Mark Brown's Web Platform Blog : Other

Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper 6.2 is Released

mjbrown — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:14:53 GMT

Our Virtual Earth MVP’s rock. Not even a week after we released version 6.2 of the Virtual Earth Map control Chris Pietschmann (update: and Nicolas Boonaert) went and updated the 6.1 version of the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper library to support all our new 6.2 features.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this library this little diddy makes the pain of programming in javascript all go away by providing intellisense features for the Virtual Earth Map Control right there in Visual Studio 2008.

Read more about it here at Marc Schweigert’s blog and download it today.

Purchase UltraCam Images for Offline Use

mjbrown — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:47:42 GMT

We’ve recently opened a reseller channel to offer our high-resolution UltraCam imagery for offline applications.

Why is VE licensing imagery for offline use?

Our hi-resolution UltraCam ortho imagery is prized for GIS, urban planning, engineering and other applications that are often performed in offline desktop environments, yet our existing VE offerings prohibit any offline use of our data. By offering our data in an offline mode, we complement our online VE web service offerings and increase Microsoft and VE brand awareness worldwide.

How is this Being Done?

Our resellers, MapMart.com and i-cubed LLC will host the data and provide sales, marketing and fulfillment services, and both are just now bringing the VE data portal sites fully online. Both are top-notch companies with proven leadership in the geodata markets, and we’re excited to have them lead our channel sales.

What’s Available and Who Needs it?

Currently we have over 200 cities of color airborne imagery collected at 6” nominal resolution, averaging less than two years old. The 6” spatial resolution rivals any large-scale commercial source today, and our newest processing techniques produce ortho mosaics with almost no building lean in the image- invaluable for unobstructed views into areas with tall buildings, etc. As Microsoft acquires and processes imagery for more cities around the world, the archive is expected to grow substantially. This imagery is invaluable for urban planners, GIS analysts, and the prosumer geospatial market. We expect municipalities, engineering firms, emergency response agencies, and utilities to be core customers.

PS: I checked and we are holding off on onboarding any new resellers for the next 6 months so for all of you who want to be resellers just hang tight.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam

BAH, What a Wasted Day

mjbrown — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:23:09 GMT

Today’s been a tough one for me. To begin I was having issues with my normal laptop, a severely underpowered Sony VAIO that I’ve had for about three years. It’s never liked Vista and to be sure Vista has hated it right back. Still it is small, weighing less that four pounds and most often runs Office and a browser just fine. Good enough for non-dev work. Today that machine started acting up because the SMS client form our corporate machines wanted to install a Vista update that was already on the machine. Problem there is the install wasn’t smart enough to recognize that. Normally that isn’t a problem but this update was mandatory and the SMS Client is smart enough to shut your port down if it thinks you haven't installed it so I had to call our support guys to sort it out. Total time spent with IT guy on the phone? 1.5 hours. Total productivity during that time? 0.0 hours.

After that I needed to get an audio plug in for my copy of Sony Vegas Studio Platinum, the Noise Reduction one. Making videos I realized quickly that this is a MUST HAVE because everywhere I record there is background noise and it annoys the hell out of me. To be sure I ordered the right thing I called Sony and they said,

<typical stoner dude voice> “uh, actually you need to upgrade to Vegas Pro from, uh, Platinum. uh, yeah, that thing won’t work. Vegas Pro has what you need bra”</typical stoner dude voice>.

"mkay" I said, "I’ll go online and buy that one".

Next I go online and try to purchase it but for some reason their website isn’t processing orders so I call back and order it from another person, this time thankfully, no stoner voice. They process the order and email me the download URL and keys. I install it and of course there is no Noise Reduction plug-in to be found. I call back and they say, again no stoner voice, “Yeah, I'm not sure why someone would tell you that. What was his name?" "I don't remember" I said, "but I'll bet he's in the parking lot right now breaking the law". "Um, yes sir. Actually what you need to do is purchase Sound Forge which has the plug-ins and then you can use them directly from Vegas Platinum” "Great!" I say. "Cancel my order. I’ll order Sound Forge instead". Total time talking to Jeff Spicoli and friends, 2.5 hours. Total productivity during that time? 0.0 hours.

