You know there are times when superlatives don't do justice - I'll just leave it at this - David and Carl are doing great things - take a look at the app and the code...and the cool part is that the PhyloD code will run on the DigiePede Network.....

Microsoft Research Releases Tools to Help Science Progress Toward an AIDS Vaccine

After two years of pioneering work and collaboration in AIDS research, Microsoft openly shares its software source code with the greater scientific community to help expedite global research.

Related Links

Microsoft Resources:

Microsoft Computational Biology Web Tools

Microsoft Computational Biology Web Tools Source Code

Epitope Prediction Tool white paper

Science Web Site

AIDS/HIV: Finding Footprints Among the Trees (paid subscription required)

Founder Effects in the Assessment of HIV Polymorphisms and HLA Allele Associations (paid subscription required)

REDMOND, Wash., June 13, 2007 -- The source code for a set of software tools developed by Microsoft Research to advance AIDS vaccine research and development is available for download starting today from Microsoft’s CodePlex Web site. By sharing the code openly and at no charge with the worldwide AIDS research community, Microsoft hopes to spur other scientists and researchers to take up the tools and even build on them, thereby speeding the way toward a vaccine.

The code for four software tools is available now at no charge via CodePlex, an online portal created in 2006 to foster collaborative software development projects and host shared source code as part of Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative. The tools and source code are an initial piece of Microsoft’s technical computing effort – a company-wide initiative to collaborate with the worldwide scientific community by reducing the time to new scientific insights and breakthroughs by furthering the state of information technology in scientific research.

Source: Microsoft Research Releases Tools to Help Science Progress Toward an AIDS Vaccine: After two years of pioneering work and collaboration in AIDS research, Microsoft openly shares its software source code with the greater scientific community to help expedite global research.

Just got a note from Jason that SecPAL 1.1 is available - this is great - take a look at the codeplex site for more details - Jason/Blair and team, you're doing great things...let's see if the community recognize what you've been up to...

Summary of New Features in the SecPAL Research Release v1.1

• We have updated the SecPAL grammar to a new and much more readable grammar. I will post a longer explanation in the coming weeks, but in short when you read a SecPAL policy conditions will now be prefaced by an "IF" statement, and constriaints will now be prefaced by a "WHERE" statement. These changes along with improved readibility of fact qualifiers should make the English representation of your policies / assertions much simpler to read. Note: This change should have no impact on existing policies, as it only affects the output of policies / tokens when you call .ToString() on them.
• The 'CanActAs' predicate can now be used as a conditional fact within an assertion.
• No breaking changes were made to API's so any SecPAL dependent code that you have written should behave the same.

SecPAL v1.1 Now Available

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have just released a minor update to our SecPAL library. In addition to a couple of minor bug fixes there are two features which I think you are really going to like. The first is an update to our grammar - making it much clearer what conditions and constraints are. The second (which was actually a bug fix) is that our graphical proof graphs now work.

Source: The Hogg Blog : SecPAL v1.1 Now Available

Great to see 2 Windows CCS machines on the new Top 500 list

• 106 - Rainer from the Windows HPC Group
• 193 - Mitsubishi FJ Securities

Also look for the Microsoft Excel Add-in to drive all the LinPack benchmarks - should be released soon at http://windowshpc.net

Windows-Based Supercomputers Make Top 500 List

Illustrating the ability of Windows to deliver productivity with scalability and performance, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 appeared on the computing industry’s semiannual top 500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, released earlier today.

Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 served as the underlying operating system for a new HPC cluster at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, which is a part of one of the largest financial services institutions in Japan. Its expanding derivatives business will leverage a Windows-based clustering to enhance risk-management practices and reduce simulation times. Mitsubishi UFJ Securities chose the Microsoft Windows platform because of the power, familiarity, and ease-of-development in Microsoft Visual Studio^® 2005 and Visual C++^®. Its top 500 benchmark on Windows Compute Cluster Server was run on a 448-node IBM BladeCenter HS21 cluster with 1,760 processors, and placed at 193 on the top 500 list. The benchmark result of 6.52 trillion computations per second (teraflops) demonstrates the power of the advanced simulation environment that will enable the pricing, risk management and product development of its derivatives offering. The result marks one of the top supercomputers for the financial services industry.

Windows Compute Cluster Server also served as the underlying operating system for a new HPC cluster at Microsoft’s datacenter in Tukwila, Wash., which ranked 106 in the top 500.

This system achieved 8.99 teraflops on 256 compute nodes and 2,048 processing cores of 64-bit Intel Xeon 5300 quad-core processors, powering Dell PowerEdge 1955 blade servers and Cisco infiniband switches.

