The Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Hyper-V Guide is the third instalment in a series of guides intended to provide easily accessible, hands-on guidance to our customer and partner community. This 145 page guide is available on MSDN, TechNet and as a separate DOCX, PDF or CHM download alongside the already available “Microsoft BizTalk Server Operations Guide” and “Microsoft BizTalk Server Performance Optimizations Guide”
The guide provides relevant information to IT professionals to enable them to make educated decisions about the advantages and tradeoffs of using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to virtualize BizTalk Server environments. It will be refreshed for future versions of Microsoft BizTalk Server.
The key sections of the guide are:
- Getting Started: provides conceptual information about Hyper-V, the virtualization technology introduced with Windows Server 2008, and an introduction to the Hyper-V architecture.
- Deploying BizTalk Server on Hyper-V: describes the steps that were followed to set up the lab environment, which was used to compare the performance of a BizTalk Server solution running on Hyper-V environment to the same BizTalk Server solution running on comparable physical hardware.
- Evaluating BizTalk Server Performance on Hyper-V: details the important considerations when measuring the performance of a BizTalk Server solution running on a Hyper-V virtualized environment.
- Testing BizTalk Server Performance on Hyper-V: provides detailed results of four distinct testing scenarios that compare the performance of a BizTalk Server solution running on Hyper-V environment to the same BizTalk Server solution running on comparable physical hardware.
Thanks to Lyndon Higgins for the following:
Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to display content in its most standards compliant way by default. Enabling Internet Explorer 8 to display web content in its most standards-compliant way by default is the right way to help move the Web forward.
Rationale:
- Helps web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate vs. modify content for different browsers
- Addresses several major development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases
- Partnering closely with Web standards working groups to be a key contributor in Web standards evolution
However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7, we have provided a compatibility meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to display content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.
We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this calendar year targeted for all consumers.
My good friend Roger has been talking about digital natives (his younger kids) for some time.
Digital natives and digital immigrants are terms coined by the American futurist Marc Prensky to distinguish between those who have grown up with technology and those who have adapted to it
I purchased a copy of The Times (incidentally a very good read) on holiday and read the following article How the Google generation thinks differently which outlined some differences between the two opposing groups (one which is Internet induced and has attention deficit side-effects)
NATIVES v IMMIGRANTS
- Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”. - Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.
Roger always thinks of himself as an immigrant but I'm not so sure. His evidence is that his children assume new forms of communication are the norm (e.g. messenger) but Roger himself is the biggest user I know of Twitter (see Twitter intro video from his site) which is another emergent micro communications format.
Whilst trying to find the times article online I came across another couple of articles:
- The digital divide of natives and immigrants:
- Rupert Murdoch in 2005, was even using the terms:
part 3 of my concept of the transition of web visitor to resident
A citizen is a native or naturalized member of a web entity who has an allegiance to its data and services and is entitled to its protection and privileges.
A citizen should feel less vulnerable (privacy and content protection) and more capable when they elect to become a citizen. They identify with the brand of the web entity they engage with.
Access:
Access can be from the web site or from a partner or customer site. Ideally the citizen can add portal components or gadgets to their preferred or home site.
Expectations:
Applications can be accessed from anywhere, not necessarily at the web entities home page. The citizen expects the same right and privileges that are granted them as if they are on the web entities web site.
From within the web site they expect an open API with the ability to natively embed into common channels such as facebook, myspace, bebo and live spaces.
Behaviour:
The citizen trusts and employs data and services from the web entity and seeks to use this information from another “channel”.
The citizen should also have the right to:
- consent (what I allow others to see, view and use)
- manage what applications can share your data and service right
- delegate permission to another citizen
- revoke the permissions at anytime
- reliable functioning services
- understandable accurate and available pricing information
A citizen cannot by its nature be anonymous. A resident is afforded some privileges:
- Exclusive access to data and services a resident does not
- Safe guards (e.g. backup)
Technology:
Generic:REST-based API
Microsoft: Live Mesh, Microsoft Silverlight, PopFly, DeepZoom.
Example:
Bank Caja Madrid – Windows Media Center for Online Banking
AT&T – Microsoft Surface being used to pull together product information and purchasing
Rationale
A citizen is an identified user of your data.
One would benefit from providing their residents with citizenship privileges. This will mean that the end user is stickier to the organisation. Encouraging a user to use the web site may be less effective that allowing a user to take components from the site and embed them in their preferred channel. This could not only open the organisation up as a channel for a much larger audience but could so enable partnerships, opportunities for marketing and openings for cross selling.
part 2 of a my concept of the transition of web visitor to resident
The resident isn't going to a web site to simply consume information. They go there to participate.
