What's Rockin' in Singapore

Microsoft has just released the Release Candidate 1 for Internet Explorer 8, and I would strongly encourage you to install it and use it today.

You may want to know what a “release candidate” is:  that’s techno-speak for an almost-final version of software, like a sneak preview.

Internet Explorer 8 RC1 is much faster than previous versions of Internet Explorer, so you’ll notice that difference right away.  But you’ll also notice some cool new features that will make your surfing experience faster and easier—not mention a whole lot safer.

· Highlight a street address in your Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or other web mail account, right-click on the blue button that appears, and hover over “Map with Live Search.”  Presto!  You’ll see the map with the location right there—no more copying and pasting street addresses from web mail to a mapping site.  Plus, you can choose what mapping service you want to use.

· Go to the search box in the top right, and type a search item—see how the enhanced Instant Search Box is more helpful, providing real-time search suggestions, including images, from your chosen search provider.

· Click on a new tab, and see the options that are presented there, including “InPrivate Browsing.”  Click InPrivate Browsing and watch what happens—you are now in a browser session that is leaving no trail behind, so research gift suggestions for your significant other to your heart’s content without worrying about who might pick up the crumbs after you. 

Harder to see are the many security enhancements that will help keep you protected against the ever-evolving online threats—things like protection from cross-site scripting attacks that no other browser offers.

Let me know what you think of IE8 RC1.

I’ve been working with the interns in our Microsoft Innovation Center (Singapore) on some cool Windows Mobile demos.  One of the biggies we encounter is how aggressive Windows Mobile manages power.  Not a bad thing for end users wanting to use...(read more)

Bob Familiar interviews David Platt , CEO of Rolling Thunder, on why today’s software sucks. There’s no other good way to say it. It’s unsafe, allowing criminal programs to creep through the Internet wires into our very bedrooms. It’s unreliable, crashing when we need it most, wiping out hours or days of work with no way to get it back. And it’s hard to use, requiring large amounts of head-banging to figure out the simplest operations. In his book, David Platt explains why this is the case and, more importantly, why it doesn’t have to be that way.

Link

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/ARCast.TV/ARCastTV-Why-Software-Still-Sucks/

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer is a free tool that makes it simple to download and install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 and 7.0, SQL Server 2008 Express, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1. The Web Platform Installer offers a single installer to help you obtain the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform, whether you are using Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008. In addition, the Web Platform Installer checks online to ensure the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform are downloaded.

Use the following link when linking to more information:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx

When talking about where to download IIS, IIS Extensions, .NET Framework, Visual Web Developer 2008, SQL Server 2008, ASP.NET MVC and Silverlight Tools, we encourage you to link to the Web PI using the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/

What is the Microsoft Web Application Installer? (WebAI):

The Web Application Installer Beta helps you get up and running with the most widely used Web Applications freely available for your Windows Server. Web AI provides support for popular ASP.Net and PHP Web applications including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, OSCommerce and more. With just a few simple clicks, Web AI will check your machine for the necessary pre-requisites, download these applications from their source location in the community, walk you through basic configuration items and then install them on your computer.

http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebApplicationInstaller.aspx

Microsoft Web Platform Installer Benefits

Obtain components of the Microsoft Web Platform quickly and easily

The Microsoft Web Platform Installer provides a single installer that runs on Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2003 SP2, and Windows Server 2008, to download the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS 6.0 and 7.0, SQL Server 2008 Express, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1. The installer also identifies and installs Extensions for IIS 7.0 and ASP.NET, service packs, database drivers and other relevant Web platform technologies.

Choose which components to install to set up a complete or custom Web platform

The Web Platform Installer offers three installation options:

· Complete, which installs all available server and development products, Web server components, Web server extensions, and additional technologies;

· ASP.NET Developer, which installs the server components, tools and technologies that support the development and hosting of ASP.NET applications; and

· Custom, which enables you to choose exactly which components to install to customize and streamline your Web platform. For example, you can choose specific components to support developing and hosting PHP applications on IIS 7.0, with support for data-driven applications through the SQL Server driver for PHP.

Install the latest versions of Microsoft Web Platform products, components and tools.

The Web Platform Installer downloads an XML-based manifest of available products and technologies, which Microsoft updates continually to ensure that each time you run the tool, it will offer the most current components and the latest versions of each technology, including service packs and other software updates. In addition, the Web Platform Installer will highlight newly available or pre-release software.

Features

· Single installer for all Microsoft Web Platform components including:

- Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 on Windows XP SP3

- IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP2

- IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

- SQL Server 2008 Express

- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

- Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1

· ASP.NET, Complete and Custom installation options

· XML-based product manifest updated automatically when tool is run

Links

- Microsoft Web Platform Installer Overview

- Microsoft Web Platform Installer Forum

- Microsoft Web Platform Portal

- IIS.net Community Portal

As part of Microsoft's commitment to nurture the next generation, Microsoft will hold a technology competition for students. Finalists in each country will compete at the world finals which is held in Egypt this year! Visit the Imagine Cup 2009 site to find out more!

There are many disciplines that a software architect must master in order to do the job: requirements definition, use cases, modeling, layering, object orientation, service orientation, methodologies, and so on. In addition, as we are typically project leaders, we are usually tasked with mentoring others on the team in the understanding, adoption and application of these disciplines. This panel discussion focuses on the use of blogs, social networking and other online tools and content repositories that can be used to enhance and deliver mentoring to architects, developers and project teams. With Joe Shirey, Michael Stiefel, Denny Boynton, Miha Kralj, and Patrick Weikle.

Link

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/ARCast.TV/ARCastTV-The-Role-of-the-Architect-A-Panel-Discussion/

Tags

ARCast, Architects, Architecture, Mentoring, Methodologies, Patterns