Kurt Shintaku's Blog

In case I haven’t posted this, the Sharepoint Conference is coming in 2008.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Conference 2008
March 3rd – 6th,  Seattle, WA

Since the release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 one year ago, everyone from Microsoft product specialists to our customers and partners to industry analysts have all accumulated a wealth of real life product and deployment experience that we want to share with you! That’s why the SharePoint Conference 2008 is all about real world experience and guidance.

LINK:  http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/default.aspx

For those of you with a Windows Mobile-based Palm Treo 750, please note that you can now upgrade your device to WM 6 at this link: www.palm.com/750updateATT

Why upgrade to the new Windows Mobile 6.0 ROM for the Treo 750?

Enhancements:

• Faster downloads with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) – Get faster access to large attachments, streaming video, and more¹.
• Update for Loss of System Sounds – Included in the update.
• Improved Calendar functionality – See the big picture at a glance. New topline bar in the agenda view shows when you’re free or busy, and when you have scheduling conflicts. Drill down to view meeting attendees, contact information, acceptance status, and reply-to or forward meeting requests.
• Additional email support – Send and receive HTML emails with tables, bullets, and colored text intact^2,3. The "smart filter" for contact search has been updated so you can search for emails stored on your company’s Exchange Server³. Even send an out-of-office message from your device³.
• Windows Vista compatibility – Easily sync your smartphone to your Windows Vista PC, via the Windows Mobile Device Centre (WMDC).
• Better security and IT policies³ – Remotely wipe devices and SD cards clean in case of loss or theft. Plus, now IT can create and enforce tougher security policies, such as password protection to better manage the entire device fleet.
• Run existing applications – Most Windows Mobile 5.0 applications will work after you update to Windows Mobile 6. The .NET Compact Framework will be installed in ROM to make it easier for developers to deploy custom apps.
• Internet Connection Sharing – Utilize your smartphone capabilities by using your phone as a high-speed wireless modem for your laptop⁴. It’s easy to set up and even easier to connect. Just click and go!
• Email hot keys – Work in the fast lane with single-key access to your most frequently used email functions. Press "R" to reply, "A" to reply all, or "M" to move to one of your folders.
• Email Inbox search – Find that important document or email. Automatically search for attachments, senders, or keywords by simply typing a few letters while you’re in your email inbox.
• Access Sharepoint – Get what you need then get going. Access documents stored on your company’s SharePoint servers via links in HTML emails. ^2,3

Additional Enhancements:

• AT&T Cellular Video (CV) – Take a quick break with streaming video⁵ on your smartphone-like clips from American Idol and other TV programs, broadcasts from CNN and NBC, sports highlights, weather forecasts, and more.
• AT&T Mall– Shop for MP3 ringtones and cool wallpaper graphics². Buy MMS postcards for birthdays and other events and pay as you go, with purchases showing up on your phone bill.
• AT&T Music² – Enjoy trial versions of XM Internet radio and Music ID, where you let your phone "listen" to the music and get a text message identifying it. Or download and watch your favorite artists in their latest videos. Link to popular fan sites. Buy tracks and manage your subscriptions from Yahoo! Music, Napster, or eMusic.²
• Voice Command via Bluetooth wireless technology – Get more done while you stay hands-free⁶. Dial by voice, or hear your upcoming appointments with your Bluetooth headset. Voice Command available in English, French, and German only.
• Active call access³– Manage your calls more efficiently than ever. Mute calls or use the speakerphone with a single tap on your active-call screen.
• USB cable charging– Travel tip: Now your smartphone will charge when it’s connected to your laptop via the USB cable.

If you own a Zune or other MP3 player and are interested in today’s deal for a docking station/speaker:

Altec Lansing M604 Powered Audio System for Zune
$39.99

List price is $199 and the best deal on Amazon is $70.  This is available today at http://www.woot.com.

For those of you interested in a 3rd party review of this sound system, check out:

http://www.geardiary.com/2007/01/25/the-altec-lansing-m604-powered-audio-system-for-zune-review/

Personally, I’ve owned one of these for the past year, I love it.  The sound is awesome.

