Dr. Z's Blog : Technology Discussion

Microsoft Silverlight 3 and Microsoft Expression Studio 3

zxue — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:26:00 GMT

The Silverlight 3 RTW and the Release Candidate of Expression Blend 3 are now available on the Silverlight and Expression sites. The RTM of the entire Expression 3 suite is slated to come out shortly.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2 Available

zxue — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:20:00 GMT

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT 2010 will support deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. New features such as flexible driver management, optimized user interface workflow, and Windows PowerShell can simplify deployment and make your job easier. Deploy faster and easier with MDT 2010. To download the toolkit, click here.

Microsoft Azure .NET Services July 2009 CTP Available

zxue — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:44:00 GMT

Microsoft .NET Services is part of the Azure Services Platform. Microsoft .NET Services includes two services: the Access Control Service and the Service Bus. You can download the July CTP here.

Taking Advantage of Microsoft Online Services (BPOS)

zxue — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:59:00 GMT

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) is hosted online services by Microsoft that includes business-class e-mail, instant messaging, and the latest messaging and collaboration features. BPOS offers solutions for small businesses (5-24 PCs), medium businesses (25-500 PCs) and enterprise customers (500+ PCs). BPOS starts from $15 per user per month, with 12-month subscription and monthly billing.

To understand how the service works and what benefits it brings to businesses, visit Microsoft online services at http://www.microsoft.com/online/about.mspx

According to computerworld, two Microsoft partners, Computer Sciences Corporation and Azaleos Corporation, have agreed to resell the BPOS services. Detail at
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135219/Two_Microsoft_partners_embrace_the_software_plus_services_mantra

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0

zxue — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:32:00 GMT

Download MAP Toolkit 4.0 Beta now!

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is an integrated platform with tools and guidance that make it easier for you to assess your current IT infrastructure and determine the right Microsoft technologies for your IT needs. It offers easy inventory, powerful assessment and actionable recommendations for many major Microsoft products including:

Windows 7 (NEW!)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (NEW!)
Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2 (NEW!)
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008
SQL Server 2008
2007 Microsoft Office
Microsoft Application Virtualization
Microsoft Online Services (e.g. Exchange Online)
Forefront Client Security and more

Integrating your ASP.NET Web Application with Online Payment Services

zxue — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:46:00 GMT

I recently completed an asp.net application that shows how to integrate with two leading online payment service providers, PayPal and Google Checkout. It is based on the classified app from the asp.net starter kit. Development tools and technologies include: VS 2008, ASP.NET 3.5 and LINQ.

The current release includes basic functions of collecting data from users or customers, the process of converting a quote to a sale order and email notification. Future releases will include features such as improved user interface, exporting data to Excel files, and asynchronous email notification.

You can download the application at Microsoft codeplex, http://ezquoder.codeplex.com/

If you would like to add a photo gallery feature to the application, you may find this Silverlight application useful. It is available for download at http://photogallerywallcs.codeplex.com/ A more sophisticated Silverlight application "SlideShow" created by Vertigo is available at http://www.codeplex.com/SlideShow

Bing IT On

zxue — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:25:00 GMT

Bing is Microsoft's new search engine and search brand name. I have started paying attention to the backgroud image and the remarks attached to the image. You can easily find them by moving your computer mouse cursor over the image. Try Bing today and let us know what you think of Bing.

Windows Azure Tools and SDK May 2009 CTP

zxue — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:49:00 GMT

· Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (includes SDK) May 2009 CTP has just been released.

New for the May 2009 CTP:

· Support for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

· Update for Visual Studio 2008

· Improved integration with the Development Fabric and Storage services to improve the reliability of debug and run of Cloud Services from Visual Studio

· Enhanced robustness and stability

Release notes/Known issues are available here

Visual Studio 2010 compatible samples are available here

Please see this post for more information.

TechTalk: Enabling Architects with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

zxue — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:28:00 GMT

At TechEd North America 2009, I had a great opportunity to chat with Cameron Skinner about what developers and architects can do with the Team System architecture edition 2010, UML support and the design goals for addressing issues developers and architects face in application development. Check out the interview here.

Cloud Computing User Group Meeting, April 23, 2009 at Reston

zxue — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Topic: Introduction to Live Services & the Live Framework

Presenter: Chris Rolon of Neudesic

In this session we will discuss Microsoft Live Services and the Live framework. This is an introduction to the various services offered with an in depth look at Windows Live ID.

