Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Yep.  Zune Firmware 3.1 has released for all versions of Zune devices.  30GB, 80GB, 120GB, 4GB flash, 8GB flash, and 16GB flash.

Technically, the Zune Desktop software should automatically detect that a new rev is available, but I’m told that it won’t necessarily detect & deliver the firmware to your device immediately.  I suspect this is the Zune teams way of parsing out the delivery to people slowly so that there isn’t a massive crush on the download servers of people trying to download 131MB of software.

Details at http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2008/11/18/zune-3-1-update-your-zune.aspx.

New features & changes:

• Friendly user interface changes to Zune Social
• Like-minded Listeners matches you with others with similar music tastes
• Stability & performance improvements to both Zune Desktop client and Zune Device Firmware.
• Improved/fixed playcount reporting
• Improved/fixed content synchronization
• Texas Hold ‘em update – Adds a multiplayer mode and some new single player difficulty levels
• New gamesCheckers, Sudoku and Space Battle

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ecc2d7ee-bf20-416d-bb44-f6b7cccae253&DisplayLang=en

Tech▪Ed 2009 North America
Tech▪Ed Developer and IT Professional Conference:  May 11-15, 2009
Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

Have you heard the news? Tech·Ed North America 2009 is moving back to a single week covering both audiences. This change in format was based on feedback from you our developer and IT professional communities and our desire to constantly look for the best, most efficient opportunity to serve your distinct needs. We are excited to celebrate our seventeenth year as the best technical education and networking event in the industry.

Registration opens December 10th, 2008. Sign up for the newsletter so you can take advantage of our special holiday rate.

For more information:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/events/teched/default.aspx

Come join us at the Microsoft Management Summit 2009 and learn about the latest IT Management Solutions from Microsoft

The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) is the premier event of the year for IT Professionals, offering deep technical information and training on the latest IT management solutions from Microsoft.

In this tenth-anniversary year, MMS 2009 will be bigger and better than ever. In addition to executive keynotes, Microsoft experts and industry leaders will present more than 100 technical sessions, all packed with demos. MMS 2009 will feature more than 9,000 Hands-on Lab places during the week, most led by experts providing a guided tour of the latest technologies.

MMS 2009 will offer face-to-face access to Microsoft and industry experts through a variety of networking opportunities and in the MMS 2009 Expo, where over 60 sponsors and exhibitors will showcase their latest products and services.

This year’s event will be held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Special room rates have been negotiated at the hotel for conference attendees, details of which are available on the Registration Overview page.

For more information:  http://mms-2009.com/

Today, we announced that Windows Live OneCare will no longer be sold and instead, Microsoft will be providing free of charge, a Microsoft Antivirus/Anti-spyware/Anti-malware software & service solution currently codenamed “Morro”.

This will effectively provide antivirus, antispyware, and antimalware protection to ANYONE running a genuine copy of Windows worldwide.

WHY?
The key to why this move was made lies in the last word in that sentence:  “Worldwide’.  THe fact is that most developing countries like China don’t have the ability to subscribe to security services that have a annual payment model.  Because malware is a worldwide problem, Microsoft is making this service free to eliminate this obstacle and ensure everyone gets access to malware protection.

IS “MORRO” JUST “FREE ONECARE”?
No, “Morro” is not OneCare.  It will be tuned for low-bandwidth, less powerful PCs to reach & secure as many people as possible.

WHEN?
Second half of  2009.

More information:

• Microsoft PR Announcement:  “Q&A:  Improving Global Access to Core PC Protection”
  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/Nov08/11-18AmyBarzdukasQandA.mspx
• Microsoft PR Announcement:  “Microsoft Announces Plans for No-Cost Consumer Security Offering”
  http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/nov08/11-18NoCostSecurityPR.mspx
• OneCare Announcement Press Kit:
  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/onecare/default.mspx
• Windows Live OneCare Blog:
  http://windowsonecare.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C29701F38A601141!10418.entry

This is a really interesting comparison.

The guys at Ripten published lists of the games that have sold 1 million or more units for each console, first with Playstation 3 and next with Xbox 360.

• XBox360’s 1 million unit sellers:
  http://www.ripten.com/2008/11/17/xbox-360s-million-sellers/ 
• PS3’s 1 million unit sellers:
  http://www.ripten.com/2008/11/17/playstation-3s-million-sellers/ 

Here’s their list for the Xbox 360, with the ‘millions of units sold’ next to each title.  I’ve highlighted my personal favorites.  I’m perplexed at how this list is missing Ninja Gaiden 2 and Valve’s Orange Box but being that this list is apparently missing a few titles…:

There are lots of add-ins specifically for Visio 2007.  If you’re interested in diagramming topology or schema, this is the tool to do it in.