Next Tuesday, December 11th 2007, the Office System team here at Microsoft expects to announce the availability for download of the 2007 Microsoft® Office System Service Pack 1 (SP1).  This is sooner than previously announced for the "release to web" when the target date was announced at the IT Forum in Europe earlier this year!

The 2007 Microsoft® Office System Service Pack 1 (SP1) reflects unceasing efforts by the Microsoft Office System team to address customer concerns. Nearly all of the improvements included in the 2007 Office System SP1 are in response to:

1. direct feedback from power users at large organizations or
2. indirect feedback from home and office users through the Dr. Watson bug-reporting system

By tapping these extensive customer-feedback channels, the Microsoft Office System team has targeted the issues that customers care about most. As a result, the 2007 Office System SP1 will deliver significant stability and performance improvements to the applications that home and office workers rely on every day.  

The 2007 Office System SP1 will be critical service pack for a variety of reasons.  It will:

• eliminate many deployment barriers to deployment you may have in your environment
• provide support for Windows Server 2008
• provide critical fixes to products such as Project and Project Server.

The use of Automatic Update (AU) Deployment has been a concern we have heard from many customers in recent months.  Because of this, the 2007 Office System SP1 will not be released to AU immediately.   Instead, the Microsoft Office System team will provide guidance as to a date at which we will begin throttling up so that you have time to educate yourself on what is in SP1 and determine the best method for you to deploy it in your environment. 

For more information, refer to the Office download site at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx

(Originally posted to my coworker, John Rajunas’ blog in New York)

If you subscribe to Technet Magazine (if you don’t you can subscribe for free here) you know that we publish these large wall posters that show the architecture and technology behind many of our products. 

We’ve published the soft copy versions to the Internet and here are the download points for all of them.  You can grab them and print them out if you either have a really large printer (Kinko’s anyone?) or you can leverage them in presentations for your Enterprise.

Exchange

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FDCDF6E5-DE47-4B58-8086-282101BCDDE9&displaylang=en

Active Directory

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c236336d-ab43-44b1-ad6f-a2f668fb8c02&displaylang=en

Windows Server 2008 (Active Directory & Feature Components)

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c2b9e44e-0bbd-47cb-bc09-b3d48be7f867&DisplayLang=en
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/e/8/2e88c004-3b10-446f-9d5a-58af27deafc4/Windows%20Server%202008%20Active%20Directory%20Components.pdf
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/e/8/2e88c004-3b10-446f-9d5a-58af27deafc4/Windows%20Server%202008%20Feature%20Components.pdf

.NET Framework 3.5 Common Namespaces and Types

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7B645F3A-6D22-4548-A0D8-C2A27E1917F8&displaylang=en
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/a/3/4a3c7c55-84ab-4588-84a4-f96424a7d82d/NET35_Namespaces_Poster_LORES.pdf

2007 Office System Document: Developer

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/9/c/09cda3f2-6d3d-4082-aec5-9a62b7679ecf/2007OfficeDeveloperMap.pdf
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/9/c/09cda3f2-6d3d-4082-aec5-9a62b7679ecf/InfoPathObjectModelMap.pdf

Visual C# 2008 Keybinding Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e5f902a8-5bb5-4cc6-907e-472809749973&displaylang=en

Visual Basic 2008 Keybinding Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=255b8cf1-f6bd-4b55-bb42-dd1a69315833&displaylang=en

Visual C++ 2008 Keybinding Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4411BBFC-0E3C-42B3-BD05-AF1D292C986F&displaylang=en

Visual C++ 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bccf84f4-4136-48b2-b4ec-83eaa484da20&DisplayLang=en

Visual Basic 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6bb41456-9378-4746-b502-b4c5f7182203&displaylang=en&tm

BizTalk Server 2006 Capabilities

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=00a6472c-14df-4da8-8d77-6aa2315b5862&displaylang=en

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Capabilities

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=34F41573-C552-466F-B531-32CB09A57CDD&displaylang=en

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Runtime Architecture

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8790E652-1DA5-4E80-88FE-B87606233DB4&displaylang=en

