Kurt Shintaku's Blog

As some of you may have seen, we made an acquisition announcement:

Acquisition of SoftArtisans Inc.’s OfficeWriter for managed report authoring in Microsoft Office
Pasted from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-09BINewDayPR.mspx

How timely, we will be showcasing OfficeWriter during our next industryCast.

Applied business intelligence and reporting with Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, Microsoft Office and SoftArtisans OfficeWriter in the Financial Services Industry
In this webcast we will review how several companies in banking, insurance and capital markets are applying Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, Microsoft Office and SoftArtisans OfficeWriter to gain business insight and improve the design, creation and deployment of powerful reporting tools. By simply using common Microsoft Office knowledge, you’ll see how financial service companies throughout the world have been able to avoid expensive reporting solutions while exceeding their users’ business needs. Through a series of demos, you learn how to use Excel and Word as a design tool for Reporting Services and also see how to retrieve reports from SSRS to add full-fidelity Excel and Word to existing report definitions. As a stand-alone product or integrated with Reporting Services, OfficeWriter lets your users analyze data with powerful native Excel features like VBA, macros, pivot tables and drill-down capabilities. Finally, you’ll discover how to further boost your Reporting Services applications with run-time, programmatic control.

• May 15, 2007
  1:00–2:30 pm EST
• Event ID: 1032336392
• Register:
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032336392&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

SOA Integration Frameworks in Financial Services
Financial Services companies have built up a large number of Line-Of-Business oriented systems and databases over the years.  This has led to the development of application and information silos where it is virtually impossible to bring all the information about a client together in one place.  Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Integration Frameworks provide a way to bring these applications and databases together.

• May 29, 2007
  1:00–2:30 pm EST
• Event ID: 1032336394
• Register: 
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032336394&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Scaling SOA in Financial Services with Grid Computing for .NET
Enterprise architects in financial services are looking to service-oriented architectures (SOA) to address many real-world problems – brittle systems with tight interdependencies, data stuck in single-purpose silos, and applications that don’t scale to meet growing demand, to name a few.  But implementing an SOA can also expose new scalability issues.  New high-performance computing (HPC) offerings from Microsoft and its partners are ideally suited for scaling out compute-intensive components of an SOA.  Using real-world examples from financial services companies, this presentation will describe how to grid-enable compute-intensive analytic services for use in an SOA. 

• June 12, 2007
  1:00–2:30 pm EST
• Event ID: 1032336396
• Register: 
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032336404&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Windows ATMs – Secure, Well-Managed, and Ready for the Future
With a large swing in the ATM channel from 15-year-old technology to the Windows platform comes both opportunity and peril. Join us for a discussion about how banks and other ATM deplorers are making sure their Windows-based ATMs are both secure and taking advantage of the rich management functionality of the Windows platform.
We will finish by envisioning the next logical steps – how to break out of the traditional ATM channel, using the development potential of Windows-based, well-connected ATMs to offer more compelling customer contact.

• June 26, 2007
  1:00–2:30 p.m. EST
• Event ID: 1032336398
• Register:
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032336398&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Wanna roll around with your Windows configuration, applications, and data completely portable on a flash drive?  We’re apparently working on it.

SanDisk, Microsoft in USB flash drive, memory deal
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Symbol=US:MSFT&Feed=ACBJ&Date=20070511&ID=6886337

Excerpt:

"The companies said the new offering will be designed so users can carry their personal computing environment — including a customized and familiar user interface, applications and data — on a flash storage device such as a USB flash drive or flash memory card."

Obviously documents can be made portable but configuration, data (as in SQL Express), and applications?  Suuuuure smells like Application Virtualization to me, and that means using my favorite software product… Microsoft SoftGrid!  SoftGrid can virtualize services, applications and their dependencies, as well a workstation configuration.

Better get up to speed with SoftGrid or be left behind!

Check this out.   Someone internally spotted Stephen Hawking in Microsoft Photosynth!

LINK:  http://labs.live.com/photosynth/view.html?collection=all/ps/sanmarco/index1.sxs&im=images/IMG_3387.sdx&pos=-0.460667:-0.0379697:-0.00661491&dir=0.950029:0.295655:0.100161&zoom=3.60299&fov=47.1001&offset=0:0

This is Piazza San Marco.  Dating back to the 9th century, the piazza grew to its current size and shape in 1177. Historically, it was the location of all important Venetian state offices, and the site has always been viewed as the center of Venice.  It is dominated by the Basilica of St. Mark, the Doge’s Palace, and the Campanile. The piazza is frequently flooded by high tides since it is the lowest point in the city, but luckily that didn’t happen during the ten days these photos were taken!

