What's Rockin' in Singapore

The launch of Windows Server 2008 is fast approaching so here are some resources to help you guys ramp up on your application development on Windows Server 2008:

INNOVATE ON Windows Server
www.innovateonwindowsserver.com
Development portal that includes key marketing information and resources such as the Application Compatibility Cookbook, “Works with” and Certification Test Tool downloads and demos,  developer resources, and  links to pre-release Windows Server 2008 software.

Windows Server Catalog of Tested Products
www.windowsservercatalog.com
Customer-facing index of certified and validated software products, hardware devices and systems.

Technical Support for Application Compatibility and Certification
Tier 1: MSDN Online Forum
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2112925&SiteID=1
Monitored by Microsoft staff who can answer both business and technical questions.

Tier 2 technical support: wslogofb@microsoft.com.
This mailbox is monitored by the logo program development team. There is a 48-hour response time for non-critical issues.

Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx
Home page for the Windows Server 2008 operating system, feature overview, training resources and  links to the latest evaluation build of Windows Server 2008.

Software + Services (S+S) brings together the best of both software and services, maximizing capabilities, choice and flexibility. During this seminar, we will be showcasing Microsoft's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and technology that can help you make your enterprise more agile and connected.  Join other technical decision makers and architects at the seminar, where our subject matter experts and partners will demonstrate the potential of S+S and how it can help you meet your business objectives.

Venue: Microsoft Singapore Pte Ltd, #22-01 One Marina Boulevard, 018989 Singapore
Day/Date: Thursday 22 November, 2007
Time: 0830 hrs – 1330 hrs
Fee: FREE

Register now:

• Online - click here
• Email - mailto: e-maggie@ap-communications.com
• Phone - 6411 9639, Contact person - Maggie

Just released, the latest in silverlight applications has been deployed on MediaCorp's Web Site.  This site takes advantage of Rich Application technology through its use of MS AJAX Extensions and the Silverlight plugin.

The concept is remarkably simple: it describes a future where local software and Internet services seamlessly interact with one another.  Software makes services better and services make software better.  But it also describes a technical and business journey that Microsoft, our partners and our customers have to make over the next couple years.

Different customers will use different combinations of Software + Services.  Even customers in the same situation may make different decisions.  The value proposition Microsoft can offer with Software + Services is to provide each customer with the optimal mix of choice, flexibility and capability.

Software + Services is very broad, touching almost every aspect of our industry.  It is relevant to every role and audience we work with.  It comes into play when you connect rich, local clients with services, such as Xbox Live or Windows with Windows Update.  And it applies to servers running on-premise in customer data centers that interact with services , such as Exchange with Forefront. 

Software + Services also provides an umbrella that spans Software-as-a-Service, SOA and Web 2.0.  Each of these are interesting areas of innovation in their right, but Software + Services lets us bring them together and offer broader and better integrated solutions.

The reality is Software + Services is where the industry is going.  For all the hype about everything moving to services in the cloud, even the biggest proponents of this view are furiously investing in software that runs on local clients and servers that make their services better. 

Software + Services is Microsoft strategy for the coming years.

I've previously posted something similar here.

Very nice - the Open Source Initiative has approved two Microsoft Shared Source licenses as OSD compliant.

http://port25.technet.com/archive/2007/10/16/microsoft-out-in-the-open.aspx

We just finished another session of our Mini-Mix Program.  Here are the resources from Day One, Day Two, and Day Three.

Hi,

Sorry for being a little late about posting this.  Here are my slides and demo code from the recent Tech Talk event at Microsoft.  The final demo was largely based off of some work a colleague of mine did on the topic.  You can find his Blog here and a Webcast walking through the code as well.

Microsoft is dedicated to help our ISVs deliver profitable solutions for the People Ready Business through combination of 3 elements

1) The largest Market Opportunity for software developers in the industry

2) The most innovative, robust and integrated Platform for partner to build upon

3) A comprehensive set of investments in the partner channel through a Partnership that provides you with the technical, development, marketing and sales tools you need to increase your business potential

In view of that, we have launched INNOVATE ON portal, www.innovateon.com, which provides you with a full range of technical and business resources as you develop your solutions on our technologies. In each product portal, you'll find the steps you need to build your product and take it to market faster.