Finally, I’ve been trying for three days to get a very fresh build of SQL Server Spatial installed on my demo laptop. I'm giving a presentation with Ed Katibah on Virtual Earth and SQL Spatial at the GeoWeb conference next week in Vancouver, BC. Anyhoo, this laptop, unlike my Sony VAIO is a 13 pound, 64-bit brick house of a machine. I got the pre-reqs installed and then reboot, start Setup again and ZIP, I got nothing. With the help of some product team guys we figured out that my machine was a piece of toast. Unfortunately that’s what happens with demo machines, they sometimes get fried with all the pre-release stuff many of us run to do our jobs. So now as the crowning achievement of my lack of productivity today I'm flattening the entire thing and rebuilding it from scratch. Total time dorking with this machine for the last three days? Hmm, roughly 5.893 hours. Total productivity during that time? 0.0 hours.

I have to say that it's not all bad today however. My first video for Behind the Maps is doing really well with just over 38,000 viewings since I released it a week ago Saturday. I am currently working out the details for my next video where I go up and fly with this thing. There is apparently some cool technology that coordinates the plane and the camera and some interesting operational details too about how we gather images that applies to the incredible 3D work you see in Virtual Earth today. Stay tuned.

Hey when are you updating the aerial images for my house?

mjbrown — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:14:21 GMT

I get this question all the time from people I bump into or otherwise talk to during the course of my day. Every time I get this question I usually respond with,

Yes, we’ll have updated imagery in your area by, Ladies and Gentlemen, THIS IS A WOOKIE.

The ~~Wookie~~ Chewbacca defense generally works very well. Most either look confused and walk away muttering something or they laugh and then quickly say, “Wait a minute. HUH?”

Seriously though it’s extremely difficult to predict exactly when we’ll have an updated image of your house. We do refresh some imagery like our Birds Eye or oblique imagery roughly every couple of years and our orthogonal imagery gets updated on a slightly more varied schedule but it really depends on a number of factors including: population density, rate of change for a particular area, geo-political issues can also play a part, and finally, good luck with the weather cooperating.

So with all those considerations its impossible to give an accurate answer and what I’m left with is the ~~Wookie~~ Chewbacca Defense. But rest assured we are trying are best to be more predictable in this area.

Edit: Sorry for calling this the Wookie defense originally. I have been severely corrected by the community.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam

Find the Best Gas Prices Using Mobile Live Search

mjbrown — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:47:17 GMT

I just came across this feature when I updated the Mobile Live Search client on my Windows Mobile phone. There now is a feature which allows you to find the lowest gas prices in your area. If you have a GPS enabled phone this feature is even easier to use. Currently the Mobile Live Search application is supported across a number of Windows Mobile versions in the US and UK and a beta version for Blackberry 4.0 and above in the US only. You can get the download here, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/livesearch/default.mspx

Happy motoring.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows Mobile,Live Maps,Virtual Earth

Scoble interviews Microsoft Search Executive Brad Goldberg

mjbrown — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:45:18 GMT

This sometimes rankles a few people when I say this, but I have a lot of respect for Robert Scoble. I was a huge fan of the work he did here at Microsoft when he worked for Jeff Sandquist over on Channel 9 and the both of them led something of a revolution at this company as they applied some much needed common sense to how Microsoft has dialogs with our customers and the community overall. I consider his book, Naked Conversations as required reading for anyone who works in an evangelism role here at Microsoft. For my part I very much try to emulate his approach to talking to our customers and the developers who create applications with Microsoft’s Platform and Services.