Note to first time installers of Microsoft Photosynth:

• When you go the web page, it’ll install the Photosynth application. 
  After it’s installed, some folks have reported that the photos don’t show up and instead find that the site returns an error.  to resolve this, simply close the IE browser window and revisit the link and it should come up.  (Hey – we’re still in Beta… cut us some slack.)
• If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, it will zoom in and out of the Photosynth collection.

Students at California State University, Fullerton have put together a short Developmental game camp to show off their work this year in game design. 

The game camp is designed to essentially introduce aspiring developers – adults & kids – how to develop video games.  A person who attends this camp will know how to use Microsoft’s free tools to design video games that can run on the PC or the XBOX 360 at the end of the 3 hours of sessions.  (Note:  Creator’s Club membership is required for XBOX 360 development – $49 for 4 months, $99 for a year – but the design tools are free.)

In addition to adults, this event is appropriate for high school students 8-12^th grade, and 11^th graders who will be deciding on what college to attend.  (CSU Fullerton has a full time game design & development program)  If the attendee is 16 or below, CSU asks that parents be in attendance as well.

To register, you must sign up at:  http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=118410
(Directions and times are listed at the link)

Whoa nellie.  Check this blog post on CSO Magazine out: 
Windows Vista – 90 Day Vulnerability Report

Basically, Jeff Jones cataloged and indexed all the vulnerabilities for 6 major operating systems during their first 90 days.  He even went so far as to define which vulnerabilities had been fixed and which ones had remained unfixed after those 90 days.

He’s summarized his findings in a very detailed report downloadable here:
http://www.csoonline.com/pdf/Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf

In a nutshell, this is what he found:

In the interests of disclosure, Jeff is an employee at Microsoft however he wrote up a blog entry about why he believes himself to be impartial and/or if he has any bias toward Microsoft technologies.  It can be read here:
http://blogs.csoonline.com/exactly_how_biased_am_i 

Oh by the way, you wanna see some drama?  Go read the comments about his 90-day vulnerability blog entry:
http://blogs.csoonline.com/windows_vista_90_day_vulnerability_report?page=1 

… I think Jeff handles himself quite professionally amid the chaos.

The score so far:

Windows XP Service Pack 2:  20        Windows Vista: 3

These numbers represent the number of patches released for security vulnerabilities in these two supported Windows operating systems since the release of Windows Vista on November 8th, 2006 6 months ago.  Hence, much like golf, the lower the score – the better.

For the curious, the three patches for security vulnerabilities on Windows Vista were:

• April 4th, 2007:  Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution
• April 10th, 2007: Vulnerability in Windows CSRSS could allow remote code execution
• May 8th, 2007:  Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (931768)

In contrast, here’s a list of the patches for security vulnerabilities on Windows XP Service Pack 2 in the same time frame:

• November 2006:  Vulnerability in Workstation Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924270)
• November 2006:  Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (922760)
• December 2006:  Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (925454)
• December 2006:  Vulnerability in Windows Media Format Could Allow Remote Code Execution (923689)
• December 2006:  Vulnerability in Windows Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (926255)
• December 2006:  Vulnerability in SNMP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (926247)
• January 2007:  Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution (929969)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in HTML Help ActiveX Control Could Allow Remote Code Execution (928843)
• February 2007:  Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (928090)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in Windows Shell Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (928255)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in Windows Image Acquisition Service Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (927802)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in Microsoft OLE Dialog Could Allow Remote Code Execution (926436)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in Microsoft MFC Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924667)
• February 2007:  Vulnerability in Microsoft RichEdit Could Allow Remote Code Execution (918118)
• April 2007:  Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925902)
• April 2007:  Vulnerability in Universal Plug and Play Could Allow Remote Code Execution (931261)
• April 2007:  Vulnerability in Microsoft Agent Could Allow Remote Code Execution (932168)
• April 2007:  Vulnerabilities in CSRSS Could Allow Remote Code Execution (930178)
• April 2007:  Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (931784)
• May 2007:  Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (931768)

Hopefully this should help eliminate any doubt as to the value of Windows Vista when it comes to ensuring workstation security & saving the costs of administrative labor & reporting involved in successfully rolling out patches to either a corporate infrastructure… or just for your Mom’s Windows PC.

