Kurt Shintaku's Blog

We are pleased to announce details of how you can order Microsoft^® RoundTable™ devices.

Starting on September 1, 2007, if you are a customer in a RoundTable launch country, you will be able to order RoundTable devices through your Microsoft account team contact(s). Shortly thereafter, you will be able to order through a limited set of resellers (the target timeframe for this is mid-September). This document contains details of the ordering process for RoundTable.

What to know before you place your RoundTable order:
Cost:
Each RoundTable device will have a unit cost of US$3,000, or, if you are in a launch country outside the United States, the equivalent amount in your local currency.

Countries of availability:
RoundTable will initially be available in the following 10 launch countries:

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. France
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Japan
7. Netherlands
8. Spain
9. United Kingdom
10. United States

How  to place your RoundTable order:
To order RoundTable devices, fill out this order form and e-mail it to your Microsoft account team contact(s) with a request that they place a RoundTable order on your behalf.

• http://www.evilkoala.org/Documents/RoundtableCustomerOrderForm.doc
  (AUTHOR’S NOTE:  This is a form download from my own personal web server.  In case you’re wondering, ‘Evil Koala’ is a nickname for "Stitch" my favorite character from the Walt Disney movie ‘Lilo & Stitch’.)

Shortly after you place your order, Microsoft will send you an e-mail quote with the total amount for the order, as well as an electronic copy of the Terms and Conditions for the sale. You will need to sign the Terms and Conditions, either electronically or via fax, for us to complete your order. We may also contact you to ask for a PO number for your order for internal accounting purposes.

Once you place your order, your RoundTable devices will ship via DHL to the address you specify on your order form. You can expect your devices to take up to 4 weeks to arrive.*

We will also send you an invoice for the order that will be payable via electronic funds or wire transfer. If you have any questions, please see the attached FAQ on ordering RoundTable.

Thank you for your interest in RoundTable.

*Note: Delivery times are subject to change based on the availability of RoundTable devices. See the FAQ for more information.

————————–

Customer FAQ

Q. When can I order RoundTable?
A. You can order RoundTable devices starting on September 1.

Q. Is there a maximum quantity of RoundTables I can order?
A. Because RoundTable is a new device, Microsoft’s manufacturing capacity for RoundTable is limited. While there is no maximum quantity of RoundTables you can order, please note that we may not be able to completely fulfill RoundTable orders that are exceptionally large if the quantity of devices we have in inventory is insufficient to do so. If this is the case, we will promptly let you know, and we will also let you know what part of your order we can fulfill.

Q. How do I place a RoundTable order?

A. You will need to fill out the attached order form with the details of your order and e-mail it to your Microsoft account team contact, who will then place the order on your behalf. Microsoft will process your order and ship the RoundTables directly to the address you specified in the order form.

In addition, you will soon be able to order RoundTable through a limited set of resellers that we are working to enable in each RoundTable launch country (target timeframe: mid-September).

Q. Are there restrictions on the countries to which you can ship RoundTable?
A. Yes. Because RoundTable is an electronics device that connects to the public telephone network, it must be certified for use in a country before we can ship devices to that country. Currently, RoundTable is certified for use in the following 10 countries:

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. France
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Japan
7. Netherlands
8. Spain
9. United Kingdom
10. United States

Unfortunately, due to regulatory and other restrictions, we cannot ship RoundTables to any countries besides the ones above.

Q. How much will RoundTable cost?
A. We are offering RoundTable at a fixed price of US$3,000 per unit. If you are located in a launch country outside the United States, the unit price is the equivalent of US$3,000 in your local currency.

Q. Does the US$3,000 unit price include shipping or taxes?
A. Yes, it includes both shipping and applicable taxes.

Q. Will any Volume Licensing or other discounts apply to volume orders of RoundTable?
A. Because RoundTable is a hardware product for which our initial manufacturing capacity is limited, the economies of scale that we are able to pass on to customers who place volume orders for Microsoft software unfortunately don’t apply to RoundTable. As a result, RoundTable will not be part of any Microsoft Volume Licensing programs.

