Kurt Shintaku's Blog

A Quick Summary of Gartner’s Position on Microsoft & PC Life Cycle Management
Gartner recently published its “2006 PC Life Cycle Magic Quadrant,” which positions Microsoft as a “Leader” in the marketplace. The analysts proclaim that Microsoft has the largest PC Lifecycle Management installed base, with nearly 50 percent market share, which was a key contributor to our continued movement on ratings for ability to execute. Delivering on the security enhancements of SMS 2003 R2 as well as the Softricity, AssetMetrix and Winternals acquisitions, demonstrated a completeness in vision that moved us into the a leadership position. We see Microsoft’s Magic Quadrant position as validation that our desktop configuration management strategy is market leading and we look forward to continued movement in this quadrant as we deliver on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and its focus on simplicity, security, deployment and configuration.

Gartner defines the “leaders” quadrant as vendors whose ”ability to execute proven by its high market share and appearance on numerous shortlists. That ability is bolstered by industry-leading overall fiscal health, broad geographic presence and a superior track record for market responsiveness and customer service. A leader will have vision scores that reflect feature-complete products, and show leadership in providing some life cycle management functions that users have just started requesting. Often, leaders are innovative in adding functions not yet being requested, but add capability to enhance the PC life cycle configuration experience.” In conversations with Gartner, the analysts commented that Microsoft has a solid understanding and has made great strides to shed the negative perceptions that surrounded earlier versions of SMS.

Before reading the summary of the article, there’s a few things to note:

• The latest Gartner Quadrant recognizes SMS momentum. Gartner says that Microsoft is headed in the right direction through feature/functionality enhancements as well as acquisition strategy and we agree. This is positive for Microsoft and demonstrates market recognition for the company’s continued investment to move the technology forward and to provide best-in-class configuration, asset and virtualization management solutions for customers.
• This report does not factor in any of the new innovation and capabilities in Configuration Manager 2007. Though Gartner states that customers need to wait to see how Configuration Manager works, we are very aware of how much customer satisfaction has improved with SMS 2003 over SMS 2.0 and feel that releasing a product not ready for deployment by our largest enterprise customers would compromise the great strides we have made in systems management.  We are confident in the user experience and quality of Configuration Manager, and customer should rest assured that we will deliver a market leading product.

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Magic Quadrant for PC Life Cycle Configuration Management, 2006 (Gartner, Dec 4, 2006)
Microsoft is positioned in the leader’s quadrant in Gartner’s latest PC Life Cycle Configuration Management Magic Quadrant.

FULL ARTICLE:  http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/article13/article13.html

Gartner’s analysis of Microsoft in this report
Since our last Magic Quadrant, Microsoft has made several acquisitions (Softricity, AssetMetrix and Winternals) that shows it is not only shoring up its existing product compared with the competition, but also is preparing to change the way organizations deploy software by addressing application virtualization and streaming, more-accurate asset discovery, and recovery, respectively. The AssetMetrix software knowledge base will be offered for free. SMS 2003 accomplishes life cycle functions through add-ons such as its OS deployment feature pack, which could be more automated, and its Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment, which is targeted at improving time to implementation, but requires a lot of scripting expertise. Microsoft’s vision for the next version of SMS (due 3Q07; 0.7 probability) will focus on desired-state reporting and PC deployment/migration. Although the new features should bring Microsoft at least up to parity in life cycle management functions, customers need to wait to see how well the product will work. However, it appears to be headed in the right direction. By acquiring Softricity, Microsoft has validated application virtualization and streaming as a way to deploy and run software. Although SoftGrid can be integrated with SMS, it will be sold as part of the Software Assurance Desktop Optimization Pack for Windows client.

Today, I got some data on the ReadyBoost usability of SD Flash that a bunch of us collected.  Basically for a USB Memory Device or another Flash Memory device like an SDFlash card to be ReadyBoost capable, it must adhere to the following requirements:

• Must have 2.5 MB/s random read performance for 4 KB reads across the entire device (i.e. some devices have fast parts and slow parts, we don’t support those).
• Must have 1.75 MB/s random write performance for 512 KB writes across the entire device.

A big part of this is also the method by which the device is used.  For example, internal SDFlash drives on laptops are sometimes slower than if the SDFlash card was put into a USB adapter and used as a USB-based ReadyBoost drive.

Here is a list of devices, capacities, form factors, and notes on whether or not it worked as a ReadyBoost device. Again, this is just a list that was collected together & tested independently by a bunch of folks looking to gather this data.