We have a ton of webcasts at Microsoft to help educate folks on our technologies.  I’ve personally never seen a company that produces as much live and on-demand educational content as we do.  But do you know how many types of webcasts there are? 

Try 6!

1. Technet
2. Support
3. MSDN
4. Small Business
5. Partner
6. Tech-Ed

———————

TECHNET WEBCASTS
Most people know about the first:  "Technet Webcasts".  These are the topical webcasts that are usually focused on understanding how a product or technology works or is implemented.  These are found at

• UPCOMING WEBCASTS:  http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/upcoming.mspx
• ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS:  http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/ondemand.mspx

SUPPORT WEBCASTS
The other type of webcasts that most commonly known are "Support Webcasts".  These are usually focused on "break fix" issues or issues that concern the IT professional that’s responsible for assisting end users.  There are 4 categories of Support Webcasts available:

• UPCOMING WEBCASTS:http://support.microsoft.com/webcasts
• ARCHIVED PAST WEBCASTS: http://support.microsoft.com/pwebcst
• DOWNLOADABLE WEBCASTS:  http://support.microsoft.com/dwebcst
• DOWNLOADABLE PODCASTS:  http://support.microsoft.com/podcasts

MSDN WEBCASTS
Application & web developers get their own section of educational content and it’s called MSDN Webcasts.  MSDN webcasts show viewers sessions about tools and techniques for .NET developers in particular. View sessions covering topics such as architecture, mobility, security, and interoperability. Walk away from our webcasts ready to save time and effort by getting more out of your existing tools, and be better equipped to use new tools and technologies as they become available.

• .NET FRAMEWORK 3.0 LIVE WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnnetframework3.aspx?tab=webcasts
• .NET FRAMEWORK 3.0 ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS:
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnnetframework3.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=odall
• OFFICE DEVELOPERON-DEMAND WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/officedeveloperlive.mspx
• SQL SERVERON-DEMAND WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnsqlserver2005.mspx
• MOBILITY ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnmobility.mspx
• WINDOWS VISTA ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnvista.mspx
• VISUAL C#ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnvisualcsharp.mspx
• MSDN ON-DEMAND ONLINE: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdneventsdcc.mspx

SMALL BUSINESS WEBCASTS
Small businesses have issues unto themselves when it comes to remaining competitive through the use of technology.  Often times the business owner is also the IT department and the Help Desk all rolled into one.  Consequently, the point of view is different and so are our webcasts:

• LIVE WEBCASTS: 
  http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/events/primary.mspx
• ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS:
  http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/connections/default.aspx#webcasts

PARTNER WEBCASTS
Partners, more often than not, are interested in not only understanding new technology but also how to grow their consulting & implementation businesses through the expansion and selling of new services.  Approaching technology from this perspective is more than just getting an overview and learning how to deploy & maintain software:  It’s about saving time for themselves and customers, adding on services to existing customers, and increasing the exposure they have as a technology expert to gain new customers.  These webcasts focus on this perspective:

• VIRTUAL BRIEFINGS: http://www.ts2seminars.com/main.aspx?cat=events&p=vpBriefings 
• MEDIACASTS:  http://www.ts2seminars.com/main.aspx?cat=events&p=mediaCasts
• WEB SEMINARS:  http://www.ts2seminars.com/main.aspx?cat=events&p=webSeminars

TECH-ED WEBCASTS
These are entirely archived events that are accessible as on-demand webcasts from our web site.  The content is refreshed every year as Tech-Ed comes and goes.  The current content is from last year’s event Tech-Ed 2006, however in a few months (after Tech-Ed 2007 comes and goes) you can anticipate a good part of the 2007 content to be posted.  And most of them are also available for download as well.

(Incidentally, this is not a perfect replacement for Tech-Ed:  A good amount of the content is not posted.  For example, there are 250 sessions available online from Tech-Ed Webcasts – meanwhile there are 400 sessions given at Tech-Ed.)

