarios listed above can be represented by the workflow diagram for the Expression Encoder 4 task shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. IIS Transform Manager Alpha Expression Encoder 4 task

Futures
The Alpha release of Transform Manager 1.0 only supports operating on a single IIS server and uses the local Task Scheduler for job management. In future releases, the capabilities of the scheduler will expand to support scaling out Transform Manager across multiple servers.

• DOWNLOAD: IIS Transform Manager 1.0 Alpha
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2655d83b-c4b7-4ca5-9d60-ebc4bc6dd8b5

Expression Encoder 4, released this week, includes encoding for IIS Live Smooth Streaming!  This was first demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in April.  There, we had a single Intel Xeon Processor X5680 (code name Westmere-EP) server running Expression Encoder 4 and IIS Media Services to deliver 10 IIS Live Smooth Streaming quality levels, ranging from 200 kbps to a top quality of 1080p at 6 Mbps, plus three more streams for iPhone.

Support for IIS Live Smooth Streaming, including support for H.264, VC-1, and PlayReady DRM, is part of Expression Encoder Pro, which is available today with Expression Studio 4 Ultimate.  You can also download the free version of Expression Encoder 4 today, which includes support for creating on-demand IIS Smooth Streaming content using the VC-1 video codec.  The standalone version of Expression Encoder 4 Pro will be available soon for $49.  

Purchase it now from http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/EncoderPro_Overview.aspx.

The IIS Media team has been plugging away for many months at new server and client technologies, and we are ready to start sharing some of them today! The Beta of IIS Media Services 4.0, which allows you to encode once and deliver to three screens across multiple file formats and protocols, is now available for download and testing.

What’s New in IIS Media Services 4.0 Beta?
First used in the 2008 Summer Olympics, IIS Smooth Streaming (part of IIS Media Services) has become the primary HTTP adaptive streaming technology for delivering content online. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) and Netflix have both adopted the published Protected Interoperable File Format (PIFF) and Microsoft PlayReady for content protection. Broadcasters worldwide have used it to deliver live events such as Sunday Night Football, the UEFA Super Cup, the Tour de France, and the 2010 Winter Olympics.

We had a great response to the release of IIS Media Services 3.0 last year, and received lots of feedback about what features customers needed next. From that feedback, key themes for this beta release are iPhone support, content conversion, content creation, rich player options, and new live streaming features. Let’s look at how we’ve delivered on those themes.

One Encoding Format, One Server, Many Devices – including iPhone
IIS Media Services now has a checkbox option to allow live adaptive streaming delivery to Apple devices. Using the same live H.264 streams you encode for Silverlight players running on PCs, Macs, Linux, Nokia S60 and Windows Phone 7 mobile devices, Broadcom and Intel set-top-boxes, IIS Media Services can now transmux those in real time to streams for iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

Easy Content Conversion
If you already have content created in one format and you want to use Smooth Streaming, we can help. The new IIS Transform Manager (available today as a version 1.0 Alpha release) provides a full set of features for automatically converting content for use with IIS Media Services. It includes batch encoding of on-demand videos, job scheduling, and job management. Using predefined Tasks, you specify how content should be processed as it appears in specified Watch Folders. Transform Manager comes with Sample Job Templates to make getting started easy, including transmuxing of H.264 video content into Apple-device-compatible adaptive streaming files. Today, Transform Manager relies on the just-released Expression Encoder 4, but it also comes with a Task API for partners who wish to integrate their own encoders with IIS Media Services.

Content Creation
Also available today is the IIS Smooth Streaming Format SDK 1.0 Beta 2. This SDK enables developers and encoding partners to easily create live and on-demand PIFF-compliant files and manifests for adaptive streaming, apply PlayReady DRM encryption, and then deliver that content with IIS Live Smooth Streaming. Since Beta 1, we have added several new capabilities – see John Deutscher’s excellent blog post about this release for more details. In the meantime, download the free version of Expression Encoder 4, which includes support for creating on-demand IIS Smooth Streaming content using the VC-1 codec.

