HaveYouSeenMyStapler.NET - Viral Tarpara's Blog

Microsoft’s Security Practices Role Model to Software Industry

A great article from InfoWorld discusses Microsoft’s success in improving security of its software.  In a few version cycles, Microsoft has truly moved from the laughing stock of security issues to a leader.  Much of the success is attributed to the Security Development Lifecycle that provides security guidance at every stage of development.  A great paragraph from the article states,

“It isn't just press talk alone. Every common security and vulnerability metric shows Microsoft's software security has dramatically improved over the years, especially compared to its main competitors. Vulnerabilities found by employees and external researchers are down well over half from just a few years ago. For some products, such as IIS and SQL Server, the improvement is startling, going from dozens of exploits a year to barely a handful over five years.”

The great thing about SDL is that Microsoft isn’t keeping it to itself.  SDL practices are being promoted to the community at large and are encouraged in application to all software developed on Windows.  Majority of the principles also apply to non-Microsoft operating systems as well.  Apple OS X and Linux developers would be wise to review some of the good work.

iPhone 3GS, Project Natal, Palm Pre, ZuneHD, Windows 7 ZOOOOM!!!

ZOOOOOM!!!  Technology is great!  It’s like a having a one-night stand every week though it never tends to be as good as your first.  Take Apple for instance with their iPhone 3GS announcement.  Bigger, faster, cheaper is their game.  Any real buzz they had with the product was given up early a few months ago with the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement.  Overall, pretty disappointing keynote even though the products are still some of the best on the market.  I wanted to wait for Apple’s WWDC before contemplating on getting a Palm Pre.  And as disappointing as the keynote was in terms of sheer excitement, it validated my view that iPhone is one of the best devices in computing history…period. 

As for Palm and their new device AND new CEO, the world is looking bright even if their stock price isn’t.  This would definitely be my second choice because, like the iPhone, it fits my lifestyle offering the right balance between work and play; there just seems to be less “play” at the moment. 

The biggest thing that bothers me is the same thing that bothered me with iPhone OS 1.0, no native hardware support.  A developer’s chances of running an intense 3D app on the Pre is close to zero due to the lack of SDK allowing this functionality.  I have no doubt that the finest minds at Palm are sorting this out though.  It will be interesting to see the competition next year between iPhone OS 4.0, WebOS 2.0, and Windows Mobile 7.  I’m not expecting many big things from RIM.

To switch gears a bit, Microsoft stole the show at E3 this year!  There were a lot of cool game announcements as well as a host of new services for Xbox 360 users.  Social networking has finally come to Xbox in a big way with the integration of Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM!

When it couldn’t get any better, Microsoft decided to throw down the gauntlet on Nintendo once and for all.  They introduced “Project Natal".

photos courtesy of Engadget.com

Imagine playing video games without the need for a controller.  Imagine an environment that not only reacts to your movements but can also recognize your face and respond to your voice.  Motion+Facial+Vocal capture and recognition—this is Project Natal.

Finally, no Microsoft keynote would be complete without some sort of product rebranding.  Xbox Live Marketplace is now the Zune Marketplace which validates Microsoft’s commitment to the Zune platform.  “The Social” is here to stay and it’s coming to Europe!  Which leads me to an announcement that Ballmer made at All Things Digital in California weeks prior.

Zune HD is here (honestly, you can even ‘Bing’ it) and its going global!  The press are calling it an iPod Touch “killer” due to its sweet looks, buttery smooth touch screen, responsive UI.  There’s no App Store announced yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it the firmware was updated closer to Windows Mobile 7 and Sky Market release.  There are so many details to list here but Engadget have a great write up!

To wrap of this post, I would be negligent if I didn’t inform you that Windows 7 has officially been slated to release on October 22nd.  This means on that day you will be able to buy a machine with Windows 7 loaded on it!  The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, right before the holiday season.  Of course, Microsoft understands that there has been a lot of negative attention around Vista, so Windows 7 RC has been offered to the general public for evaluation use until June 2010.  That is one whole year for FREE!

Register for the TechNet UK Virtual Conference Happening on June 19th!

It’s not too late to register Microsoft UK’s very first IT pro focused virtual conference. 

As you can see we will be covering A LOT of ground with a wide area of topics.  The official media partner for this event is none other than The Register so you’re bound to hear some interesting opinions as the event progresses.

Oh and by the way, there will be a random giveaway of 500 “Goodie” bags for all who register!

