Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Wow.  The guys in Xbox Business Strategy sure know what they’re doing.  The other day, we reduced the price on the Xbox below $199 and Xbox 360 sales at Amazon.com went absolutely through the roof.

• Arcade Edition increased by 1,712% and held the #25 ranking in the Video Games area of Amazon
• Pro Edition increased by 502% to hold the #23 ranking
• Elite Edition increased 231% to hold a #64 ranking

So I guess now, the Xbox 360 is officially cheaper than the Nintendo Wii.

LINK:  http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=6657

There’s an entire issue of Technet Magazine coming out that focuses on Virtualization, obviously highlighting our strategy around System Center-based Virtual Datacenter Management & our Hypervisor, Hyper-V.

Here’s an index of the articles that are published online from the physical magazine:

• Virtualization: An Introduction to Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008
  The introduction of Hyper-V makes virtualization an even more compelling solution for IT environments. Get an overview of today’s virtualization market and see how Hyper-V improves the manageability, reliability, and security of virtualization Rajiv Arunkundram
• Virtualization: Manage Your Virtual Environments with VMM 2008
  System Center Virtual Machine Manager provides a consolidated interface for managing your virtual infrastructure. The latest version adds support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, as well as for VMware virtual machines. Explore the new features and get an overview of using VMM to centralize your management tasks. Edwin Yuen
• Virtualization: Getting Started with Microsoft Application Virtualization
  Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) allows you to deliver virtualized desktops to client systems throughout your organization. This simplifies system management and liberates employees from their desktops. Take a close look at how App-V works and discover how you can deploy it in your organization. Anthony Kinney
• Virtualization: Achieving High Availability for Hyper-V
  Consolidating servers onto fewer physical machines has many advantages, but it is extremely important that you plan for your systems to be highly available. Here’s a guide to using Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering to bring high availability to your Hyper-V virtual machines. Steven Ekren
• Virtualization: Backup and Disaster Recovery for Server Virtualization
  Virtualization brings significant changes to disaster recovery. Here’s an introduction to how the Microsoft virtualization platform factors into your disaster recovery plan, as well as a deeper look into backup and restore options and considerations for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Adam Fazio
• Virtualization: Essential Tools for Planning Your Virtual Infrastructure
  Is your infrastructure ready for virtualization? The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, a network-wide infrastructure assessment tool, can help you better understand your IT infrastructure and determine whether your systems are ready for upgrade or migration to a variety of technologies, including virtualization. Jay Sauls and Baldwin Ng

LINK:  http://blogs.technet.com/mapblog/archive/2008/09/04/special-edition-of-technet-magazine-on-virtualization.aspx

Effectively Share Data Across Teams with Microsoft Office Project 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

In today’s new world of work, it’s not enough just to “do your work” or “manage your project.” With teams that are doing more with less, you need to share your work across the organization and collaborate in “real” time.

Projects come in all shapes and sizes and are everywhere across the organization. Businesses rely on the successful completion of these projects to improve market share and revenue. Almost all organizations struggle today to find the right tools to effectively plan, communicate, track, and analyze their work across teams.

A Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Project 2007 based solution can offer simplicity and power. By combining Microsoft Office Project 2007 with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, project managers and anyone else responsible for managing a team, can effectively schedule work, assign tasks, and communicate team responsibilities. 

Microsoft partners, LMR Solutions and EPM Live, will show how you can take advantage of two familiar and widely used Microsoft Office applications: Microsoft Office Project 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as a powerful Enterprise Project and Work Management solution. You will also hear how Avery Dennison has used this solution to improve cross- team collaboration in their organization.

Who Should Attend:
Anyone who manages projects and collaborates with other team members.

• Managers and Directors of IT, Engineering, R&D, Sales/Marketing, Finance or HR
• Project Managers and Directors

We are limiting the size of the event to the first 30 guests to facilitate collaborative discussion.

Agenda:

9:00am – 9:30am

Do you have a clear understanding of what Software as a Services is and what “Cloud computing” means, at least as it pertains to today’s IT industry?

Here is a whitepaper and a blog post that can be useful in understanding both SaaS & Cloud Computing.  They’re from people you may have heard about: David Chappell – industry expert in Technology Directions & Application Architecture and John Osborn who has a blog on O’Reilly.

• O’Reilly Blog:
  Post on Software as a Service
  http://news.oreilly.com/2008/08/david-chappells-taxonomy-of-cl.html
• David Chappell’s Whitepaper: 
  “A Short Introduction to Cloud Platforms:  An Enterprise-oriented View”
  http://www.davidchappell.com/CloudPlatforms–Chappell.pdf

Just announced: BizTalk Server 2009. 
(See Biztalk Server roadmap here:  http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/
us/roadmap.aspx)

The release schedule appears to remain unchanged from the 2006 R3 version, with an expected release date in H1 CY09.  There should also be a CTP release in Q4 CY08.