Ready to get started? Go to www.innovateon.com today! Select a product portal, Enroll and begin to take advantage of all the benefits we offer.

My good old friend from Microsoft Corp, Vittorio Bertocci, has always been a strong supporter and advocate in helping quite a few of our enterprises here in Singapore to scale up and implement cool projects on Windows CardSpace, Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation. One of which is ST Electronics (Info-Software Systems) Pte Ltd, you can find a local case study here. The other one is Changi General Hospital. Vittorio has written a nice blog on this, take a look here.

I am really behind my blog posts this week and need to post my slides and code from both the recent Tech Talk we had at Microsoft and the Mini Mix event currently underway.  Before I do that however I want to say a few words about streaming video and integrating that into your blog or web site.

Streaming is a confusing topic to most and there is a lot of mixed messages out there about how to go about it.  The first thing to understand is the there two basic ways to "Stream Video" over the Internet.  The most common way is to progressively download the file from a web server.  This is basically a download that is cached behind the scenes by the browser.  These are some issues you should keep in mind when using this approach:

• All the content is cached client side and this may create issues for those with digital rights management (DRM) concerns
• In most cases the content is downloaded at the fastest possible speed and will likely be completely downloaded well before the end of the video is viewed.  If the video is not completely viewed than there will likely be wasted bandwidth.
• Users cannot arbitrarily navigate to the end and must wait until the video is completely viewed.

The alternative approach is to "Stream" the video from a media server.  In true streaming, nothing is cached client side but there are things to consider here as well:

• Only the content that is watched is streamed.  This better than the former option but only if the video is not viewed more than once within a given session.
• You need more than a basic web server to support
• Does not work very well in cases of intermittent connectivity as nothing is cached to buffer the process.

In my case I wanted to be able to stream video to support my blog entries and my web site.  The challenge I had with positing files on the web site was that I had no way to throttle the bandwidth and track the usage of the material.  I also wanted to give my viewers the ability to return to a webcast at a particular point rather than having to download the entire video repeatedly.  I therefore decided to look into obtaining some streaming services.

It may surprise readers to find out that even though I work for Microsoft, the support to post public content on corporate assets is somewhat constrained and I was forced to look outside for options.  Silverlight streaming, YouTube, Soapbox and others are all basically progressive download.  After a couple of false starts with hosters who claimed to have "Streaming" capability but were really progressively downloading, I have settled with StreamHoster.  Time will tell if this works out or not.  I would appreciate any comments about alternatives as well.

John

During my Architect Council back in 7 Aug, Lup Yuen from NCS shared his valuable experience on building portals with Silverlight, ASP.Net AJAX and Windows CardSpace with the Council members. The session was recorded and you can find it here.

The quarterly Microsoft Walk the Success Lane Seminar for Singaporean students is coming up.  We've got a great agenda and I'm looking forward to seeing you all there.

Date:    27 October 2007, Saturday
Venue: Auditorium, Level 21, Microsoft, One Marina Boulevard
Time:    01:15 pm - 05:00 pm (Registration will start at 12.30pm)
RSVP:   Email rita@techmexeventsasia.com with your name,  school and contact details
More details:  Call Rita at 6550 8963

12:30 pm - 01:15 pm    Registration

01:15 pm - 02:00 pm    Finally! Graduating… End of Paper Chase or is it not?
Mary Lee
General Manager, NetAssist

02:00 pm - 02:45 pm    Rapid Web Application Development using Jasper
Nathaniel Tok
Microsoft MVP

02:45 pm - 03:00 pm    BREAK

03:00 pm - 03:30 pm    Building Next Generation Web Applications with Windows Live
Chris Ismael
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore

03:30 pm - 04:00 pm    Innovation in Singapore: Jazz up your projects
Shen Yizhe
Microsoft Innovation Center Specialist, Microsoft Singapore

04:00 pm - 04:30 pm    Into the IT Industry: How I got into Microsoft
Stanley Tan
Academic Program Manager, Microsoft Singapore

04:30 pm - 04:45 pm    Achieving Success through the Microsoft Academic Programs
Stanley Tan
Academic Program Manager, Microsoft Singapore

04:45 pm - 05:00 pm    LUCKY DRAW!