Exchange Server 2007 Visio Add-in
The Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 Professional Add-In makes it easy for Exchange administrators to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Instead of viewing single user data, administrators can create data-connected Visio diagrams that display data at a glance and dramatically increase productivity. You can diagram a Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=547

Disk Space Monitoring Add-in
(aka Near Real Time Server Storage Monitoring)
Microsoft Visio 2007 Add-in for Near Real Time Monitoring (NRTM) of Disk Space uses the new Data Graphics feature of Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 Professional to display the results of server monitoring.  This add-in auto generates diagrams from Microsoft® Office Excel® or Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager 2007 as a data source. Let’s you decide on optimal threshold values for disk space and then monitors your hardware for disk space using WMI or Ops manager in near real time.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=61

Folder Access Rights Map Add-in
Folder Access Rights Map helps you see a shared folder’s setting conditions at a glance. It outputs the configurations and the Folder Access Rights of the shared folders on your file server to Microsoft Office Visio or Excel.
With Folder Access Rights Map, you can:
– Obtain shared folders from the Active Directory, list them and select them individually.
– Specify the number of layers in the folder hierarchy for output to Microsoft Office Visio or Excel.
– Display the setting conditions of shared access or NTFS access.
– Visually retrieve and display a folder which has a designated account.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=586

Active Directory Topology Diagrammer Add-in
With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can read your Active Directory structure through Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool automates Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 Professional to draw a diagram of the Active Directory Domain topology, your Active Directory Site topology, your OU structure or your current Exchange 200X Server Organization.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=538

Server Virtualization Add-In for Visio 2007 Pro
With over 70% of server hardware being under-utilized, this very valuable tool can draw a clear picture of your hardware utilization. This tool auto-generates the diagram of your rack and provides clear server details from a linked Excel template. Analyze your racks and servers using WMI or get the utilization data over time using the Operations Manager connection.
Use the virtualization button to see the before and after detailed diagram of your racks. See clearly where you have the opportunity to save on space and power.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=546

SQL Server Add-In
The SQL Assessment Add-In for Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 Professional is a tool for IT administrators who need to continually interact with users during SQL server installations in any IT infrastructure.  
This add-in takes the input of SQL configuration prerequisites from users for SQL Server installations and shows them in a clear, easy to read diagram. The tool also allows you to see whether you can update your server configurations to the latest version of Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008

Baseline Security Analyzer Add-in
This Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007 Professional Add-In for Microsoft® Baseline Security Analyzer
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2&aid=59

Software Upgrade Assessment Add-in
Visio Add-in for Software Upgrades will help the IT/Datacenter Administrators and manager to assess the hardware and software installations on the Servers and user computers/laptops.
Use this valuable Add-in to assess your client and server infrastructure easily and simply using Visio 2007. Evaluate what hardware on the client side you can upgrade to the latest versions of Windows Vista of on Microsoft Office 2007. Assess your server infrastructure to check and see which versions of Windows server 2008 or SQL server 2008 you can run on your current infrastructure. All of this in an easy to use and understand Visio 2007 diagram which is automatically generated from and Excel template. Save time and money using this simple client and server assessment Add-in for Visio 2007.
http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads.aspx?resourceid=2

Recently there’s been a few external postings made about Office web applications, above and beyond the Press release that was published in October, that people should be aware of:

1. Snapshots of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote as Online Applications:
   http://workspace.officelive.com/FAQ
   /thumbnails

   For those of you wondering, this is relevant because it’s the first public snapshots of Excel and Powerpoint.  Previously the PR release only included screenshots of Word-in-a-browser and OneNote-in-a-browser.

2. On10’s Q&A on Office web applications:
   http://www.on10.net/blogs/
   sarahintampa/Microsoft-Office-Web-Applications-Your-Burning-Questions-Answered

   Color me intrigued.  None of the information on this page is available in the “customer ready” documentation we have on Office web applications so my only assumption is that Sarah interviewed someone from the Office Product Management team who disclosed this stuff.

   Nonetheless, it’s interesting information for people that are interested in looking at this paradigm for Office computing.

