William Leong's Blog

View the Presidental Inaugural – All Together Now

2009-01-20T23:13:00Z

Microsoft and the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) has worked together to stream the inauguration live using Silverlight. However, there has been an outcry from the Linux community regarding the lack of access and inclusiveness of their platform.

Responding quickly to this, Microsoft and Novell partnered together (late into the evening) to make the live stream available to Linux and PowerMac users using Moonlight, an open source implementation of Silverlight. In fact, Paula Rooney blogged about this on ZDNet.

I think it is a positive move for interoperability. Kudos to Microsoft and Novell.

Crunchies Recognizes Live Mesh for Best Technology Innovation/Achievement

2009-01-10T22:17:00Z

I've been using Live Mesh for a while now. In fact, it is being used by my team to share presentations that we may be called upon to use in front of ISVs. While it's nice for users to rely on a technology that's still in beta, it is quite another for that technology to be recognized by the TechCrunch community.

Live Mesh was just awarded Best Technology Innovation/Achievement at the Crunchies last night. On hand to accept the award were Ray Ozzie and David Treadwell.

Live Mesh, the application, is just the tip of the iceberg and a proofpoint. As the Live Framework will continue to show, it is going to be a great platform for developing applications that span the cloud, web and devices.

Microsoft Supports Creative Commons

2009-01-09T01:15:00Z

Microsoft is often maligned for not supporting open efforts which is why I found it interesting that the company has been a supporter of Creative Commons for the last four years. When Creative Commons, near year-end, was still short of their funding raising goal of $500,000, Microsoft stepped up with a $15,000 corporate sponsorship to take them over the top. The timing was perfect for a worthy cause.

XBOX 360 Car

2009-01-08T10:17:00Z

Check out this crazy car mod. Some fan has infused their car with XBOX 360 components and it looks incredible. There's a controller in the steering wheel and two XBOX 360s inside the vehicle. The interior color of the (car) console appears to match the (game) console – nice touch.

AC/DC Music Video in Excel Spreadsheet

2008-10-28T07:36:00Z

Gizmondo has this really cool AC/DC music video created using an Excel spreadsheet. You've got to see it to believe it.

I Love the New Live Search Home Page

2008-09-10T02:36:00Z

I may have missed it or maybe it hasn't been well publicized but I love the new Live Search home page. Whoever is responsible for selecting and creating the picture each day is doing a fantastic job. Besides the captiving photo, you can hover over hotspots within the picture to discover other Live Search features. Best of all, you still get a clean and fast loading page to conduct your search... but with a better user experience. It is my default home page.

Innovate. Differentiate. Accelerate.

SDForum Windows SIG

2008-08-26T01:07:00Z

One of the things that I like to do (and used to do more often) is participate in local user groups. Over the summer, I became the Chair of the SDForum Windows SIG -- the most established Windows developer user group in Silicon Valley. This gives me the opportunity to engage with the community, find out what they're interested in and invite notable speakers to present to the group.

Our first meeting will take place this coming Thursday, August 28, at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, CA.

I've invited Michael Scherotter, an Industry Architect from the Media and Communications group at Microsoft, to talk about Microsoft Expression Blend for Software Developers. If you are a developer building WPF or Silverlight applications and you want your application to be interactive and dynamic, this is the session for you.

There should be plenty of opportunities to network. Food and drinks will be provided prior to the start of the meeting. All attendees will be given a NFR copy of Expression Studio 2 (all Expression 2 products) at the end of the meeting. Not a bad way to relaunch the Windows SIG. Please join me and say hello.

[Edit: Corrected date of event.]

HP Discovers Memristor

2008-05-08T01:07:00Z

I read a fascinating article on the discovery of the memristor by HP. A memristor is a nanoscale component that can exhibit digital (0's and 1's) or analog (continuous range) values. Due to its size and speed, it can be used as computer memory or storage. However, its analog properties enable it to "memorize" a value much like the human brain and that memory can be enhanced or caused to fade with an electrical charge. This can be pretty cool if HP can productize it. You can read more about it here on the Popular Science web site.

WorldWide Telescope Delivers the Wow at the TED Conference

2008-02-28T07:56:00Z

Microsoft Research is showing a preview of the WorldWide Telescope (WWT) at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA. WWT compiles all the great images captured by telescopes from around the world and from space to deliver an immersive experience for science, research and discovery of the universe.

Microsoft has dedicated the WWT in memory of Jim Gray, whose previous research in the SkyServer, was extended to give us WWT.

The WorldWide Telescope will be available free to the public starting in Spring 2008.