While a lot of my customers and partners are still on .Net framework 1.0/1.1 or 2.0 and not even on .Net framework 3.0 (released together with Vista on Nov 2006) yet, .Net framework 3.5 is going to be release soon (Dec 2007) together with Visual Studio 2008 (codename "Orcas"). Visual Studio 2008 delivers key advances for developers in three primary pillars:

· Improve Developer Productivity

· Manage the Application Life Cycle

· Employ the Latest Technologies

These three pillars will be delivered through seven different technology areas:

1. Develop Smart Client Applications

o Visual Studio 2008 delivers new and easy ways for developers to build smart clients by providing a comprehensive set of tools and classes that simplify integrating smart clients with new or existing web applications, and by handling local caching of data for disconnected scenarios.

2. Create Microsoft Office applications

o Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is now fully integrated into Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. Visual Studio enables developers to customize various Office applications, such as Outlook® and PowerPoint®, to improve user productivity and simplify deployment.

3. Build Windows Vista Applications

o Developers will be able to easily leverage new platform technologies, and deliver more compelling applications to their customers, by effortlessly incorporating new Windows Presentation Foundation features into both existing Windows Forms applications and new applications.

4. Handle Data More Productively

o The introduction of Language Integrated Query (LINQ), and various other data access improvements, now enable developers to deal with data using a consistent programmatic approach, perform data access with new data design surfaces, and use built-in classes for the occasionally connected design pattern.

5. An Improved Developer Experience Overall

o Visual Studio 2008 delivers a better developer experience overall through the combination of significant product quality improvements, changes to the way the most popular design surfaces return errors to the user, and simplifying the user’s ability to adopt the toolset and framework separately.

6. Enable New Web Experiences

o Beyond the secure, reliable and extensible infrastructure of IIS, developers can easily create efficient, interactive Web applications. The seamless integration and familiar programming model of ASP.NET AJAX enables more efficient client-side execution to deliver end-users a more responsive Web interface.

7. Improves Application Life-cycle Management (ALM)

o ALM provides great support, not only for managing the entire software development life cycle but also for the critical interaction with the final end-users and IT stakeholders of an enterprise application.

Visual Studio 2008 Specific Features

Windows-based development

–High impact applications with smooth designer/developer workflow

Web development

–Rich “Atlas” UX, CSS support, IntelliSense

Office-based development

–Customization of full breadth of Office 2007 clients and servers

Mobile development

–Newest Windows Mobile & .NETCF with full lifecycle support

Service-oriented development

–Secure, reliable services with unified programming model

Data tools

–LINQ, the unified programming model for a variety of data

–Graphical designer for n-tier applications

–Support for building occasionally connected systems

In my job, I get to work with faculty in Singapore who have dedicated their lives to "helping students realize their full potential".  I know that kind of sounds lame, but it's true.  In fact, I've met people who've despite had a successful career in the IT industry, have decided to give that up in order to teach at a local university or polytechnic.  And I must say that my engagement with some of the polytechnic faculty in particular has truly been inspiring; I can really see that from the bottom of their hearts, they really care about their students' future success.  So here's to them - the Singapore faculty.  And even though I'm no longer a student, I salute you for all that you do.  Happy World's Teacher Day.

I've also asked a couple of colleagues to say a few words about their experiences and thoughts, and I thought I'd share it here:

Dilip Mistry, General Manager, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Asia Pacific: http://diliphome.spaces.live.com/
Daniel Ingitaraj, Director, Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore: http://ingitaraj.spaces.live.com/
Dennis Chung, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore: http://windowsmvp.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!80195647FE07388F!359.entry

Scott Guthrie on the announcement: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/10/03/releasing-the-source-code-for-the-net-framework-libraries.aspx