Rich Player Options
Earlier releases of IIS Smooth Streaming included a client component known as the Smooth Streaming Media Element, or SSME. Today, we are formalizing this technology in the release of the IIS Smooth Streaming Client 1.0, which gives the media player the intelligence to play back live and on-demand Smooth Streaming content while providing rich analytics and advertising capabilities. This SDK is already used in the Silverlight Media Framework, a proven code base used in many of the high-visibility Smooth Streaming events of the last year. For folks using a different player framework or having unique player scenarios, this SDK provides the tools to easily implement IIS Smooth Streaming.

New Live Smooth Streaming Features
How do you make the primary live adaptive streaming technology better? You make it do more, and with better performance. At a high level, this release of Live Smooth Streaming adds new controls for caching in server memory. It also adds new support for making use of encoder event IDs and metadata. Stay tuned for more about new Live Smooth Streaming capabilities, including Low-Latency streaming support

Coming Up Next…
Are you looking for a feature you do not see listed above? Let us know! But first, let me tell you about what will be coming in the next release:

• A multicast version of IIS Smooth Streaming
• A no-cost PlayReady DRM integration in IIS Media Services for simple "play once" scenarios
• New AES encryption and DVR features for Apple devices
• A scale-out model and PlayReady DRM integration for IIS Transform Manager

Download and install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of IIS Media Services 4.0 Beta today!

[taken from the IIS.NET post at http://blogs.iis.net/chriskno/archive/2010/06/10/iis-media-services-4-0-beta-is-now-available.aspx]

Microsoft and Northwest Cadence are proud to offer this four hour live event – during which we will demonstrate the testing and quality assurance lifecycle using Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server. Join us as we dive into the testing tools and testing process you can use to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your QA and Test efforts. You’ll see the Microsoft Test Manager and Lab Management in all its glory as we explore how to manage your test environment, organize test suites, test cases, requirements and bugs, and how to manage both automated and manual test runs. In addition, you’ll see how to easily create an automated test from an existing manual test run. Finally, and most importantly, you’ll discover how insanely easy it is to create bugs that can be simply and reliably reproduced by developers – Visual Studio 2010 is that powerful.

• Imagine knowing which manual regression tests you had to run, given the code changes in the recent build…
• Imagine being able to quickly and completely capture bugs in such a way that developers can reproduce them…
• Imagine being able to record your exploratory testing and turn that exploration into detailed test steps – with just a few commands…
• Imagine taking a manual test run and, in seconds, turning it into an automated test…
• Imagine using an intuitive interface to design, organize and execute your test plans…
• Imagine seeing your testing progress on one simply dashboard, and drilling into critical details…
• Imagine testing your application more effectively, in less time, and with less pain…

Now come see it all. In action. Today.

This training event is geared towards QA managers, technical and non-technical testers, business analysts, and quality-conscious developers working on cross-functional teams (or, gasp, organizations without testers).

Register for a date & location near you!

• Welcome: 8:00 AM (Local Time)
• Seminar: 8:30 AM-12:00 PM (Local Time)

Microsoft Partner Events: www.clicktoattend.com

Schedule
July 15, 2010 – Irvine, CA – 148944

Resources

• Learn more about Visual Studio 2010
• Keep up with the latest developer news through MSDN Flash
• Keep up to speed on additional Northwest Cadence events

The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.6 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7®, Windows Vista®, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer® in your environment.

Overview
The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.6 helps customers understand their application compatibility situation by identifying which applications are compatible with the Windows 7® and Windows Vista® operating system and which require further testing. ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows more quickly.

You can use the ACT features to:

• Verify an application’s compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment.
• Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.
• Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows Internet Explorer® Internet browser.

DOWNLOAD:  Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.6
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971

Additional Resources

• Application Compatibility, Windows 7, Vista  Toolkit  TechNet
• ACT 5 Step by Step Guides
• Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Quality Cookbook
• Windows 7 Compatibility Software Programs and Hardware Devices Find Updates, Drivers, and Downloads