• TECH-ED 2006 ON-DEMAND WEBCASTS:  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched06.mspx
• TECH-ED 2007 ON-DEMAND PREPARATION WEBCASTS:  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched07.aspx

Whoopdeedoo, right?  So there’s a new interface on another Web-based mail service, right?  Wrong!  As we launch the new Windows Live Hotmail, here’s a few things you probably didn’t know about our latest entry into the messaging marketspace:

1. 36 LANGUAGES
   Windows Live Hotmail supports 36 languages – because the world doesn’t revolve around just English.  Like all Microsoft products, Windows Live Hotmail is a fully localized product that is available to worldwide audiences, not just America & Europe.  The Microsoft Localization team is one of the foremost local translation experts in the world for software development and their presence is in full force with this launch.
2. 20 MILLION TESTERS
   Even though it was a small subset of the overall number of users of the original Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail had 20 million testers during the beta.  To put this into perspective, the 20 million tester accounts that Windows Live Hotmail’s Beta ran with made the beta test alone larger than almost all other messaging services in the industry.
3. USED BY OTHER COMPANIES
   Did you know Bell Canada uses Windows Live Hotmail to provide its customers with messaging services through a rebranded, specifically configured interface for their services?  Did you know that University of Pennsylvania is powering "Penn Live", the schools on-campus messaging system using WindowsLive@edu, a service configuration specifically for university & alumni associations worldwide.  Over 250 universities & organizations are using Windows Live Hotmail as the basis for their messaging systems. 
   …Windows Live Hotmail is more than just a consumer service:  It’s a web-based messaging platform for other companies to leverage, reskin, and reuse as their own service while providing differentiating functionality to make it "more than just rebranded Hotmail".
4. MSN 9.5 COMPATIBLE
   Unlike the beta, the release of Windows Live Hotmail is fully compatible with MSN’s client side software for messaging.  I’m especially pleased by this because MSN’s Premium client-side software filter absolutely rules when it comes to filtering out SPAM.
5. MICROSOFT OUTLOOK CONNECTIVITY… 100% FREE!
   Anyone with Outlook 2007/2003 can now, for the first time, connect to their Windows Live Hotmail accounts for no charge.  Formerly a subscription feature, anyone using Outlook, the world’s most popular messaging client, can access both their work email as well as their Windows Lilve Hotmail-based email in the same client.  A beta of the connector will be available in 11 languages in the coming weeks from http://get.live.com/betas.  (This should not be confused with the existing Outlook Connector plug in for Hotmail which is for the Premium service we used to have available.)
6. PC MAGAZINE’S EDITOR’S CHOICE
   Windows Live Hotmail received PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award for best web-based mail service trumping most every other service available, in just it’s beta state.  And many of the comments that were made were with regard to the service’s stability – issues that have long since been resolved prior to Windows Live Hotmail’s launch!
7. LARGEST AJAX-BASED WEBMAIL SERVICE
   With over 280 Million users worldwide, Windows Live Hotmail will be the best and largest AJAX-based webmail service in the world.  AJAX-technology enables end users with a much more interactive "drag & drop experience" when working with web-based messaging while. most importantly, enabling the service to download specific bits of data in the background of the browser session for specifically selected mail items without refreshing the entire web page.  The resulting experience is that everything runs snappier, quicker, and is more responsive.
8. WINDOWS LIVE HOTMAIL "CLIENT"
   Windows Live Hotmail will have an installable client for your laptop called, very simply, "Windows Live Mail".  Apparently slated for availability in it’s beta state in a few weeks, the Windows Live Mail client should be posted on http://get.live.com/betas according to the product group folks that blog at http://morethanmail.spaces.live.com.  This is NOT to be confused with the Windows Live Mail Desktop product, which was it’s predecessor.

   Windows Live Mail will include all the great features that were available to you in WLMd, plus: (taken from the WLM blog)

• New and improved UI:  Cleaner design, and now with Aero support!

• Setup and account migration improvements:  Smoother experience overall – you will now have fewer steps in order to get started with the client.

• More parity with OE and Windows Mail:  S/MIME and LDAP support are just two of the features that we’ve been working on for WLM which will bring us more parity with our other free Mail clients.

• Performance and stability:  The new product will be faster and more robust than WLMd.

• No Ads:  Yes, it’s true – there will be no graphical ads in the WLM beta build.

My own personal impressions of Windows Live Hotmail? 