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Scale-Out Configurations

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ff468298-64be-4947-a086-f61584caf995&displaylang=en

Microsoft® Silverlight™ 1.1 Alpha Developer Reference

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=811D8AD6-8D48-4684-B08C-686462D58A56&displaylang=en

PnP Overview

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d99fb3dd-e753-4500-bdad-e59ac0cea903&DisplayLang=en

Smart Client

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=523bf8a4-2b48-459b-9a2a-19cfabad08dc&DisplayLang=en

Security Posters

• http://www.microsoft.com/Education/SecurityPosters.mspx
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/1/3/21343626-8172-4284-9d18-3a961bf71e00/SS_Blue_Posters.pdf

Whoa.  Check this out:

Cable Card :  Who needs it?
http://www.hometoys.com/article.php4?displayid=980

Put simply, these folks have figured out how to implement high definition recording on Windows Media Centers without Cable Cards.  Even better, the recordings are made in .WMV files that are completely sans-DRM.

At the center of all of this is the AVerMedia AverTV Combo PCIe MCE tuner card.

We simply put an off-the-shelf AVerMedia AverTV Combo PCIe MCE tuner card into a Windows Vista-based PC with Windows Media Center and let Windows Update load the appropriate drivers. This tuner card supports QAM connectivity in addition to NTSC. It also supports Over The Air (OTA) ATSC, but we did not use it for this installation. We plugged in the standard USB Microsoft eHome IR Receiver as we normally would and attached the IR blaster to the Set Top Box as we would using the lousy-looking standard definition S-Video solution provided by Microsoft.

This hooked up to a Motorola Set Top Box, specifically the QIP6200-2 in this case – the 6416 with the DVR does not have a RF output:

We initially assumed that Windows Media Center would use the NTSC tuner capability and require us to use Channel 3 or 4 to match the NTSC output from the Set Top Box, but much to our surprise, the standard TV setup procedure found the QAM signal and used it for the TV input without requiring any other setup. It then asked us if we had a Set Top Box, which we configured the same way we normally do. Voila! We were receiving “in the clear” high definition video unencrypted by the Set Top Box. We can record it, copy it to other machines, and stream it to any number of devices we want.

In case you didn’t get that, the Windows Media Center can directly read the high definition signal coming out of the receiver and completely control the receiver remotely directly through the connection between the AverMedia card and the Motorola Set Top Box.

CRAZY!

So this is interesting.  Apparently, our Windows Home Server group has put together a web site at www.stayathomeserver.com which is designed to help people understand this new concept of a home server, former known as codename "Quattro".

And they’re doing it using some rather humorous videos.  I won’t describe them:  Just go to the web site and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

To compliment this effort, they have also commissioned a funny fake children’s book titled "Mommy, Why is there a Server in my House?" which will help parents explain why there is a new member of the family.  See the photo to the left.

A teaser of the book is on www.stayathomeserver.com right now; it will soon be available in many other forms…we’ll actually be selling it on Amazon.

They also talk about the effort on the Home Server blog.  For more information on what the heck a Windows Home Server is, click on the graphic to the right or visit:

http://microsoft.com/windowshomeserver

How Forefront^™ and System Center can Empower your Business Hands-On Lab

January 31, 2008

Every day IT Professionals need to manage complexity and costs while providing their business with a flexible infrastructure to drive new business opportunities. At the same time, they face increasing challenges in protecting information and controlling access. Through Forefront and System Center, companies at all stages of infrastructure maturity can help create an IT environment that is security enhanced and well managed.

This Hand-on Lab event will give you a chance to try out the Forefront and System Center portfolio of products, which are designed to maximize productivity, simplify administration, and integrate with existing infrastructure so that you can reduce costs, empower your business, and maintain control.

These Hands-on Labs cover two key tracks of "Security" and "Management", so you can choose by track or by lab which features to try out.

What is a hands-on-lab?
This isn’t your typical IT class. This hands-on lab is for experienced IT Pros who want to "try it out." You’ll spend most of the day getting hands-on practice and experience with the new product features and scenarios in your own lab environment with very little instructor presentation.