To achieve this result, Microsoft ran the benchmark over Windows Compute Cluster Server using a Microsoft Excel 2007 add-in created specifically to drive all the parameters and results required of the top 500 LINPACK benchmark. The Excel 2007 workbook contains all the necessary data needed to perform the LINPACK benchmark. This Excel add-in will be available within 90 days at http://windowshpc.net/default.aspx.

Source: Microsoft Technical Fellow Keynotes on the Reinvention of Computing: Microsoft’s high-performance computing business gains adoption across industries.

Here's a really neat SilverLight based game - www.ltbennett.com

Check out more details on Tim's Blog

so what is it?  well, Zero Gravity is a game and involves our absent-minded astronaut, lt. bennett, who continues to crash his ship into an asteroid.  your objective?  help lt. bennett find his way back to his ship in each level through various mazes.  there are different types of levels and different types of obstacles involving teleports, asteroids, ice blocks, pipes, etc.  once you get lt. bennett back to his ship, you advance.  your score is based on time and moves.

Link to Zero Gravity

There is a new release of MapCruncher...check it out... 

MapCruncher lets users quickly convert existing maps into an online format that’s as fast and easy to use as Virtual Earth. PDF and raster maps can be converted in minutes just by clicking on corresponding landmarks on the user's map and the global maps in Virtual Earth. MapCruncher re-projects the user's map, rendering correctly registered and zoomed tiles that can be mashed up seamlessly with Virtual Earth’s standard road and aerial imagery.

Source: Virtual Earth MapCruncher

Good column by Dan'l Lewin on Interoperability by Design - Products, Community, Access, and Standards...

The Facts on MS Interoperability

Edge of  the Valley  By Dan’l Lewin

Contrary to what Bruce Chizen, Adobe CEO, has said about our lack of intention to maintain a cross-platform solution, we have historically demonstrated a market-driven pursuit of interoperability on behalf of our customers. That won’t change, hasn’t changed. Cross-platform support is a small part of our overall interop commitment, and we have a strong commitment to both. We think it’s an important point because our support for real interoperability affects the ability of our customers to drive value from their IT investments and affects the ability of our ISV partners — large and small — to provide solutions that work in the heterogeneous world in which we live and work. We get that. We want to reach out to the broadest audience, and that means going where the audience is — on our platform, yes absolutely, and on others.

Source: The Facts on MS Interoperability | AlwaysOn

Here's a really good paper on how to utilize SharePoint to create application templates - it goes through all the different features of SharePoint - lists, workflows, SharePoint Desinger, forms, etc.  Now let's see who can utilize it to create some interesting Science based templates...

Windows SharePoint Services Document: Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Under the Hood

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a technology of Windows Server that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services. It is also a platform for developing Web-based business applications. Taking advantage of this capability, Microsoft has developed forty Application Templates to provide out-of-the-box solutions to address the needs of common business processes, such as coordinating a Help Desk or tracking marketing campaigns.
This white paper describes how Microsoft developed the Application Templates, identifying best practices for how to work with core capabilities within both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Designer 2007, with the goal of empowering customers and partners to create their own applications.

Source: Download details: Windows SharePoint Services Document: Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Under the Hood

Here's an quick way to help build WPF applications....

Welcome to the home of code name "Acropolis"

The Microsoft code name “Acropolis” Community Technology Preview 1 is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the “.NET Client Futures” wave of releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development.

Acropolis builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services. With Acropolis you will be able to:

• Quickly create WPF enabled user experiences for your client applications.
• Build client applications from reusable, connectable, modules that allow you to easily create complex, business-focused applications in less time.
• Integrate and host your modules in applications such as Microsoft Office, or quickly build stand-alone client interfaces.
• Change the look and feel of your application quickly using built-in themes, or custom designs using XAML.
• Add features such as workflow navigation and user-specific views with minimal coding.
• Manage, update, and deploy your application modules quickly and easily.

Source: Microsoft code name "Acropolis" - WindowsClient.net

So for fun after talking with the Nature folks - I thought why not make it easier to see the Nature info on Live.com....so you can find it on Live.com or link to this

Here's more details on one of the folks involved w/ the MS eScience & Berkeley Water Center project...

Behind the Code with van Ingen

Catharine van Ingen, a former Berkeley “hippie chick” turned software architect, discusses her craft and experiences in this interview, airing on Channel 9.

Nice to see this feature added to Live Writer - especially since it also supports some many of tagging options...I'm even testing out Live Favorites

Social Bookmarking Tags for Windows Live Writer

I am not very good in keeping promises, but this time I will make an exception :) I promised a while ago that I will create a WLW plugin for the Social Bookmarking Tool that would ease the process of creating social bookmarking tags automatically for the blog posts. So, finally... I release this version of Social Bookmarking Tags generator which will be a plugin in Windows Live Writer.

Source: Rahul Soni's blog - Never assume the obvious is true... : Social Bookmarking Tags for Windows Live Writer