Access:
Access to a web site as a result of a notification, some participative need (e.g. a conversation thread or response), and is unlikely to be reached by chance. The resident shares specific and detailed information common to like-minded user types and groups.
Expectations:
The resident expects that data and services will always be available. Information will be presently in a timely fashion and personalized to them. There will be no need to re-key data or to follow through multiple screens that lead to a dead-end. Communication is a key feature and issues can be raised and resolved quickly.
Behaviour:
The resident will seek out and interact with people. They will use collective expertise and search for content they cannot find. New emergent forms of communication include pervasive wikis, blogs and RSS feeds, corporate profiles. Social networking tools, as well as presence, instant messaging and web conferencing are the norm.
The resident typically uses the site as a platform for other activities. They invite, encourage and attract others to participate and they provide feedback.
Technology:
Generic: DHTML, Javascript
Microsoft: MOSS, live, AJAX.ASP.NET, Silverlight, AdCenter, IPTV, XBOX Live, Office communicator
Example:
Myspace is in ASP.Net.
Facebook - Both of the next generation web 2.0 platforms are a mix of Linux and windows with both platforms providing complementary services to the alternate platform.
Rationale
It is worth considering that in a recent study 25% of users would leave their bank if another bank provided richer services. One would hazard a guess that this number has been growing steeply since the advent of web 2.0 web sites.
One would benefit by providing a customer centric view and encouraging feedback.
part 1 of a my concept of the transition of web visitor to resident
The web visitor is someone who uses the data and services of a company on an ad-hoc basis
Access:
Enter by chance, recommendation, e-mail or by search engine
Behaviour:
The visitor usually has specific content in mind.
Observe, consume filter and leave. Optionally may retain URL as a bookmark or favourite and email to a colleague or friend
Technology:
Generic: HTML
Microsoft:IE, IIS, WSS, SPS, CMS, ASP, ASP.NET, MSN, Windows Media Services, .NET 1.0, messenger
Example:
Wikipedia (behind the scenes there are some resident features for authors)
Rationale:
What this means for the organization is if they are publishing static content is that the content probably will reach the wrong audience. It won’t typically be found by the customers, contractors the writer intended.
At the very least information should be provided as would be expected in an instruction manual.
So, that dependant on role, information and processes, contacts, reports and submissions can be centralized and referred.
After watching ReMix 08 in Sydney I thought a bit about Angus Logan;s presentation on making you web visitors into residents.
My main two thoughts were:
1) how do you identify a visitor from a resident
2) when a person is resident can they become a citizen
Following a recent presentation I thought I would document my thoughts on the subject using a template. Ill publish them as a three part series for ease of reading.
I recently received the announcement of the first edition of the “Microsoft BizTalk Server Performance Optimization Guide”.
The Microsoft BizTalk Server Performance Optimization Guide is the second installment in a series of guides intended to provide easily accessible, hands-on guidance to our customer and partners. This 228 page guide is available on MSDN, TechNet and as a separate DOCX or CHM download alongside the already available “Microsoft BizTalk Operations Guide”
The guide is based on real-world experience and provides regularly maintained prescriptive guidance & best practices on optimising BizTalk Server performance for demanding production environments.
The key sections of the guide are:
· Getting Started: Provides an overview of the BizTalk Server functional components that can affect performance. It also describes the phases of a BizTalk Server performance assessment.
· Finding and Eliminating Bottlenecks: The Finding and Eliminating Bottlenecks section describes various types of performance bottlenecks as they relate to BizTalk Server solutions and information about how to resolve the bottlenecks.
· Automating Testing: Describes how to implement an automated build process and how to automate functional and load testing using Visual Studio Team System, BizUnit and Loadgen.
· Optimizing Performance: The Optimizing Performance section provides guidance for optimizing performance of specific components in a BizTalk Server environment
As part of my outstanding "Sharepoint Today" gadget I wanted to use CML to query various Sharepoint sites.