Who Should Attend:
This course is for IT Professionals who work in organizations of all sizes and are concerned with the installation, configuration, security, and maintenance of a variety of server types. The actual job roles of the individuals may vary, but in general they will fall within the categories of Systems Administration, Server Administration, and Systems Engineering.

Prerequisites:
To get the most from this course, you should be experienced (skill level 200+) with the technologies included in Forefront, System Center, ISA Server, and Windows Server.

RSVP:
This special, no charge training event will fill quickly and space is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

Location
Microsoft
333 South Grand Ave
Suite 3300
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Phone: 213.806.7300

Time/Date:|
January 31, 2008
9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Registration Opens at 8:30 am

Registration
For registration information, event IDs, and details, please contact me.   This is a training opportunity exclusive to my enterprise customers and not open to the general public.

Management Track:

• Deploying Configuration Manager 2007
• Deploy Vista with Configuration Manager 2007
• Installation Operations Manager 2007

Security Track:

• Forefront Client Security
• Forefront Server Security
• Forefront Edge Security and Access

I got into a discussion with a VP that I know at one of my customers today.  The discussion came up around the "number of patches" on Windows Vista. 

Now, this is something I’ve been tracking informally on my own for a while so I was quite comfortable and proud to casually mention that there have been relatively few security patches on Windows Vista over the span of the year that it’s been available. The VP said:

"Yeah whatever. <smirk> I look at Windows Updates and I see a million patches in there."

This obviously irked me.  I immediately shot back that most of those entries were Windows Defender updates and the remaining were an amalgam of Outlook 2007 Junk Mail Filter updates, Windows Mail Junk Mail Filter updates, and some other non-critical odds and ends… but it didn’t help.  He didn’t seem to believe me.  Nor did I think he’d ever actually check.

THE HARD COUNT OF SECURITY PATCHES ON MY WINDOWS VISTA LAPTOP
So it’s 1:30AM and I decided to hard count the security patches on my own machine and here are the results:

• # of total updates pushed to my machine:  143
• # of Windows Defender Definition Updates:  65
• # of Windows Vista regular/non-security related updates:  19
  (Reliability, compatibility, & performance updates)
• # of Windows Vista security-related/important updates:  13
  (Includes patches to Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and the XML services)
• # of Office 2007 related patches/fixes:  13
• # of Junk Mail Filter Updates: 8
• # of Windows Update software updates:  4
• # of Windows Malicious Software Removal tool updates:  4

So Windows Vista needed ONE SECURITY PATCH each month on average.  And it should be noted that many of these vulnerabilities, while necessary to patch, are actually protected by the CPU’s NX/No-Execute feature protecting data in memory for buffer overflows preventing hackers from taking advantage of them if you have a Core2-class processor.  Or many of these vulnerabilities have an attack vector that is shielded implicitly by the operating system’s firewall.

And while it’s still not ZERO which is what we would have liked it to have been however it beats the hell out of Windows XP and Windows 2000, where every month there’s another batch of patches.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 enables developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality, rich user experiences. In this two day, instructor-led course you will be introduced to the new features in Visual Studio 2008 and have the opportunity to take it for a test drive through a series of hands-on lab exercises. You’ll see how Visual Studio 2008 can be used to create rich Web experiences using Silverlight and ASP.NET AJAX. You’ll see improvements in Windows development for Vista, and learn how to leverage .NET 3.5. You’ll get familiar with Language Integrated Query (LINQ). You’ll see how Visual Studio can be used to create rich Office Business Applications. This course is intended for .NET programmers who are interested in developing on the Visual Studio 2008 platform. Prior experience with a Visual Studio 2008 beta product (Visual Studio Codename “Orcas”) is helpful but not required.

1/8/2008 – 1/9/2008 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Houston, TX $199.00 
1/10/2008 – 1/11/2008 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Austin, TX $199.00 
1/14/2008 – 1/15/2008 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Irvine, CA $199.00

MORE HERE:  http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=7793