Additional Resources:
WorldWideTelescope.org
TED Conference

Smiley Face

2008-01-05T05:18:00Z

Prior to the holidays, the team working on IE8 announced an internal build that renders the Acid2 test properly within the browser. While Acid2 isn't technically a standard, many web developers consider it a litmus test of CSS compliance. The goal, of course, is to enable developers to create web pages that are interoperable across different browsers. However, that's not as easy as it sounds. The feedback on the IEBlog has been voluminous. For those who want an inside look at this newest development, watch this Channel 9 video.

The IE team plans to continue posting news about available features (backed by working code that's checked into their source code control system) and, therefore, have more than a reasonable chance of making it into the final product. I'll be following the development of IE8 closely. It looks like things are just starting to heat up...

Ctrl-Alt-Del: Reboot Blog

2008-01-05T05:11:00Z

It's been a while since my last blog post. I'm officially rebooting my blog. My plan is to post more regularly with news and tidbits that are of interest to me and, hopefully, to you as well. I hope you'll join me and share your comments openly.

SaaS Seminar

2006-04-21T01:27:00Z

There is quite a buzz around Software as a Service (SaaS) as customers look to purchase software as a service rather than as a packaged application. There are many advantages to this model. If this is something that you are considering, you should register to attend the Software as a Service Seminar in San Jose, CA on May 9.

Seminar sessions include:

The Software as a Service Opportunity
Architecting Your Application for Software as a Service
The Microsoft Solution for Windows-Based Hosting for Applications
Microsoft's Pay-As-You-Go Licensing Program (Service Provider License Agreement)

This is an excellent opportunity for your company’s business and technical strategists to learn what Microsoft is doing to enable partners to compete in this rapidly-growing space.

Microsoft Tops List of World's Most Powerful Brands

2006-04-05T03:04:00Z

Microsoft has been named the World's Most Powerful Brand, according to a new ranking by global marketing research firm Millward Brown. The brand ranking associates consumer research with financial data to measure the brand's impact on a company's bottom line.

Here is the BRANDZ™ Top 10 according to Millward Brown.

Microsoft – $62,039M
GE – $55,834M
Coca-Cola – $41,406M
China Mobile – $39,168M
Marlboro – $38,510M
Wal-Mart – $37,567M
Google – $37,445M
IBM – $36,084M
Citibank – $31,028M
Toyota – $30,201M

Beside the relative ranking, there's interesting information on trends and emerging brands.

ISVs often place an emphasis on being first to deliver products with features and functions. While it is certainly valuable to differentiate on the basis of technology, building a brand is an equally important task that is frequently overlooked and undervalued.

Brand building is not the exclusive domain of the world's largest companies but it does require dedication and a long-term focus. Is your company running on all cylinders? Do you have a brand strategy in place that sets your company apart from your competitors along a different axis? Do you have any war stories that you would like to share? If so, I would like to hear from you.

Additional Resources:
Millward Brown press release on their recent study
Millward Brown Optimor – Brand Strategy Consultancy

Solid State Disk Drive

2006-03-25T00:39:00Z

I saw something that came across my Inbox that is really cool... if you want your system to boot and run really fast.

Gigabyte introduced i-RAM, a PCI card with four memory sockets and a SATA port for $150. This card enables the RAM to appear as a hard drive to the operating system. You can, theoretically, combine multiple i-RAM cards in a RAID configuration. With relatively cheap memory prices, you can now build your very own solid state disk drive quite inexpensively.

The downside is persisting the data in volatile memory. The card comes with a lithium battery to keep the memory powered while the system is off. It's only a matter of time before non-volatile memory and higher capacity modules make this a common place feature in tomorrow's systems.

Have you heard about anything new and/or unusual? Feel free to share them on this blog.

Additional Resources:
Tech Report Review of Gigabyte i-RAM
Video of Gigabyte i-RAM in action

Catch a webcast, learn something new. Suggest a webcast, win a book.

2006-03-14T22:36:00Z

There are so many webcasts available from Microsoft that it's difficult to track what's going on. If you are an ISV, a good site to bookmark is http://www.isvwebseminars.com. This page contains a list of upcoming webcasts as well as previously recorded webcasts, available on-demand. Best of all, the materials presented are ISV-focused and free of charge to our partners.

I hope you are able to find what you are looking for. If you have a topic of interest that is not yet covered, drop me a note. I welcome your comments and suggestions. If your idea is selected by me or my team, I will send you a complimentary Microsoft Press book of your choice.

[Submission deadline is May 1, 2006. Only one book per person, while supplies last. All decisions are final.]