• http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisromp/archive/2008/09/05/biztalk-server-2009.aspx
• http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/roadmap.aspx#WhereWereGoing
• http://blogs.msdn.com/stevemar/archive/2008/09/05/biztalk-server-2009.aspx
• http://seroter.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/goodbye-biztalk-2006-r3-hello-biztalk-2009/

Summary of Changes, Additions
(See Chris Romp’s blog for more details)

Updated Platform Support

• New Application Platform Support

• New Hyper-V Virtualization Support

• Improved Failover Clustering

Service Oriented Architecture and Web Services

• New Web Services Registry

• New Line of Business Adapters

• Enhanced Host Systems Integration

• Enhanced Business Activity Monitoring

• Enhanced Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Guidance 

Business to Business Integration

• Enhanced Support for EDI and AS2 Protocols

• Updated SWIFT Support

• Device Connectivity

• New Mobile RFID Platform and device management

• New RFID industry standards support

Developer and Team Productivity

• New Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) support

• Enhanced Developer Productivity

Other Enhancements

• Messaging

• Administration

This is so cool, it ‘goes to 11’. 

MSNBC is using our ultra-high definition photography to give you the opportunity to view a multi-gigapixel photo of the floor of the Republican National Convention.

You can ‘pan’ and ‘zoom’ into the photo to a ridiculous degree.  The ‘zoom’ is so good, you can look at the expressions on individuals facts very clearly.  It’s kind of like an adult “Where’s Waldo?”

First of all, you need to install the HD View plug in from Microsoft Research:

• INSTALL: 
  http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/HDView/HDInstall.htm

Here’s the photo used on MSNBC:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain makes his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. (John Brecher / msnbc.com)

• MSNBC Photo:
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
  26552359/

There are better photos available – like the one used in the TEDTalk a few years ago of Seattle.

• OTHER HD VIEW DEMOS:
  http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/HDView/HDGigapixel.htm

Three words:  Big… Top… Points.

“The Future.

Delicious.”

Looking to transform the way you manage your desktops? Using Microsoft Application Virtualization will enable applications to run without the need to visit a desktop, laptop, or terminal server. Since applications are no longer installed on the client there is minimal impact on the host operating system or other applications.

Join us for a half day as you’ll learn how to improve PC manageability, accelerate and simplify desktop deployments and migrations, and enhance change management.

Lab seats are limited! Register today!

Workshop topics include:

• Overview of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance
• System requirements for Microsoft Application Virtualization
• Microsoft Application Virtualization client overview
• Microsoft Application Virtualization management console overview
• License tracking and enforcement with Microsoft Application Virtualization
• Packaging and deploying applications with Microsoft Application Virtualization               
• Questions & Answers

Audience:
This hands-on lab is for IT Professionals in job roles such as infrastructure specialists, network administrators, directory administrators, management specialists, and client support. This hands-on workshop is limited to 15 attendees.

Date/Time:
November 13, 2008
9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(breakfast and parking included)

Registration:
This workshop is invite only and requires a registration code to attend.  If you are a customer of mine, please contact me if interested and I will provide the appropriate information to you.

And the other shoe just dropped.  Xbox 360 Arcade Edition is now officially $199 per unit.

For the casual gamer, this is huge news.  For just $199, they can get a console that can:

1. Play Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero 3, the two largest rhythm games on the market
2. Watch TV shows & High Definition movies from the world’s largest existing on-demand High Definition video library
3. Rent movies from NetFlix’s on-demand library
4. Play or compete against others over Xbox Live in Madden 2009, Halo 3, and Grand Theft Auto 4 – the top 3 games in console gaming
5. Look forward to major releases this Holiday Season such as Gears of War 2 & Guitar Hero World Tour

LINK:  http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-03Xbox360PriceDropPR.mspx

For those of you who have the vaunted Blackjack II (Sweet, sweet device) you’re in luck.  Looks like they released the Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM for it a couple days ago.

Here’s a list of items updated in the… uh… Update:

• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 (AKU1.0.1)
• Pocket Internet Explorer, 7.11
• Microsoft Voice Command v1.6.19
• Microsoft Office Mobile (including One Note,)
• TeleNav & MobiTV capable
• Modified UI with updated text & icons in several areas
• Enhancements to improve call quality (Qualcomm patches)
• Fixed, Several Bluetooth improvements for BTCK ‘including Peiker, Nokia, Audi, BMW, and others
• Fixed, Several Bluetooth issues relating to BTHS Jabra, Motorola, Samsung, and others
• Fixed, BT audio routing
• Fixed, Audio playback issue /w certain applications
• Fixed, Video Calling problems
• Added, Track Wheel speed values
• Added, Sliding Media Pane
• Added, Phonebook Access Profile (PBAP) for Bluetooth
• Added, Leap year calendar patch for wallpaper
• Added, Integrated BMW iDrive Patch
• Removed, Good Messaging Application

DOWNLOAD:

• WinXP – http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view.jsp?SITE_ID=22&PG_ID=557&PROD_SUB_ID=558&PROD_ID=957&AT_ID=132706
• WinVista – http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view.jsp?SITE_ID=22&PG_ID=557&PROD_SUB_ID=558&PROD_ID=957&AT_ID=132707