How To Deploy SharePoint Using Virtualization

SharePoint Virtualization Best Practices - Get more Business Documents

Learn about the architectural considerations when trying to virtualize Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007). This deck assumes you have good grounding in virtualization technology and discusses virtualization from a vendor-neutral view point. Contained in this presentation is valuable insight around I/O utilization, RAM usage, CPU assignments, and storage when deploying SharePoint virtually. The presentation was first presented at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference UK in 2009. This deck was written by Brian Wilson of Microsoft Consulting Services UK and reused by and adapted by me.  This was the deck I used at the Quest event last week.

Shout Out to Tim Heuer Who Fixed PDF Preview in Windows 7

Here’s a feature that I’ve been missing.  I hate opening PDF files.  I prefer them in a preview pane either in Outlook or Explorer.  Credit goes to Tim Heuer for putting this awesome plug-in out there and my colleague James O’Neill who’s blog I read first.

Download PDF Preview

Win a Laptop – Watch the Road to Windows 7

Microsoft has a shiny new laptop to give away to feed your recession fix!  Watch the trailers below and visit us at Road to Windows 7.  Microsoft will be posting a new video every week with information that every IT Professional wants to know about, and best of all its not in PowerPoint format.  Join Jamie and James as they discuss with witty British dialogue all the new things about Microsoft’s next big operating system! 

Oh yeah…FREE T-SHIRTS!

Windows 7 Adds Virtual Wifi Adaptors…SkyNet is Here

Every week, there is some new RC feature that gets uncovered that I don’t seem to know about.  I suppose that says how many little tiny features are actually built into Windows 7 or if you’re cynical, show’s how Microsoft communicates :)  Virtual Wifi adaptors will allow wireless cards to essentially connect to more than a single network using one antenna and adaptor.  The benefits of this may not be exactly clear at this point, but as Long Zheng of iStartedSomething states,

“…the scenario that is more appealing is the idea of a mesh network. In a mesh network, every client becomes a repeater, growing the network organically as more clients connect. Virtual WiFi enables this, since every client can become an access point too.”

I have to say if this is indeed the scenario we are looking at, than the world of ad-hoc networks is about to change in a big way.  Potentially this means that personal area networks will leave the bluetooth domain and enter the wifi one.  Think about a laptop connects to a commercial wifi point.  Now if you can pay once and then route all your wireless enabled gadgets like a repeater, those devices can become very useful on the road.  If we scale this scenario where multiple Windows 7 laptops are connected to high quality internet connections and then are able to share bandwidth in a peer-to-peer manor…i believe my mind just exploded.

The real areas that still need to be worked out is how to encourage this sharing in a way that is safe, encrypted, and secure.  Mesh bandwidth management also needs to worked out both at a network level and a device level.  I envision some new ISV startups that can potentially be huge!

Windows Virtual PC Beta Supports Aero in Windows 7 VM

I was testing out Windows Virtual PC that is used for “XP Mode” and decided to create some custom VMs for Windows 7 as a demo.  I went into it knowing full well that many cool features of Windows 7 wouldn’t be demoable simply because 3D support in a VM environment isn’t support…or at least I thought.  After installing the integration components for the Windows 7 and enabling “integration features,” I was pleasantly surprised to see Live Preview and Glass working amazing well!

No more 2nd-class experiences when it comes to virtual machines!  In fact, the VM ran quite well with 1.5GB of RAM running full HD resolution.  I haven’t tried any games, not that it is a scenario that is worth considering, but would be interesting nonetheless.  I’m loving the new virtualization software more and more.

Download XP Mode for Windows 7 (x86 & x64)

Want to Preview Office 2010?

It’s that time again where Microsoft is close to showing off the latest and greatest productivity software!  There are so many things in Office 2010 I want to tell you about but can’t; however, I encourage you all to register to gain access to the Technical Preview in July.  This is invite only but even if you don’t get selected, there will be a public preview made available following July.

Register

In the mean time, if you’re up for some exciting marketing videos, check out this movie trailer which is a “countdown to the beginning of awesome.”

http://www.office2010themovie.com/

Spend A Day with SQL Server and SharePoint Experts

Spend a Day with the Experts: The Converging Paths of SQL Server and SharePoint

Date: Wednesday, 27th May
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (breakfast and registration begin at 8:00 a.m.)
Location: Microsoft Office, Victoria, London
We invite you to this full day seminar featuring SQL Server and SharePoint experts from Microsoft, Coeo and Quest Software where we will examine the similarities and differences in SharePoint and SQL Server administration. Join us and learn why it’s important for you to get familiar with both platforms to streamline your day-to-day tasks.