Q. What happens after I place my order?
A. After you place your order, we will send you an e-mail quote for the total cost of your order, including shipping and taxes, within 48 hours. This e-mail will include the Terms and Conditions for the transaction. You will need to electronically sign these Terms and Conditions before we can process your order.

We will then send you a standard Microsoft invoice payable via electronic funds or wire transfer. This invoice will include detailed payment instructions.

Q. What if my company doesn’t support electronic signatures?
A. We prefer that you electronically sign the Terms and Conditions, but you can also print out the Terms and Conditions, sign the printed document and fax it back to us at +1 (425) 936-7329, attention: RTOrders.

Q. After I place my order, receive the e-mail quote, and sign the Terms and Conditions, how long will I need to wait for my RoundTable order to arrive?
A. We will ship your RoundTables via DHL to the shipping address you specify in your order form. Your RoundTables will take up to four weeks to arrive after you place your order.

Q. Is it possible that RoundTables will stock out because there is not enough inventory to meet demand?
A. As with all hardware devices, it is possible that we will not have sufficient RoundTable inventory and manufacturing capacity to meet demand, and a stockout situation may arise. In this event, we will immediately start investigating options for expanding manufacturing capacity, and the lead times required for this will add several weeks to the time-to-delivery for your order. To reduce the chances of a stockout situation affecting your RoundTable order, we recommend that if you are interested in ordering RoundTable, you place your order promptly.

Q. What process will you use to fulfill the RoundTable orders you receive? Will certain countries receive more RoundTables than others?
A. RoundTable orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-serve basis worldwide, with no allocations or quotas per country.

Q. How can I check the status of my order?
A. Please let your field account contact know if you would like an update on the status of your order. Again, expect up to four weeks after you place your order for your RoundTables to arrive.

Q. Once I’ve received my RoundTables, how can I obtain support for devices that don’t work correctly or were damaged in transit?
A. You will be able to obtain support for RoundTable through the standard Microsoft Product Support channel. The support information for your country will be included in your order. This channel will handle not just RoundTable technical support questions but also returns, should your RoundTable be defective and we need to ship you a replacement. If this is required, we will give you instructions on how to return your RoundTable and receive a replacement.

All RoundTables include a 1-year warranty, and the cost of support issues that arise during the warranty period, as well as the shipping costs for replacement RoundTables, will be covered by Microsoft.

Q. I understand that Microsoft cannot ship RoundTable devices outside the 10 launch countries. Once I receive the devices, can I ship them myself to my company’s offices outside the launch countries?
A. There may be legal considerations in using RoundTable outside the 10 launch countries. We suggest checking with your company’s legal team beforehand. Also, note that sending RoundTable devices outside the launch countries will void your product warranty.

Q. Will the RoundTables I order include external dialpads or microphones?
A. Yes, each RoundTable will ship with one external dialpad and two external satellite microphones.

Q. What if I have additional technical questions on RoundTable?
A. Please see the attached datasheet for additional technical details, including system requirements, certifications, and package contents.

Q. What if I have additional questions on RoundTable or the ordering process?
A. Please ask your Microsoft account team contact if you have any additional questions.

Come join us at the Microsoft Management Summit 2008 (MMS 2008) and learn about the latest releases of IT management solutions from Microsoft.

On-line registration for MMS 2008 is now open, and can be accessed from the event web site at www.mms-2008.com.  This site also provides an overview of the event, the overall event schedule and information about the available hotel accommodation.

Event Overview

In the past year Microsoft has released a range of new management products and technologies, including seven new System Center suite releases alone.  MMS 2008 provides the best way to learn how to apply these solutions in your organization, fueling productivity and building growth.

