Partner Otaku

We just published five new Azure Services Platform  “How Do I” videos including one on accessing the Live framework from PHP apps. Code snippets will be included where relevant. If you’re not familiar with these videos, they are task oriented and bite sized to get you started.

Visit the overall landing page for the “How Do I” videos here and sign up for the RSS feed.

To Learn More:

• Webcasts – www.microsoft.com/events/series/azure.aspx
• Training kit – www.microsoft.com/azure/trainingkit.mspx
• Azure SDK – www.microsoft.com/azure/sdk.mspx
• Sample projects to review – www.codeplex.com, search “azure”
• Join Azure user groups – www.azureusergroup.com

A good opportunity to get your questions answered from the IE team. Please join in the Expert Zone this Thursday, April 23 at 10:00 AM PST. 

Note: These are my personal opinions and views, not the views of my employer

Oracle’s proposed buyout of Sun came as big surprise.  It’s a very interesting move on a couple of levels.  Oracle’s appetite for large acquisitions and seemingly make them work is fairly impressive. One can look at a number of companies where the integration of acquired companies caused considerable indigestion. 

Most of the press has been focused on the Java technologies, however, I believe MySQL is the real gem in the deal.  If the acquisition is successful, Oracle will gain a significant portion of the commodity database market.  However, there are significant challenges as well.  Will Oracle kill MySQL? Will it Support Drizzle? Lots of questions that will need to be answered over the coming months and years. 

Two Silicon Valley icons have left the stage this year, just another indicator of change and consolidation in the valley.

ARCast.TV – Enabling Web Slices on Your Web Site

Web Slices are a new IE8 feature that allows users to subscribe to some parts of a web page and receive updates automatically. In this screen cast, Zhiming Xue (Dr. “Z”), Microsoft Architect Evangelist, demonstrates through two simple examples how developers can easily create web applications that enable users to subscribe to select contents on a web page using the new IE8 feature, Web Slices. For additional resources about web slices are available at IE8 Readiness Toolkit and IE Developer Center.

Enabling Web Slices On Your Web Site

We have a bunch of group interest alias’ at Microsoft. I received an email that I would share. The passage below is actually copied from Vernon Reid’s MySpace Page (I added the picture of the guitar)

If your not familiar with Vernon Reid he was part of the band Living Colour

I had one of the best days of my life yesterday (Not as good as the day my daughter Idea Viola was born, but better than the day I got my Mac-Book Pro). This best-of-days is directly related to one of my worst, which was this past monday, April 13th.

I was supposed to start prep work for a guitar instructional video that I’m doing with Rock House. Plans were changed and I went to Manhattan instead to pay off a studio balance owed for a Masque session, & to return an item that I bought at the 14th street Guitar Center. After finishing business with the studio I made the Guitar Center exchange & made a stop in Williamsburg Brooklyn before returning home to North Shaolin aka St George Staten Island. I got out of my car, and realized to my HORROR that my wallet was gone. Vanished. Missing.

I raced back to Manhattan, my mind reeling-”Was I pick-pocketed? Did it fall out after I parked the car?! Did I lose it in the store?!! I called while I drove back & nobody saw anything! I went straight to the guitar counter & NO ONE saw it or tuned in anything. My heart sank. Feeling pretty much crushed I called Gabri (my wife) & told her what was up & she was great about it; all empathy & sympathy. She made the whole ordeal bearable.

I drove home, terrified that I’d be pulled over without license, registration, or I.D. of any kind. She started, & I completed the process of canceling cards, contemplating spending time at the DMV and kicking myself over the whole mess.

On the 3rd day of this nightmare, I got messages from Gabri & Tim E (who set up my MySpace & Facebook sites) that there was a message from the person who FOUND MY WALLET!!!!

I went to the mailbox & there he was- Darius Emmanuel Scheider-http://www.myspace.com/dariusscheider

The following is an excerpt of his letter to me- hi vernon i’m a guitar player from Paris,just passin’ through new york.

i found your wallet man and that just makes no sense but anyway i got it! we’ve got to meet up man and i’ll give you back what you own.