Registration is available at the link below.

http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137666

4/23/2009
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

12012 Sunset Hills Rd.
Microsoft Technology Center
Reston, VA 20190

Windows Azure: .NET Services March CTP Update

zxue — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:56:00 GMT

This March CTP release makes further enhancements to support for web standards and interoperability, and makes it simpler for developers to connect cloud applications and services across platforms. Specifically, this CTP is introducing expanded support for REST, ATOM, SOAP, and HTTP web standards, which will allow web developers using any programming language to use the services to connect, collaborate, and create federated applications. Moreover, the .NET Service Bus now includes discoverable and durable queues and routers, which support both SOAP and HTTP.

To demonstrate .NET Services’ interoperability, at MIX’09 Microsoft demonstrated how the Access Control Service and Service Bus can be integrated with a Python application deployed into Google App Engine – using just two lines of code – which may have been the first public cloud to cloud interoperability demo.

Developers can download the .NET Services SDK today via http://www.azure.com.

Mobile Tagging: A Mobile Solution that Turns Color Codes to Useful Information

zxue — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Do you know you can get a digital business card by using the camera on your mobile phone to read a color symbol? Or, find more information on a product and service by visiting a company's web site from your mobile phone without typing the url address? All that is made possible by Microsoft Tag, which is in beta and free to use.

Interested to try it on your mobile phone? Follow the steps below.

1. Download and install the Microsoft Tag Reader to your mobile phone from the web site, http://www.gettag.mobi The Microsoft Tag Reader is available for most smartphones and many feature phones. It is available on Windows Mobile, J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry, and Symbian S60 phones. Of course, your phone needs a camera and it must have Internet-access. More info at http://www.microsoft.com/tag/content/faq/

2. Create a tag from your tag account at http://tag.microsoft.com. If you have a Windows Live ID, you can log in with your Live ID. If not, you can create one and then log in. There are 4 types of tags you can create: free text, url, business card (vcard), and phone number (dialer). Once you have created a tag, you can render it to a pdf file, a xps file or a wmf (image) file. See the attached sample to the blog.

3. Run the Tag Reader on your mobile phone, aim it at the rendered code (or symbol) on your computer or printout, and see what you get.

What's amazing is that if you print out the color code from a laser printer (color, or black and white), the Microsoft Tag Reader can read the printout.

IE8 is Officially Released

zxue — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:25:00 GMT

Be the first to download it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. It is faster, safer and better...

Web SuperPreview - A Super Solution for Testing Browser Compatibility

zxue — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:36:00 GMT

At MIX09 Microsoft announced the availability of a new product named Expression Web SuperPreview (currently in beta). It basically allows designers and developers to compare how a web application renders in different versions of the IE browser and fix issues caused by incompatible elements. Great tool to have. See detail at the Expression Web team blog.

As Bill Staple showed in his MIX09 keynote demo, Expression Web SuperPreview supports cross-browser testing for browsers such as Firefox 3.5, Safari 3, Safari 4. See a nice blog by Long Zheng at istartedsomething.com.

Microsoft Web Platform Installer

zxue — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:33:00 GMT

Microsoft Web Platform Installer makes installing the latest components of the Microsoft web platform and open source ASP.NET and PHP applications much easy. One nice thing about the installer is that it lists all required components for an applicaiton or component. You can download version 2.0 beta at http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

To see how the installer works, I downloaded and installed it, which was quick and worked well. However, I ran into some issue while trying to install Web Deployment Tool 1.0 RC. Fortunately I was given an option to download the binaries directly using a link during the setup. For this particular component I had to install it manually and rebooted my Win2k8 server.

The Gallery appliation looks interesting. So I tried to install it. The setup didn't work when I selected SQL Server and used my Express SQL Server credentials. Then I switched to MySQL, and using a local admin account. The setup completed successfully. Once I enabled browsing on the php app directory, I was able to start the 11-step configuration process for the application, which is located at http://localhost/gallery/install/index.php

Note: The installer supports Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP2+, Windows Server 2003 SP1+, Windows Server 2008. Because IIS web server is required for installing the components and applications, you don't need to try it on your XP Home edition b/c IIS is not supported on the Home edition.