Thanks to these Linq to Sharepoint projects this could be much easier than learning CML:
Codeplex project:
http://www.codeplex.com/LINQtoSharePoint
Link I found this from:
http://dotnetaddict.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/linq_to_sharepoint.htm
Interestingly enough there are all sorts of Linq implementations out there now:
Linq to MSI for example
Thanks to this site for a bunch of the videos
Geotagging with Surface
Inside the Surface Testing Labs
Disneyland's latest attraction in Tomorrowland, the Innoventions Dream Home delivers on Walt Disney’s vision for showcasing cutting-edge technologies
See here for more information on the Innoventions Dream Home
A couple of weeks back I did a presentation that included some ASP.NET MVC Framework preview materials thanks to some help from Tatham Oddie (Readify). He was really great and walked me through his presentation he did for the Solution Development Centre local TechTalk . We covered the new routes framework (awesome), the addition of AJAX to MVC, testing and the use of user controls using implicitly named directory structure. No wonder he is an MVP in this area as he has been covering this area for many years.
If you want to hear Tatham speak on the subject here is a recent presentation he did:
http://tatham.oddie.com.au/presentations/20080610-VICNETMelbourne-ArchitecturalConsiderationsForAspNetMvc-TathamOddie.wmv (48MB, 47min)
Or see his Remix presso here:
http://tatham.oddie.com.au/presentations/20080520-RemixSydney-MVC-TathamOddie.wmv (40MB, 42min)
My contribution was to point out some amusing videos on the subject:
My favourite being #1 Controller Obesity
Also, there is the MVC Song in mp3 format if you just can't get it out of your head.
I believe that are form the Ruby on Rails (RoR or Ruby for short) company called RailsEnvy. Wikipedia says "like many contemporary web frameworks, Rails uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture for organizing application programming. Rails provides 'out of the box' scaffolding which can quickly construct most of the models and views needed for a basic website"
I want a Surface device, and not suprisingly I want the SDK. See how easy it will be to develop for XNA and WPF below, you may want one too:
Firefly is an example example of the SDK in use. From what I've heard Surface supports 52 simultaneous multi-touch interactions!
I'm sure there is a killer app waiting to be written with this product.
Below is a great (but noisy) video of some of the demo's recently shown for Surface
Deep Zoom (code name Seadragon) and Surface combined thanks to Live Labs (warning: video below contains annoying advertisement overlays):
The video really demonstrates some of the incredible visualisations you can do using this device. - See here for more videos and news
Some examples of commercial use:
Video: Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas as documented here
Video: Microsoft Surface at AT&T stores
Microsoft has released a new global environment site. See Rob Bernard talk about it all here
Here are very interesting quotes
· 'Smarter technology use could reduce global emissions by 15 per cent and save global industry EUR 500 billion in annual energy costs by 2020'
· A recent study found that the amount of electricity used by servers and auxiliary equipment worldwide more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, to more than 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) yearly—a figure that represents 0.8 percent of the estimated world electricity sales1. This increase has come over a period when the cost of electricity itself has risen significantly. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that the average cost of electricity to the industrial sector has increased by more than 41 percent over the past seven years (2000-2007)—double the rate of inflation—and 33 percent for the commercial sector.2 Electricity costs in many other parts of the world have increased by as much or more. By taking all of these factors into account leads to the conclusion that the electricity cost of running servers is an increasingly significant expenditure for many businesses and other organizations, and will continue to grow in the future.
· Aside from the direct cost of electricity, the environmental impact of excessive power usage is a growing concern for governments, businesses, and organizations seeking to reduce the production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
· Microsoft conducted a series of tests to compare the power consumption of Windows Server 2008 against that of Windows Server 2003 (WS03). The tests revealed that Windows Server 2008 OOB achieved power savings of up to 10 percent over Windows Server 2003 OOB at comparable levels of throughput.
See also Bill Reed Thought Leadership Article on how to use “Computational science [to] capture and analyze unprecedented amounts of experimental and observational data to address problems previously deemed intractable or beyond imagination.”
"Addressing global warming is a responsibility we take very seriously at Microsoft."
-Steve Ballmer, CEO
Starting to get a bit excited about this event after reading this article, yet I wont be able to attend :(. Good news is that I will be able to get all the content!
Who Should Attend (or… The PDC is for YOU)
The PDC is designed for leading-edge developers and software architects. If you’re interested in the future of the Microsoft platform, you’re responsible for the technical strategy in your organization, or you’re a highly skilled developer who likes to delve deep into the heart of the platform, then the PDC is for you!
In past years, the PDC has unveiled various significant milestones in the evolution of the Microsoft platform. This year, you’ll hear more details about our services platform, the future of Windows, mobility, and our next generation of developer tools. And there are always a few surprises.