1. pqi Hi Speed 150x 4GB SD
   Works in Toshiba M4 internal SD slot 4.90 MB/s on 4k read, 7.17 MB/s on 500k writes.
2. Kingston MiniSD 512MB MiniSD
   Works in Toshiba M4 with MiniSD adapter in internal SD slot. 5.52MB/s on 4k reads
3. Transcend 80x miniSD 2GB miniSD
   Worked while using MiniSD with SD adapter on Tecra M4 internal slot
4. Kingston Elite Pro 50x 1GB SD
   Worked as SD Card using HP 8240 notebook.
5. OCZ SD 150x 2GB SD
   3901 KB/sec Read, 3892 KB/sec Write formatted as FAT- works in Toshiba M4 Build 5600. Retested several times under FAT32 with mean scores of 6418 KB/sec Read, 3767 KB/sec Write. Using ReadyBoost testing results per event log.
6. Kingston SD Ultimate 2GB SD
   Reported to work in Toshiba M5
7. Corsair SD Flash Media Card 133X 2GB SD
   Worked as SD Card. Using with Dell Inspiron 9300.
8. Transcend SD 80X 1GB SD
   Worked as SD Card. Using with Toshiba M400
9. Transcend SD 150X 4GB SD
   Worked in Dell laptop.
10. Transcend SD 150X 4Gb SD
    Works fine with Toshiba M4 internal SD slot. Tested on Vista 5753. Results: 4.35 MB/s for 4K Reads test and 5.72 MB/s for 500K Writes test.
11. AData MyFlash 150X 4GB SD
    Works in Toshiba M5 internal SD slot
12. AData MyFlash 150X 4GB SD
    Works in Toshiba M400 internal SD slot
13. AData MyFlash 150X 2GB SD
    Works in Tosh M400 internal SD slot
14. Kodak High Performance 1 GB SD
    Works well in Thinkpad x41 internal slot, reads at 2.3MB/s, writes at 4.3.
15. SanDisk ordinary 2 GB SD
    Works in Thinkpad x41 internal slot despite perf numbers below the supposed minimum. Cheap chip, but not fast.
16. SanDisk Ultra II 1 GB SD
    Did not work in Thinkpad x41 internal slot. Does work at home in a USB dongle…
17. SanDisk Ultra II 1GB SD
    3.93MB/sec throughput for random 4KB reads and 3.34MB/sec for random 512KB writes. (used in internal Sony TX670P SD reader)
18. Panasonic SD High Speed 1GB SD
    Does not worked as SD Card using Dell Inspiron 6000. 3.20 MB/s on 4k read, 2.92 MB/s on 500k writes (no longer fast enough as of RC1)
19. pqi Hi-Speed 60x 1GB SD
    Works with Toshiba M4 internal SD slot, result – 2.24 MB/s on 4K reads, 8.17 MB/s on 500K writes.

5th Annual Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference

Please join us as we celebrate the fifth year of the Financial Services Developer Conference! This year promises to be one you will not want to miss!! Come hear about the latest advancements in Microsoft technologies as relevant to the financial services industries.

For those of you new to the annual event, the Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference provides developers and architects in financial services a clear roadmap of the Microsoft development platform with specific attention paid to the capital markets, retail banking and insurance sectors. You will learn best practices for using the best of breed technology to bring you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.

Discover the latest user experience enhancements in the .NET Framework 3.0 to ensure that your applications are people ready. Hear how you can take advantage of Microsoft Office 2007 Excel Services and Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Office System to build powerful financial and analytical systems. Gain in-depth knowledge on leveraging Windows Communication Services to route your messages and business logic efficiently. Learn how you can automate your business and human workflow with the easy-to-use tools in Windows Workflow Foundation. These are just some of the technologies that will be covered at this two-day event – register now as space is limited! As a reminder, the event is free and includes a welcome reception at the Grand Hyatt on the first night sponsored by our Platinum and Gold partners!

REGISTRATION
Register today by clicking here.
(http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032318224&Culture=en-US)

LOCATION
Grand Hyatt New York
Park Avenue at Grand Central Terminal
New York, New York, USA 10017
Tel: 212 883 1234 Fax: 212 697 3772
Map & Directions

BACKGROUND
The Financial Services Group hosts an annual conference for developers in the financial services industry. Now in its fifth year, the conference is an excellent opportunity for developers to gain insight into the latest and upcoming Microsoft technologies as they relate to the financial services industry.

ACCOMMODATIONS
For your convenience, a block of rooms has been reserved at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at a rate of $289 through March 23rd. You are responsible for your own reservations which can be made by calling (212) 883-1234 or 1-800-233-1234 by March 23rd, 2007 to receive the discounted rate. Be sure to reference the Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference. After this date rooms will be available at the going rate.

AGENDA
The day will consist of keynotes and 5 breakout tracks: Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance, Developer and Architect.  Agenda is currently in development.

April 25th
8:00am-9:30am             Registration and Breakfast
9:30am-5:30pm             Keynotes, vertical keynotes, 5 breakout tracks
5:30pm-7:30pm             Welcome Reception

April 26th
8:00am-9:00am             Breakfast
9:00am-5:00pm             5 breakout tracks and closing keynote
5:00pm                         Depart

All the available Windows Vista drivers are maintained on HP’s Early Evaluation Web Site at:
http://www.hp.com/programs/earlyevaluation

Once you register a user name and password then login and select Projects (in left margin) and scroll down until you locate the nc6220 TAP program link.

