Dragos Manolescu's (work) blog : live labs

Web Sandbox available under the Apache License

Dragos Manolescu — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:36:00 GMT

Earlier today we announced releasing the runtime code of the Web Sandbox available under the Open Source Apache License 2.0. The announcement has already been picked up by the blogosphere. Should you head over to the site check out the Web Slices samples we added with this release: weather and traffic.

Live Labs Thumbtack and Seadragon Mobile

Dragos Manolescu — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:42:13 GMT

By now this is already old news, but here it goes. Last week Live Labs released two cool projects:

On Wednesday 12/10, Thumbtack. I've seen demos of this project since it had a different name, and have discussed it with some of the folks who came up with the idea. Probably the fastest way to learn about it is to watch the Thumbtack video introduction, featuring Steven Drucker's voice.
On Saturday 12/13, Seadragon Mobile for the iPhone. You've probably seen Deep Zoom before, either in Silverlight or Live Labs' own Photosynth. Seadragon Mobile puts it in your pocket. Have a look at the video introduction hosted by Channel 10.

Happy Holidays from all of us in Live Labs!

Web Sandbox in Azure Color

Dragos Manolescu — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:37:37 GMT

Earlier today we rolled out an updated version of Live Labs Web Sandbox CTP, a technology for securing Web 2.0 through virtualization. This update incorporates new features on several fronts (more on that elsewhere). In this post I'd like to call out a new option for hosting the transformation component: the cloud, or more precisely the Azure Services Platform CTP. From the online documentation:

We insert the intercepting layer through a code transformation. By default this transformation executes server side, on our servers. Two additional options are available. If Silverlight is installed the transformation could execute client-side, thus saving the round-trip to the server. The transformation could also execute in the cloud, on the Azure Services Platform Community Technology Preview. (Note that the Azure transformation is enabled only when the gadget code is specified via a URL.)
The three options use the same codebase. The platform helped us extend the implementation, initially targeted at our server, to first cover the browser, and then to cover the cloud. Consequently, regardless of where it is hosted, the transformation should have the same result. You can choose which approach to use via the appropriate checkbox on the Sandbox experimentation pages.

Incidentally earlier today I also noticed that Web Sandbox (along with two other Live Labs projects I worked on) is now on the Windows Live Wikipedia page, in the Microsoft Live Labs section.

Live Labs Web Sandbox

Dragos Manolescu — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:37:04 GMT

Earlier today we launched a technology preview for Web Sandbox, a project aimed at securing Web 2.0. The Sandbox applies techniques from programming languages to inject an interception layer that in effect virtualizes the execution of untrusted code in the browser. Among other interesting things the interception layer also gives us an opportunity to normalize the DOM API exposed to developers. Take it for a spin in your favorite browser--4 popular browsers shown below--and come the session Live Labs Web Sandbox: Securing Mash-ups, Site Extensibility, and Gadgets that Scott Isaacs and myself will run next week at PDC2008.

ICWSM 2008

Dragos Manolescu — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:35:38 GMT

One of the things that surprised me at OOPSLA 2007 was the amount of traction that social media is getting. The crowd attending the 2007 WikiSym was larger than other co-located events that I remember from past OOPSLAs. Consequently I decided (with encouragement from my colleague Matt Hurst) to attend the International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media 2008. I'm looking forward to it; drop me a line if you're also going.

Volta: The Power of Lingua Franca

Dragos Manolescu — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:25:50 GMT

Earlier today we released the Live Labs Volta Technology Preview. There are already a few blog posts covering Volta from several team members, including Danny van Velzen, Harish Kantamneni, Jeffrey van Gogh, and Wes Dyer; Erik Meijer also posted an entry on Lambda-the-ultimate. Here I'd like to clarify an aspect that is starting to come up in other conversations: the power of lingua franca.

Here's the flow of transformations from source code (C# in this example) to native code, without Volta:

The Volta recompiler works on MSIL, the intermediate language that .NET languages such as C#, VB or Iron Python are compiled to. Consequently, Volta alters the above flow by introducing another transformation of the MSIL. This transformation rewrites MSIL into MSIL, while adding the plumbing code for distribution and asynchronous method invocation. This is precisely where Volta pushes the corresponding accidental complexity, thus getting it out of the way. The following diagram shows this modified flow, when both the client and the tier-split service are running on the CLR.

A similar MSIL transformation provides the ability to stretch the reach of the .NET platform to cover the cloud through retargeting. Rather than rewriting MSIL into MSIL Volta rewrites it into JavaScript. The following diagram shows the retargeting flow, when the client runs in a DHTML browser and the service on the CLR.

The above sketches illustrate the power of lingua franca. By working on MSIL rather than source code Volta gives developers the freedom to use any .NET language, the ability to mix multiple languages, as well as leverages the hard work of the compiler writers (think optimizations, for example). In addition, avoiding source code is less brittle and accommodates high-level language evolution as long as the MSIL doesn't change.