[I stole this off of Robert McLaw’s site from one of the comments that was posted]

An easy way to download the .MSI installation files for Windows Live product betas is to download and install the Windows Live products to a 32-bit machine and navigate to:

%systemroot%System32configsystemprofileLocal SettingsApplication DataWindowsLiveInstallerMsiSources

Copy the .msi files to a data stick and run the .msi files on the PC you want to install this on.  This can be useful in particular for Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista x64 installations which can in fact run these Windows Live products but the vaunted “unified installer” for Windows Live products won’t work on these. (Incidentally, I found it hilarious that the Windows Experience blog actually celebrated the release of the unified installer, while it was hailed as a royal pain in the tuckus by much of the online community, resulting in more obscurity & confusion by the end users using it instead of the transparency and ease-of-use that was supposedly the objective. <shakes head>)

Identify the product you’re interested in by the following names in the directory:

• Windows Live Writer
  Install_{1F973A7F-3FE4-4D11-A9A2-E869C2899A7D}.msi
• Windows Live Messenger
  Install_{508CE775-4BA4-4748-82DF-FE28DA9F03B0}.msi
• Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
  Install_{CB5EA99C-8A5B-49F2-9A1A-2EF78BE4DB41}.msi
• Windows Live Mail
  Install_{EDB619FD-4E71-403C-8E99-DFC9CF9DD345}.msi
• Windows Live Toolbar
  Install_{C6876FE6-A314-4628-B0D7-F3EE5E35C4B4}.msi
• Windows Live Photo Gallery
  Install_{AA436FBD-2595-479B-8DDE-E9C36F50D99D}.msi

For those unaware of Office Live Workspace (http://workspace.officelive.com/), it’s a FREE document storage & productivity workspace that allows not only convenient online uploads & downloads of documents for storage “in the cloud” but also secure online collaboration between other people that want to access and edit these documents with you.  Sign up if you haven’t already.

Well, as you would suspect, the recently announced Office Web Applications (web-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote) are likely to appear side by side with Office Live Workspace providing smooth integration with documents store in the Office Live repositories.  So, if you want to stay plugged in, it’d probably be best to get used to Office Live Workspace and understand how it works with the existing Office 2003/2007 application suites. 

To better integrate your Microsoft Office Live Workspace documents with the Microsoft Office programs on your computer, install the Office Live Update, a collection of plug ins and software updates for both Windows as well as Office.

The add ins allow you to access your workspaces directly from Office Word, Office Excel, and Office PowerPoint. The Office Live Add-in installs a new toolbar in Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 and new menu options in the 2007 Microsoft Office system.  (The picture to the right depicts the add-in’s appearance in Office 2007.

For more information read the following:

INSTRUCTIONS:
Improve integration between Office Live Workspace and Microsoft Office programs
http://office.microsoft.com/client/helppreview.aspx?AssetID=HA102257761033&QueryID=TzCDWNSnd&respos
=4&rt=2&ns=OFLV20&lcid=1033&pid=CH102255811033

To get the Office Live Update, visit the following link:

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=91FE0002-EB00-434B-8726-27911326D2B2&displaylang=en

Did you miss the Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference 2008 here in Los Angeles?  Catch the content LIVE at the MSDN Developer Conference. Register Today!

We’re bringing the PDC to you! For just $99 you’ll get the best of the PDC in your own backyard and hear all of the exciting announcements around the Azure Services Platform and Windows 7. Other sessions include the latest developments in .NET, Silverlight, Surface, Parallel Programming, Live Mesh, and more.

Register today to stay current in an ever-competitive job market, enhance your skills and gain access to the next generation of tools and technology.

1. Experience the Azure Services Platform
   Create applications that seamlessly bridge PC, Web, and phone

2. Be among the first to see Windows 7
   See the latest advances in Multi-Touch Application Development

3. Take your .NET skills to the next level
   See sessions on WPF 4.0, Silverlight 2, ASP.NET 4.0, Parallel Programming, Live Mesh and more

The Cost? Just $99.  And, did we mention that attendees will get some cool giveaways?  Here’s the agenda:

Azure Services Platform:

• A Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform
• Developing and Deploying Your First Azure Services
• A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services
• Developing Applications Using Microsoft SQL Data Services

Client & Presentation:

• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Roadmap
• Developing Data-Centric Applications Using the WPF DataGrid and Ribbon Controls
• Building Business-Focused Applications Using Silverlight 2
• ASP.NET 4.0 Roadmap

Tools, Languages, and Framework:

• The Future of Managed Languages: F#, C#, and Visual Basic
• A Lap Around "Oslo"
• A Lap Around VSTS 2010
• Parallel Programming for Managed Code Developers

Events are located all over the nation.  In particular:

• 12/9/08  Houston, TX
• 1/26/09  Dallas, TX
• 2/19/09  San Francisco, CA