This has been out for about a month now but only recently did I get a list of all the improvements to the product since the release of v1.0.  To be honest, I’ve been so busy that I didn’t really give a @$%# about the Beta but now that I’ve seen what they’ve been doing, I must admit I’m impressed by our OneCare group’s work & thinking:

• Support for Windows Vista RC1 & Final (Build 5500+)
• Common Setup.exe for both XP and Vista
• Offline installation
• NEW Windows Vista two-way firewall built on

Windows Filtering Platform

• Windows Vista User Access Control compliance
• Additional media support (network drive, auxiliary USB storage) for automated backup
• Tune-up scheduling (pause/resume)
• Full AntiVirus/AntiSpyware technology & user interface integration
• Windows Live user experience compliance

There’s also a bunch of other features that are on the table that may or may not get cut so I can’t write about them but I assure you that they’re the kind of things that you’d go, "Hey… that’s pretty cool!  Good idea!"  In any case, Windows Live OneCare 1.5 will be well worth the upgrade in my opinion.

DOWNLOAD:
http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionid=b2456790-90e6-4d28-9219-5d7207d94d45

Posted on MSNBC today:

“COLUMBUS, Ohio – With a quick imprint of a suspect’s two fingers on a handheld device, Columbus police can get instant access to the person’s identity without making a trip to the booking office.The department announced this week it is testing 40 RapID wireless units it purchased recently for about $3,000 each using a federal Homeland Security grant. “
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16176717

Here’s the manufacturers web site:

PDA:

• Powered by a 512 MHz Intel processor
• 64 MB RAM, 64 MB Flash
• Pocket PC 2003 SE operating system
• Transflective TFT display 480×640 pixels

http://www.morpho.com/products_solutions/law_enforcement/PDF/RapID_051805.pdf

Yeah baby.

Among the many remarkable innovations emerging out of the robotics industry, from surveillance robots that can defuse roadside bombs to robotic arms that perform surgeries, one persistent challenge has been the lack of a common development platform that would allow developers to easily create robotic applications for varied hardware platforms.

Today, Microsoft Corp. is closing this gap with the release of Microsoft^® Robotics Studio, a new Windows^®-based development environment for creating robotic software for a wide variety of hardware platforms. Microsoft also introduced a new third-party partner program featuring Microsoft Robotics Studio-enabled applications, services and robots from independent software vendors, service providers, hardware component vendors and robot manufacturers. Already more than 30 third-party companies have pledged support for the new robotics development and runtime platform, which is available for download and evaluation at http://microsoft.com/robotics.

“Microsoft will help us extend the reach of the iRobot Roomba Open Interface to a broader community of developers,” said Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairwoman of iRobot. “A common development platform like Microsoft Robotics Studio will help ignite the robotics industry and encourage more developers to design new robot applications.”

The Microsoft Robotics Studio environment is an end-to-end, scalable and extensible robotics development platform that includes the following:

• A visual programming language that enables nonprogrammers to easily program robots using a drag-and-drop environment
• A 3-D tool that simulates robotics applications in physics-based virtual environments, using the licensed PhysX™ engine from AGEIA™ Technologies Inc.
• A lightweight, services-oriented runtime that enables applications to communicate with a wide variety of hardware

“Microsoft Robotics Studio is our response to requests from many hobbyist, academic and commercial robotics developers,” said Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. “We have quickly built a strong community with over 100,000 downloads of our preview releases, and we are excited to see the breadth of partner support across a wide variety of hardware platforms.”

DOWNLOAD:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/

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INNOVATIONS:  Tool will give robots a leg up
Microsoft kit makes programming easier; it’s free for educational, professional use

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/13/ROBOTIC.TMP

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is now available to users of Windows Server 2003.  A description of the technology is available at the product web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/techinfo/overview.mspx but here’s a quick summary of what I think is pretty cool about it:

• Templates for implementing blogs (also known as weblogs) and wikis (Web sites that can be quickly edited by team members—no special technical knowledge required)
• Offline synchronization through Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 that users can use to manage document libraries, lists, calendars, contacts, tasks, and discussion boards even offline, and to synchronize changes when reconnected to the network
• Ability to build workflows on the Windows SharePoint Services platform that address specific business processes or sets of tasks
• Document storage, recycle bin item retrieval, and version-control features built-in
• Enable security to be set as deep down as the item level

NOTE:  I can’t stress bullet #2 enough:  The ability to do offline synchronization of document libraries between a laptop user and the Sharepoint Service is absolutely phenomenal.  Have you ever received an email with a pointer to a document stored on a server, then realized that you couldn’t get the document you needed because you’re on an airplane?  If the resource was a common storage location like a Sharepoint service that you had synching with your machine, you’d have the document with you to peruse or edit, and be able to rely on the fact that the changes you made would be synched once you were back on line.

You can download Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for standard (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions.

DOWNLOAD:   Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. This is the 64-bit release.

DOWNLOAD:  Windows Defender x64

(The standard, 32-bit version of Windows Defender is also available.)