Don't get caught at the crossroads - what you’ll take away from this event can make the manageability of these environments much easier and help you to better understand and master your environment.

These are just a few of the topics that will be covered in this informative event:

• The SQL Server –SharePoint connection
• Creating a scalable and resilient architecture
• DBAs as SharePoint Administrators
• Understanding and managing SharePoint
• Ensuring the security, availability and performance of your SharePoint/SQL Server environment
• A look ahead at what is coming in the next releases of SQL Server and SharePoint

Speakers Are:

• Andrew Fryer, SQL Server Evangelist, Microsoft
• Viral Tarpara, SharePoint Evangelist, Microsoft
• Christian Bolton, SQL Server MVP and Director/Database Architect, Coeo Ltd.
• Doug Davis, Director of Product Management, SharePoint, Quest Software
• Iain Kick, SQL Server Systems Consultant, Quest Software

REGISTER HERE

Personally I’ll be talking about SharePoint 2007 Overview as well as discussing the new roadmap for SharePoint 2010.

Buy Office 2007 Ultimate for £39

It’s not piracy - It’s The Ultimate Steal!

Microsoft® Office® Ultimate 2007 for a tiny £38.95.

You shouldn’t have to resort to piracy to get your hands on the software you need. So, while it lasts, you can obtain genuine Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 – featuring a pirate’s booty full of features – for only £38.95. This is a huge saving of over 90% off the estimated retail price.

The easy way to buy:

1. Visit www.ultimatesteal.co.uk

2. Register your ‘.ac’ email address and pay online.

3. Say “Arrrr”

Act now and buy today – THIS PRICE CAN’T LAST.

This offer is for UK higher education students and faculty only.

To being eligible you will need a .ac email address from a UK higher education institution.

This offer will only last until June 30th 2009.

Fora.TV Features Steve Ballmer’s Stanford Presentation on Difficult Economy

I love Fora.TV and I’ve been figuring out a way to take some of Microsoft’s product content and abstract it out to neutral technology discussions that are more closely related to policy and vision.  So while browsing, I was greatly surprised to see Steve B’s head on the front page of Fora. 

It is always fun to listen to Steve because he is engaging, entertaining, thought provoking, and inspiring!  I dare anyone to watch this 1-hour session and not come away with some optimistic outlook.

What is New in Windows 7 Volume Activation?

Edge has a really great video with Ram Rathnam, Director of Product Management for Windows Activation Technologies.  Windows Vista introduced new activation concepts like Key Management Server (KMS) and Multiple Activation Key (MAK).  From a conceptual view, these technologies are the same in Windows 7.  For customers who are moving from XP, this is a big step change in key management, largely for the better from an audit and compliance perspective. 

Windows 7 To Boost SSD Performance

The Engineering 7 Blog outlines enhancements made in newer solid-state disk technology that will improve user experience in Windows 7 significantly.  Because SSDs are essentially giant flash drives with no moving parts, there are inherent performance benefits in theory, however the blog discusses some of the lingering issues that the first generation drives are experiencing.  The article goes on further to say that not all SSDs are equal stating that the worst quality drives won’t best the performance of conventional hard drives.  Finally, as great as ideas of 100x performance increases in I/O latency sound, there are caveats that people should be aware of, specifically with certain types of I/O workloads.  Most SSDs aren’t well suited for database workloads when compared to existing enterprise storage technology, also there are long-term performance degradation concerns as the memory cells go through multiple write cycles. 

For more details and analysis, ComputerWorld has a great 2-page article covering SSDs in Windows 7 and implications on performance and features like ReadyBoost.

Run Windows 7 RC For a Whole Year Free!

An interesting ComputerWorld article discusses how Microsoft will essentially allow users to use Windows 7 RC for 13 months from release so that early adopters can thoroughly test the software.  For those familiar with the Vista launch, 13 months is a significant extension which expired on June 1, 2007.

By visiting the Customer Preview Program site on TechNet, people will be able to get as many keys as they’d like.  Organizations can begin large-scale pilots.  I already know a few organizations who are comfortable deploying RC into production.  Other than mission critical scenarios, I see no reason no to take this offer and enjoy the bliss that is Windows 7!

The preview program is completely public and has no major restrictions other than signing in to download the image and key.