With sessions by technical experts, opportunities to try out new products and meetings to discuss them with leading Industry experts and peers, MMS 2008 remains the premiere technical event of the year for IT professionals and the IT community.

Event Theme

The theme of this year’s Microsoft Management Summit is Integrate IT, reflecting the increasingly complex world of IT Management and the key role integration has to play in reducing complexity while maximizing flexibility, availability and performance.  Sessions from Microsoft speakers and industry experts during MMS 2008 will focus on how the latest wave of management solutions support:

• Integration with your business objectives
• Integration across your IT disciplines
• Integration between your management products and technologies
• Integration across platforms and vendor boundaries

Event Agenda

MMS 2008 will offer more deep technical breakout sessions than ever before, covering a broad range of Management topics and technologies. Daily Q&A slots also allow attendees to meet the presenters and discuss specific session content informally in a 1:1 format. In addition, the event will provide over 9,000 Hands-On Lab places during the week, including more Instructor-led Labs than in previous years and a “walk-in” self-paced lab area.  All of Microsoft’s Management solutions, together with those provided by Partners, will be on show at the MMS 2008 Expo where you’ll have the opportunity to review the solutions and discuss your specific requirements with company experts.

Attending MMS 2008 will enable you to harness the power of System Center by Integrating IT with your business goals.  Visit the conference web site at www.mms-2008.com for more details of the overall agenda and registration information.

Event Content

Recent Microsoft product releases which will be covered in detail during MMS 2008 include:

• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
• System Center Essentials 2007
• System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Capacity Planner 2007
• Desktop Optimization Pack for SA
• Windows Server Update Services 3.0

In addition during the event there will be early looks at some releases due to ship during the coming year, including:

• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2
• System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Mobile Device Manager

MMS 2008 is the ideal opportunity to come listen to the product teams describe these new releases, try out the new products and discuss real-world deployment experiences with leading industry experts and your peers within the IT industry.

Content Survey

If you’d like to help in the content selection process for MMS 2008, we invite you to complete the MMS 2008 Content Survey. By taking a few minutes to tell us about your experience and information needs, you’ll help ensure the topics and labs presented at the event are relevant to you and your organization. The survey can be accessed here and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.  When the survey closes we will draw four entries from amongst the responses and will send a Portable Media Player to those respondents.

Registration

This year the summit will be returning to The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Two different registration options are available for MMS 2008 attendees – you may either purchase your MMS 2008 registration and hotel accommodation separately, or as a package.

If you choose to register using the “Package” option, your registration fee includes accommodation for the nights of April 28^th – May 1^st 2008 at the Venetian Hotel. This is adjacent to the event venue, a short walk from the Conference venue.  Alternatively you may choose to purchase accommodation separately from your registration or during the registration process.  The MMS 2008 Event Team has negotiated a special rate at the Venetian Hotel, available only through the registration web site. Details of the accommodation on offer are provided at the MMS 2008 web site.

This update to the .NET Framework 2.0 targets the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Operating System. This is an enhancement to provide additional support for managed services that do not manage their own service state during shutdown.

The Vista™ Operating system can experience delays during shutdown if running a managed service that was designed with a ServiceBase.OnShutdown method that does not explicitly call the ServiceBase Stop() method on system shutdown. This update facilitates quicker system shutdown by explicitly setting the service state to stopped after calling their OnShutdown, if the service has not already called the Stop() method.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3a7b7298-37e6-4edf-a017-09a6bbc75287&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft is giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every active member who joined the service in 2002. To claim your 500 Microsoft Points, all you have to do is register on https://reg.msgamestudios.com/Default.aspx?site=Xbox360Live5Yr.You can register until November 29, 2007, and after you do so, you will receive an e-mail with a 25-digit code that lets you to activate your Microsoft Points through your 360. Also, note that the 500 Microsoft Points expire on June 30, 2008.

When you dock your Zune to update it, if certain software updates are not available, the update may fail. 

