Back in March I interviewed Baldwin Ng, a senior Product Manager for the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team. We talked about the Windows  Hardware Assessment Tool v1.0 back then. Well this past week, Baldwin and I sat down for another interview on the recently released version 2.0 of the tool. This interview is part of the Technet Radio series of interviews that myself and a few co-workers have been doing for the last year or so.

In this interview we discuss the new updates and features of the version 2.0 Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Tool. The tool is a fantastic  addition to the repertoire of tools that network admins and partners can use to scan existing networks and determine what hardware is in place and can be updated to Windows Vista. Some of the update to the tool include being able to scan up to 25,000 machines,the ability to do OU targeting for more precise scanning, import and scan a list of specific machines, and much more.

You can check out the interview on the Technet Radio site.

You can get the tool itself from the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment site.

Cheers!

This week I am going to a bunch of internal training as a part of our TechReady readiness effort. Since I am going to be speaking to you about this stuff afterwards, what should I be focused on? What do you want to know about? What do I need to know about when I come speak to your company? User Groups? School?

I am all ears....

Cheers!

I just saw this on Techmeme (link back to the InsideMicrosoft blog). I have not heard any rumblings around this. But I don't hear rumblings about anything until the deals are announced. It is remarkable how in the dark employees are some time.

I am not a real strong social networker. I am trying, but I am finding it difficult to click. I invited several people to Facebook that have been online for 20+ years in the BBS/iRC/Chat worlds (arguably a very socially connected group) and no one responded to join. One friend of mine emailed me saying he was planning to join Facebook but was waiting. He didn't elaborate on why. My guess.....he doesn't know what Facebook really is.

I did some searches on Facebook for people at MS that I actually know. Practically no one. I don't know if I should be disappointed or not. I am all for meeting new people, but it would be more compelling to me if there were a few people that I know personally that were involved.

I have been on Facebook for several weeks and I do know what it is. But I don't know what it is doing for me. I have a dozen friends or so, but I am not really getting anything out of it. Call me greedy, but I need to get something out of whatever I am involved with to make it worth my while.

Anyway.... I do think a Facebook acquisition would make a good fit. Just like the InsideMicrosoft blog states,

"Live Spaces should become the blogging component of Facebook, while features of Facebook should become full-fledged services with those of Live Spaces, like the photo sharing. Soapbox could be integrated with Facebook for video sharing, Live Messenger has a ton of integration opportunities for messaging, pokes, notifications. Facebook applications could be ported as Live.com Gadgets and Sidebar Gadgets. A Windows Live Search box could top every Facebook page."

Connecting all of things would be a huge win. As it stands now, all the individual MS properties pretty much stand alone. They are individually sticky, but linking them to each other provides stickiness to each other. Advertising is a little siloed and nothing really drives people from one site to the other. If I were in advertising I would be sending emails to everyone on the board at MS begging them to make this acquisition.

Oh yeah....it might even get more MS people involved in Facebook. I need some MS people I actually know to be involved....

Cheers!

My house now has three Zunes - White Zune for the wife and Black Zune for me. Red is my favorite color.  Even though I already have Black Zune, I had to get Red Zune just because. It isn't the red I expected or wanted, but it has already grown on me since I opened the box a couple of hours ago. Right now it is happily synching up the 20 gigs worth of stuff I already have synched to Black Zune.

I couldn't stop there though. I also had to pick up the Zune FM Transmitter (so I can listen to my Zune audio in the car) and the Zune Dock. Overall I am happy with both though but neither is 100% perfect.

Ups....

I am really digging the Zune Dock. Helps keep my from placing the Zune face down and thus prevents scratches on the face (note - I have had Black Zune since  Christmas and do a LOT of traveling....nary a scratch). The Zune Dock also has a nifty slot for the remote. The remote is used when you dock the Zune and attach the supplied A/V cables to your home theater allowing you to view/listen to content from the Zune on a bigger screen. A little redundant for me since all that same content is already a part of my Media Center which is my Home Theater. Makes it pretty easy though to plug into most modern day A/V equipment.

The FM transmitter plugs into the base of the Zune and matches the design and coloring of the Black Zune. Since it is the same width and depth dimensions as the  Zune player, the FM transmitter can be attached to the Zune while docked providing for pass through charging and sync. the transmitter supports autosearch to find a clear FM channel which makes up for the single station increments the arrow keys provide for. It is also interesting the transmitter increments by .1 covering the even and odd numbered frequencies, whereas FM radio is always on an odd-numbered frequency.

I think the FM transmitter will remain in my car......most....of.....wait a minute.....

Testing.....

Test Complete....

Test Success!....

The FM transmitter doesn't have a huge range but I did manage to make it about 20 feet away before getting any crackling. Oh!  I setup Black Zune with the FM transmitter and tuned White Zune to the station. I started streaming Genesis' "Abacab". This turns a Zune into a pseduo streaming device as long as everyone wants to listen to what I am listening to! It would be cool if there was a way to broadcast the FM station I am broadcasting on for discoverability.