Anyhoo, Robert stopped by our area last week and interviewed our General Manager, Brad Goldberg about all the happenings of Search here at Microsoft. He even gives a shout out to Virtual Earth on our mobile search. I’m watching it now and it’s a telling and transparent view into what we’re thinking and doing.

Enjoy.

Developers, tell us what you think about Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:14:48 GMT

Hey everybody, here's your chance to tell us what you love or hate about Virtual Earth. We've just posted an online survey here, http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/204407/e697/ Developers are really important to us and we want your feedback to make Virtual Earth better.

From our communication to our customers:

As a Virtual Earth platform developer, your opinions are very important to us! We’re conducting a satisfaction survey and would like you to evaluate the level and quality of services you’re receiving from Microsoft. This information will be used to identify areas where we are doing well and where we need to make improvements. Also, your feedback will help us prioritize future Virtual Earth feature development and service enhancements.

This survey is being conducted by Akona Consulting, an independent research firm. Unless you choose otherwise, all answers and comments are made anonymously to Microsoft. The survey should take approximately 15 minutes of your time. At the end of the survey, as a token of appreciation, the first 500 responders to complete the survey will be offered a $10 Visa gift card. Or you can choose to have us donate $10 to International Services of the Red Cross on your behalf. Once you complete the survey, you will be asked to provide your contact information in order to either receive the gift certificate or authorize the donation. Please note, this survey will close on June 11^th, 2008.

Update on Myanmar

mjbrown — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:11:24 GMT

I wrote a couple weeks ago about how Microsoft was working to help the people in Myanmar with corporate help, people, everything we can to help the people there. Well Virtual Earth is helping out with one of our Partners, IDV Solutions who build a wonderful site for the Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) which is a part of the United Nations. From the HIC's website:

The mission of the HIC is to support the humanitarian community in the systematic and standardized collection, processing and dissemination of information with the aim of improving coordination, situational understanding and decision making. In undertaking this mission, the HIC will complement the information management capabilities of the national authorities, as well as in-country development and humanitarian actors, in order to optimize the response and meet the needs of the affected population. The HIC will only be deployed in new complex emergencies or disasters where IM demands exceed the capacity of the Member State(s) and the IASC. In fulfilling its mission, the HIC will be guided by the principles of humanitarian information management and exchange in emergencies: accessibility, inclusiveness, inter-operability, accountability, verifiability, relevance objectivity, humanity, timeliness and sustainability.

That sounds like the perfect organization to be helping out with the local authorities and other relief agencies down there. Given the severe damage to their infrastructure, information management is going to be a big part of saving lives. Checkout this website. Here's a screen shot of the work our partner did for the HIC.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,Myanmar

Web 2.0 Developers like our Windows Live stuff

mjbrown — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:06:56 GMT

A surprising article yesterday on Computer World.

Money quote: “Microsoft scored high in user satisfaction for its Web services, software development kits, documentation and forums. In the Web services category, Microsoft came in on top this year after ranking last in the year-earlier survey”

Nice...

Where is Matt Lauer?

mjbrown — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:03:16 GMT

Chris Pendleton has the scoop that once again NBC likes to send Matt Lauer to the far flung corners on the planet with the latest installment of its, "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" segment. I wonder how many frequent flyer miles he's earned in all those years of doing this segment? Microsoft is in on this too as we launched a new game out on Live Search Club called, Discover the World with Matt Lauer."

Personally, I need this myself so that my family knows where I am. Actually, the other day when I was down in SF for Web 2.0 I forgot what city I was in for a second so I can probably use this too. Meh, actually I'm not as cool as Matt here. I suppose for my purposes a LoJack would work fine for me.

This wasn't in the Brochure when I moved here

mjbrown — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:50:13 GMT

So I've lived here in Seattle for a little over 8 years now having moved here when I joined Microsoft back in 2000.

You know before I moved here I'd hear something like this: "Oh, the Winters here are really mild" or "It hardly ever snows here, maybe get a flake or two in December or January"

Well just so you know, this is what it looked like outside my house last Friday.