This is documented in this KB article:

KB944938: 
A required component cannot be installed when you try to install the Zune software
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/944938

The solution is to basically download the Zune Client software (2.1) seperately, extract it, and run the Startzune.exe file from the unpacked directory to complete the installation.

Zune Client software, version 2.1 (166MB)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6136349F-2B32-4946-83B5-A09775531EF4&displaylang=en

Looks like Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols from eWeek sees the writing on the walls.

Is VMWare a Dead Duck?
Microsoft, Red Hat, Citrix, Novell and now Oracle are all offering free or open-source virtualization of one sort or another. Can VMware survive?
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2216435,00.asp

This market space is evolving so rapidly.  Why would any company ‘bet the farm’ on one virtualization technology and rush into virtualizing their infrastructure when this technology hasn’t matured yet?  Buying virtualization products today is like buying a car in a town where there’s only one car dealership.   All the cars sold are bare bones Chevrolet Pick-up trucks and everything sold is an additional nickel-and-dime option that you have to pay for.

Meanwhile look at the "new dealerships" that are opening up just over the horizon:

• Microsoft’s Hyper-V
  Microsoft’s virtualization hypervisor has a negligible cost associated with it while providing better performance than traditional virtualization technologies.  Additionally, it’s compatibility with all Windows Server hardware platforms make it the easy choice for customers looking to virtualize their datacenter on the hardware that they’ve already chosen – as opposed to being forced to purchase specific servers in which VMWare has developed drivers for. 
  Because VMWare has it’s own proprietary driver model, you can not use Windows drivers for VMWare ESX – it requires that a custom driver be available for the hardware platform you are to virtualize on.
  …meanwhile all servers that support Windows Server can leverage Hyper-V.
• XenSource
  Open Source virtualization has collaborated to standardize with Microsoft on a set of virtualization formats and interfaces to insure management tool interoperability and performance making XenSource a perfect solution for traditional "UNIX shops".
• Virtualization-on-hardware
  Intel & AMD are all working on virtualization-done-in-hardware where all virtualization operations are handled in a chip.  This is a magnitude of power greater than today’s piddly "VT" technologies that are in today’s processors which simply assist virtualization software.  How long before the entire market of core virtualization software rendered moot?

IT Managers that decide against rushing into this market just so that they can "virtualize their datacenter" regardless of the costs of doing so and regardless of how the market evolves toward a low-to-no cost virtualization technology strategy will find themselves poised as visionaries and keen strategists in comparison to those that rushed to implement a virtualization architecture.

The cost of virtualization software will be one of the first things people consider cutting when they look at cost mitigation within IT.

Here’s an interesting free plug in for IE 7.0 called IE7Pro:
http://www.ie7pro.com/

It does a number of very useful things to Internet Explorer 7.0:

1. Enhanced IE’s Tabbed Browsing
   Too numerous to mention.
2. "Super drag & drop"
   Open new links by dragging and dropping them on the page.
3. Mouse gesture support
   Execute common tasks by drawing simple objects on the screen with your mouse.
4. Crash recovery
   Automatically restored opened pages after a crash occurs.
5. Save web page to image
   Save any URL to an image of the format of your choice.
6. Quick Proxy Switcher
   Quickly change the proxy settings without going all the way into Options.
7. Ad Blocker
   Block out those Flash ads, including fly-ins, slide-ins, etc.
8. User Script
   Script/orchestrate common user actions within IE7.
9. Inline search
   Automatically find stuff
10. Spell check
    Provides a "red underline" on text that you enter that’s misspelled.

We announced the public beta release of Softgrid 4.5 which has the following benefits:

Dynamic Virtualization
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 allows the flexibility to control virtual application interaction. Administrators wanting to consolidate virtual environments, and enable faster, easier administration, can use the product’s Dynamic Suite Composition, which sequences and manages packages for middleware applications separately from the main application. It shrinks potential package size by eliminating redundant packaging of middleware, allowing, for instance, multiple web applications to communicate with the same single instance of a virtualized .NET Framework or Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Updates for the common virtual middleware are simplified as well as one virtual application is updated instead of several. This “many-to-one” capability greatly reduces the cost of updates. It also makes it easier to deploy and manage applications with multiple plug-ins and add-ins, and improves management of plug-in distribution to different user groups.