I can sum it up in one word:  FAST.  This sucker’s FAST.  I mean, it’s "faster than Outlook 2007" fast.  And while it’s not even 5% of the functionality as Outlook, it’s so snappy and responsive that I don’t really mind using it just for one or two adhoc sort of emails.  I normally hate web-based mail (thus the heavy usage of my Pocket PC Phone) and this hatred extends to our own service as well historically as well as our two primary competitors… but this isn’t bad at all and a huge improvement over the current state of the art!  Good work Windows Live Hotmail team!  You should be proud!

Check it out here:
http://www.discoverhotmail.com/

UPDATE 10/28/10:
Funny – my computer performance was suffering and my machine was overheating.  I forgot my own advice until today and finally cleaned out the heatsink with a can of air.  WOW – instant performance boost.

So I started doing so digging.  I had bought a PORTABLE laptop cooling device for a whopping $2.99 at a ROSS.  Yes, that ROSS.  I figured – what could it hurt?  It’s $2.99.  If it’s no good, so be it.  And sure enough it seemed to be of questionable construction.  The fan blades are exposed.  The plastic isn’t very strong.  But it folded up nicely to be laptop bag portable & it worked when plugged in.  So I tried it on my last trip and low and behold:  It works like a charm.
http://www.meritline.com/usb-cooler-pad-with-fan-black-248—p-34796.aspx

It turns out there’s a big market for these things.  Here’s a couple more that I found:
http://www.meritline.com/black-mini-folding-usb-cooler-pad—p-37834.aspx
http://www.bonanza.com/booths/94069/items/13125444

————————
ORIGINAL POST 5/7/07:
Does your laptop run way too hot?  I mean, hot enough to make you hands uncomfortable?  Hot enough to burn your lap on the couch?  Hot enough that the CPU seems to “throttle down” or the system “locks up” after a period of intense & extended computation?  (Video editing or Windows Media playback for example)

I own a Compaq Evo n610c and this sucker leaves my leg red and my left palm scalded.  The thing runs hotter than any laptop I’ve ever used and while it’s a reasonably power machine, even by today’s newer standards, it’s downright hard to use because of the heat coming off of it.  So I started pursuing resolutions to the problem.  Here’s a few tips I’ve researched and found useful.

1) FAN CLEANING
You probably are going to ignore this tip, and frankly I don’t blame you:  I almost did myself.  After all, how much dust and lint can really get into a laptop fan right?  The thing’s running – I can hear it – so what’s the big deal? 

Well…. plenty.  It turns out that simply purchasing a can of Endust for Electronics Compressed-Air Duster (which is moisture free & contains antistatic elements so it’s laptop-safe) and clearing out the fan with 30 seconds of strategic dusting can more than double your laptop’s cooling capacity.  And how do I know?  Well, did you know you can monitor the temperature of your laptop?  Read on for more.

AMAZON:  Endust for Electronics Compressed-Air Duster

2)  SPEED FAN
Speed Fan is a tool written by Alfredo Milani Comparetti.  It’s a freeware program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.  It works on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista – both 32 & 64-bit.

Folks – this is a pretty wicked program.  When minimized, it sits in your System Tray and shows you the temperature in either Fahrenheit or Celcius.  But how does it help you keep your machine cool?

The key feature of Speed Fan is the ability to modulate the fan speed manually or on the basis of temperatures on the sensors in your machine.  You can crank up the fan to its maximum speed all day, everyday.  For example, I have laptops that are always on and always connected to AC power… and I use Speed Fan to keep the fan on all the time.  So what do I care if the fan is always on keeping the machine cool?

DOWNLOAD:  http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php 
(BTW:  You may need to reboot after setting all fan speeds to 100%)

There’s another tool called Mobile Meter that provides a monitor for temperature.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/release/0310/mm0310.zip

3) ERGO FAN RISER
The Ergonomic Fan Riser is a desktop stand with a built-in fan with 10 elevated positions for the laptop itself.  This separates the bottom of the notebook from the fan and allows an increased cooling area under the notebook.  This is important because many laptops get its cooling air from under the laptop.  The fan is powered by a USB connection fomr the notebook or it can be connected to external power using a AC adapter.  ($29)  There’s a more advanced version of the stand available that also comes with a 4-port USB 2.0 hub, along with a stronger cooling fan. ($39)

FAN RISER:  http://www.laptopdesk.net/fanriser.html#