We met & had coffee yesterday in a little shop in the west village. It turns out that he’s followed my career & was as astonished to find my wallet in Guitar Center, as I was in getting it back. The whole time that we spoke about meeting, I never asked him about the contents of the wallet, but as I walked out of the house, I threw a possible gift in the trunk of my car on the remote chance that the wallet was returned whole.

I got the wallet back complete with the $1.5K that was in it when it was lost & Darius has a new guitar -a greenburst Mojo Flame Parker-like this one+a Roland interface.

I learned a great lesson about mindfulness through this experience. It’s great when people really are at their best!

I can’t thank you enough Darius! If it wasn’t for MySpace, he never would have found me!

Have a great weekend,

Vernon

Quick note, the first link is still being built out, if you wish to register go the “Register here” link. 

Location – www.WindowsPartnerReadinessDay.com

Time – 8:00-2:45pm (Pacific Standard Time)

Registration – The event is FREE, Register here and be notified the day prior with the link to the live feed of the event.

At this event you will have the opportunity to learn about Windows 7, the next-generation operating system from Microsoft. Online attendees can take advantage of the readiness and marketing tools made available specifically for partners to help prepare for the Windows 7 business opportunity. 

Windows 7 Partner Readiness Day will provide the resources you need to become a Windows 7 expert and help better prepare you for customer conversations. Microsoft executives and product experts will be on hand to answer all your questions and to provide you with a look at the following Microsoft product strategies:

• Industry trends and how Windows 7 will affect the marketplace 
• The business opportunities that Windows 7 brings for partners
• An overview of the key steps and programs to get ready for Windows 7

The ISV track includes information on the Windows 7 Compatibility Tool and the Windows 7 Logo Program.

• MS09-009 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 968557)
• MS09-010 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office (KB 960477)
• MS09-011 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 961373)
• MS09-012 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 959454)
• MS09-013 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 960803)
• MS09-014 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (KB 963027)
• MS09-015 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 959426)
• MS09-016 – addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft ISA Server (KB 961759)

Download Here

Around the third week April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on WinXP, Vista, Win Server 2003 or 2008 will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This will be a staged roll out over time to the entire user base.

• Windows XP and Win Server 2003, the update will be categorized as High Priority
• Vista and Win Server 2008, the update will be categorized as Important
• IE will not automatically install on their machines. Users must opt-in.

Reference Links:

Prepare for Automatic Update Distribution of IE8

IE8 Blocker Toolkit Available Today!

Blocker Toolkit to disable automatic delivery

Frankly I was pretty surprised with Ina Fried’s article on news.com regarding which search engine is most popular amongst Microsoft employees.  If you read the article quickly you might be left with the impression that 80% of internal search traffic was going to Google.

At a company meeting about a year ago, one Microsoft worker recalls hearing that four-fifths of the company’s search traffic was going to Google. Although he uses Live Search personally, the worker, who asked not to be named, said plenty of his co-workers still use Google.

However, if you look at the next paragraph the numbers look quite different, pretty much a 50/50 split in February.

Among its full-time U.S. workers, Microsoft says that, for February, Live Search and Google had roughly equal share, at around 48 percent apiece, with little search traffic going to Yahoo or any of the other search players.

I would argue that four-fifths figure as being dubiously high. I use Live/Kumo Search as my primary search engine.  If I don’t receive relevant results, I’ll try Google or Yahoo.  I am confident that most of my coworkers do the same, but I can’t verify my “gut” feel.

Key improvements in SP1 include Slipstream, Service Pack Uninstall and Report Builder 2.0 click-once deployment.

• Slipstream allows administrators to install SQL Server 2008 and Service Pack 1 in a single instance. This decreases the total time for an installation, including a fewer number of reboots thereby increasing productivity and deployment availability.
• Service Pack Uninstall allows administrators to uninstall the service pack separately from the database release. This feature also improves DBA productivity, reduces the cost of deployment and improves overall supportability
• Report Builder 2.0 Click Once improves the existing SQL Server end-user report authoring application by easing deployment to business users

To download the SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1, please click here.

For more information on SQL Server 2008, please click here.