Extended Scalability
Choose among three flexible deployment modes:

1. System Center Application Virtualization Management Server, which ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services packages, enables dynamic streaming including package/active upgrades, and requires Active Directory and SQL Server;

2. System Center Application Virtualization Streaming Server, a lightweight version which also ships as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack and Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services packages, offers application streaming including package/active upgrades without the Active Directory and database overheads, and enables administrators to deploy to existing servers or add streaming to Electronic Software Delivery systems; and

3. Standalone mode allows virtual application execution without streaming and is interoperable with Microsoft Systems Management Server/System Center Configuration Manger 2007 and third-party ESD systems.

New features that enhance manageability include improved diagnostics and reporting on the client and server; health monitoring for System Center Application Virtualization Management Server; integration with System Center Operations Manager 2007; auto-load (pre-cache) options; and support for Microsoft Update for all application virtualization components (except virtualized applications). This release also adds support for Windows Server 2008 32-bit Terminal Services (Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services only).

Globalization
The product is localized across 11 languages, includes support for foreign language applications with special characters, and supports foreign language Active Directory and servers, as well as runtime locale detection.

Microsoft Security Standards
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 complies with Microsoft security standards including Trustworthy Computing, Secure Windows Initiative and Security Development Lifecycle. It includes support for internet-facing scenarios and provides Secure by Default configuration out of the box.

JOIN THE BETA:
In order to join follow the instructions below:

1. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com
2. Sign in using a Passport account
3. Click on "Available Connections" on the left hand pane.
   You should see table with a listing labeled:  "Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta"
4. Click on the link labeled "Apply" in the Options column.
5. Click on the "Downloads" link in the left hand pane.
   You should see another table listing available downloads with a link called "Public Beta Release"
6. Click on "Public Beta Release". 
   This will take you to a download page with a listing that looks like this:
   MSAppVirt_sequencer_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  22.25 MB
   MSAppVirt_server_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  22.23 MB
   MSAppVirt_streaming_server_setup_4.5.0.606.exe  11.69 MB
   MSAppVirt_wd_setup_4.5.0.608.exe  18.59 MB
   MSAppVirt_ts_setup_4.5.0.608.exe  18.58 MB
   SCSoftGrid_PlanDeploy.chm  104 KB
   SoftGridReadme.htm  52 KB
7. Click "Download" next to the items you want.

————————–

LINK:  What’s New in Softgrid Application Virtualization 4.5
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/softgrid/msappvirt45/default.mspx

LINK:  Forums for Support on Softgrid Application Virtualization 4.5
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=103677

We have officially announces Windows Server 2008 SKU’s and pricing.    We have also formally announced that Windows Server Virtualization will be branded “HYPER-V” (as in “Microsoft Hyper-V Server”).

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Edition Summaries
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/editions/overview.mspx

Windows Server 2008 Product Lineup and Hyper-V
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2007/11/12/windows-server-2008-product-lineup-and-hyper-v.aspx

Attention Software Asset Management & Procurement Managers!

The Customer Community CHAT for Microsoft Volume Licensing is a new, customer program for individuals and organizations that work daily on software management. The program provides business and purchasing decision makers with an inside look at future Microsoft technology and programs as well as an opportunity to represent their company’s interest by providing feedback about licensing strategies, design, pricing, tools, and industry trends.

If you are involved in Volume Licensing and would like to become a member of the Customer Community CHAT program, click here to join.

Visit the Customer Community CHAT site:
https://www.msvlccc.com/

For more details on Customer Community CHAT:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/communitychat.mspx