The Platform and the Hardman : Windows Server 2008

Smooth HD

Matthew Hardman — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:03:40 GMT

So what is Smooth HD?

The definition from the Akamai web site says...

"SmoothHD.com is an early glimpse of cutting edge new technology from Microsoft and Akamai that will raise the bar on the consumer video experience.

SmoothHD.com is powered by Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0 Smooth Streaming – a unique adaptive streaming technology that dynamically adapts video quality in real-time based on local bandwidth conditions - and Akamai AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Microsoft® Silverlight™ , a new solution for enabling high-quality, scalable video experiences over Akamai's global HTTP network of more than 36,000 servers around the world. "

Check it out at the following link! This is amazing stuff high definition content streamed instantly through your browser!

Smooth HD

history.forward() - Port 25: The Open Source Community at Microsoft

Matthew Hardman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:38:54 GMT

I am excited about the work we are doing in contributing back to the Open Source community here at Microsoft.

Our work on getting PHP to not only run, but run exceptionally well on Windows Server 2008 with FastCGI is a great step ahead to support web developers who are active users of this popular technology.

Just recently our Senior Director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft announced some of the work we have been doing to contribute a patch to the ADOdb library to support native access to SQL Server from PHP. As Sam says “This is our first code contribution to PHP community projects but will not be the last.”

Anyway, read the rest of this at his blog,

history.forward() - Port 25: The Open Source Community at Microsoft

I look forward to working with local OSS groups on where we can look at doing something locally in the future.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V now available for download!!

Matthew Hardman — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:13:29 GMT

Hi All,

Exciting stuff on the wires, the update to Windows Server 2008 with the RTM code for Hyper-V is now available.

This is what Dennis and I were talking about in our last video.

I hope to find some time to do another video showing how to setup Hyper-V and get some good ole fashion Virtualization going :-).

Anyway, got Windows Server 2008? Download Hyper-V now at the link!

Download details: Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950050)

Why Virtualize?

Matthew Hardman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:20:12 GMT

Episode 2 of our ANWYCDFYSBWYSCDFY, on Hyper-V. This video is more of a discussion about what Dennis is doing in the Microsoft Singapore Innovation Center to take advantage of Hyper-V being released as a part of Windows Server 2008. No demo content here, but more an explanation of the benefits that can be realized by the customer.

I think I might follow up with a short video this week on how easy it is to get an environment set up on Hyper-V, this technology is very cool.

Presenting the security of Windows Server 2008

Matthew Hardman — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:47:44 GMT

On Thursday night I had the privilege of presenting to the OWASP.org user group. Those who are unaware of this group, they are a passionate group of security experts in Singapore.

We had a 30-strong attendance from the group packed in to our Microsoft Innovation Center. My session was a very high-level overview about the security enhancements of Windows Server 2008, followed up by my colleague Dennis Chung, who gave an in depth session on Read Only Domain Controllers.

We had a lot of great questions and discussions, and both of us enjoyed it immensely.

I am placing my slides here if anyone wants them, as I said it was a very high overview, so there is not a lot of depth. I will try and get Dennis's presentation from him to add to the post as well.

Here is my session http://cid-9720229c26829d90.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Windows%20Server%202008%20Security%20Overview.pptx

Server Core "Theoretically" reduces the number of Security Bulletins

Matthew Hardman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:34:47 GMT

Just after publishing our video on Server Core, I visited Jeff Jones Security Blog, and found this post

http://blogs.technet.com/security/archive/2008/06/12/download-server-core-potential-security-benefit.aspx

on how having a server OS being installed in a "Core" installation mode, would have reduced security vulnerabilities for Windows Server 2003, if the option was available.

At the blog post there is a report you can read which goes through various benefits from a security point of view for installing Windows Server Core.

ANWYCDFYSBWYSCDFY - Episode 1

Matthew Hardman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:06:17 GMT

Welcome to the first edition of ANWYCDFYSBWYSCDFY (Ask not what you can do for your server but what your server can do for you).

Yes Ill admit its a terrible title, but the intent behind these videos is to quickly show you what can be achieved with Windows Server 2008 and its various features. They videos themselves aim to be informative and fun, so we hope you feel the same way when you watch it too!

Please do leave your comments and feedback if you feel these are beneficial to you, or that you just enjoy watching them.

Thanks,

Matty H

Windows Server Hyper-V RC1

Matthew Hardman — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:29:48 GMT

Got to say I am very excited about the eminent release of Hyper-V to Windows Server 2008. I have been running Windows Server 2008 on the machine for a while and it continues to impress.

Hyper-V is one of those technologies is really going to help customers achieve a number of cost reductions in their organizations ranging from Data Center space to carbon reductions.

Check out the article from eWeek on their Lab tests of Hyper-V.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/eWEEK-Labs-Tests-Microsofts-HyperV-RC1/

Up and running on Windows Server 2008

Matthew Hardman — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:27:45 GMT

Well I just recently rebuilt my Power Laptop (Dell XPS 1710) on to Windows Server 2008. Why, you may ask? BECAUSE I CAN!!! Not really, I wanted to try and give the Hyper-V components a whirl and try out some of those features.

However one problem I did come across after getting Windows Server 2008 installed, was that the Windows Live Installers would not run on Windows Server 2008, so no Live Messenger and no Live Writer.

Lucky enough I finally found a supported installer for Live Messenger at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D78F2FF1-79EA-4066-8BA0-DDBED94864FC&displaylang=en.

It was the Live Writer component that was a little trickier as there was no other installer that would support the Windows Server 2008 environment. Finally I found a blog from Daniel Larson, that helped out with it all. When you think about it the solution makes so much sense, and in a way where the deployment of .NET applications are managed so easily.

Because Live Writer is a .NET application, you are able to essentially copy the directory of Live Writer from a machine that it is working on, and then copy it to a location on your Windows Server 2008 machine.

Run the .exe, and away you go...

So where am I blogging from... my Live Writer running on Windows Server 2008 of course :-).

Hope this helps someone.