The Dock can be plugged into A/C for charging using the USB to A/C converter, or, as I will use it, plugged in via USB next to my Laptop/HTPC.

and Downs....

Wires. Hate them. I dream of the day when wires go away. We had the stone age, the iron age, and I dream of the Tesla Age. No Wires. But to be fair, the wiring from the dock to the home theater is a single cable until you get the the HT side where it splits into 3 RCA plugs for V/L/R. Those dongles are 6" long - just long enough to provide flexibility of cabling in a mish-mashed or old system and short enough to avoid being too cumbersome. Nice.

The dock itself has a shiny black top with the translucent plastic around the base. I  like the shiny goodness but it loves my finger prints even more. Keep a soft cloth nearby to wipe it down regularly if you don't want it to resemble the inside windows of a daycare. The dock looks great when Black Zune is in place but a little wonky when Red Zune is snuggled in. The White Zune provides a nice contrast.

The front of the Zune Dock has an annoying circle indent on it. This is where the IR receiver port is located. In any light at any angle it is visible and ruins an otherwise nice looking piece of equipment. I can't imagine that little circle is absolutely required for functionality but maybe there is some IR property I can't wrap my head around that requires a fraction of a millimeter less thickness in a 1/4" circle to allow IR to pass.

While the FM transmitter can be used with the Zune while docked, I'm not sure I will do that often because it seems to stress the connection between the Zune and the FM transmitter. I imagine that a few bumps and connectors will get a little flaky. 

I noted above that I could stream from one Zune to another using the FM transmitter. It seems the FM receiver or the FM transmitter is very directional. Just moving the Zune around in the air changed the reception dramatically. Not ideal for FM streaming.

There. That is my review....

If you are out and about with your Zune, check to see if you spot TheNun, Zunetopia, or Scarla nearby. I am happy to share what I have!

Cheers!

I have been a fan of Orb for years now. Orb is a free service that lets you stream anything you have on your Windows Media Center PC to any device that has a web browser. This includes your recorded TV, ripped music and movies, even pictures.  I once used Orb to stream a Battlestar Galactica season premiere from home to my Laptop so my friend Michael J. Murphy and I would not miss it while away from home at a team meeting. It is a truly sweet service. I wish MS would buy them.

In lieu of purchasing a well-established third party, the people over at Microsoft Research worked up some code which has since been worked over by the people at London based Skinkers to develop Livestation. In one of the videos I link to below, Livestation is billed as "a SlingBox without the box". A good analogy. A video and information was posted by Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch (note - the post incorrectly calls the product "Microsoft Livestation" when it is in fact a Skinkers product). There is another video over at Steve Clayton's blog.

What makes this really cool is that we have another company developing an IP streaming technology that enables us to view the content we store to our home systems from anywhere we are. Timeshifting has allowed us to be away from home and still record what we want. But we still have to come home to watch it. More and more people want to be away from home and still access this content. Be it from a laptop, or, more increasingly from a PDA or cellphone, products like Orb and Livestation release from the restriction of having to use the TV as the content viewing medium. The technology for Livestation is also P2P based. No need for a hefty and costly server infrastructure. Oh yeah.....it is developed with Silverlight too!

Now....given a choice, I would have my own full size movie theater at home. No better way to watch a movie than at a good theater. Barring that I have the next best thing - a big screen TV and surround sound at home. But I don't need to watch American Idol or the local news on a big screen. My Cingular 8525 will do just fine for those. And I can do those anywhere I have a phone signal....like when I am driving down the freeway putting on my makeup, talking on the cell, texting my friends....

Cheers!

Last week I pointed out a new site that lets you find webcasts by your favorite Microsoft Across America Technet Evangelists. We now list all upcoming and on-demand webcasts at the Technet Events website. That site has already been updated to provide a cleaner looking title for the webcasts which (IMO) makes it easier to find the webcasts you are looking for.

You can still search for all Microsoft Webcasts at the Microsoft Webcasts site. In fact some of our older and still popular webcasts can only be found there.

I want to point out one series of webcasts in particular. Back in January, Harold Wong started the "24 Hours of Exchange" series. This is a fantastic series regarding everything in the Exchange 2007 Server product. If you have 24 hours of time, you should check this out. Btw....you can stream any of the webcasts online, or, download them for offline viewing. They are WMV format so you can even view them on your Zune!

Cheers!

I am heading to downtown Seattle this evening to Demo the Zune and Media Center products for the Little People of America conference. Attendees are going to be bringing their cameras with them to synch up with Media Centers and Zunes and we will be burning DVD's of their pictures at the end of the conference. I am loading my Zune up with as much as it can hold as this will be an opportunity to really show off the wireless sharing features. I will post some pics from the event tomorrow.

Cheers!