Ramblings from another nerd on the grid
Lenovo has finally taken the wraps of the X1 Carbon which is the new carbon fiber based Ultrabook ™ from Lenovo. Here’s the unboxing video.
I believe I’ll have an eval unit this week or next so be sure to stay tuned for more information as I dig into the product and see how it handles Windows 7, Windows 8 and other scenarios that are important. Here’s a cool commercial.
Get the low down on the logo unveil at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/23/microsoft-unveils-a-new-look.aspx.
See the engadget story at http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/samsung-Series%209-WQHD-Ultrabook-matte-display/. Wow.
I guess every city in the US has a bad neighborhood, but really?
7 Minutes of Terror: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/infographic.view.php?id=10776
Be sure and read the story, “An Unexpected Ass Kicking” by Joel Runyon. Man, I would have loved that encounter.
The Security Monitoring and Attack Detection Planning Guide is a practical support document for business and information technology professionals who are working to develop systems to monitor security on a network and to detect intruders. Its primary goals and objectives are to:
Go get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21832.
Samsung disclosed a new device they are bring to the market called the Samsung ATIV S. See Ben Rudolph’s take on the device at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2012/08/29/this-is-the-samsung-ativ-s-the-first-of-many-amazing-windows-phone-8-devices-coming-this-year.aspx.
I also just noticed the WMPoweruser site has nice post on the swanky new device at http://wmpoweruser.com/official-samsung-active-s-press-release/.
See more pics and information at http://www.samsungifa2012.com/.
I can’t wait to see what happens next. Competition is good.
See the video at http://youtu.be/akA-B64RACU. More information at http://aerofex.com/developmentplatform.asp.
The following video is starting to pick up some steam. It really starts rolling after about the three minute mark. I also know how I am going to trim my beard next. Grin. Enjoy!
Gotta love YouTube.
Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012 is designed to work with System Center 2012 –Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2. VMST 2012 helps you reduce IT costs by making it easier to update your offline virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks with the latest operating system and application patches—without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure. This Solution Accelerator includes the following components:
Go get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30470.
Microsoft® Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell® (Release Candidate) helps scripters find Windows PowerShell scripts, snippets, modules, and how-to guidance in online repositories such as the TechNet Script Center Repository, PoshCode, local or network file systems and Bing Search Repository. Microsoft® Script Explorer enables:
Go get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29101.
Attack Surface Analyzer is developed by the Trustworthy Computing Security group. It is the same tool used by Microsoft's internal product groups to catalogue changes made to operating system attack surface by the installation of new software.
Attack Surface Analyzer takes a snapshot of your system state before and after the installation of product(s) and displays the changes to a number of key elements of the Windows attack surface.
This allows:
See the instructions and get the download @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24487.
Go get it @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx
You can still get on the wait list. Go to http://www.buildwindows.com/.
Today is another exciting day for Developers and IT Professionals as we mark a new milestone for the Visual Studio and Windows product families. Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) phase and will soon be available for download. The new platform supports application development, deployment and management on a variety of devices and screen sizes. From smartphones to highly scalable cloud solutions, Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are ready to support your business and entertainment needs.
Visual Studio 2012
A major focus of the Visual Studio 2012 release is enabling developers to create great apps for Windows 8. Therefore, we’ve made it a priority to align our schedule with the Windows team. Today, on the same day as Windows 8, we also reached the RTM milestone for Visual Studio 2012. Stay tuned for our next milestone, when we make it available worldwide! See the full blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2012/08/01/visual-studio-2012-and-net-4-5-complete.aspx
A major focus of the Visual Studio 2012 release is enabling developers to create great apps for Windows 8. Therefore, we’ve made it a priority to align our schedule with the Windows team. Today, on the same day as Windows 8, we also reached the RTM milestone for Visual Studio 2012. Stay tuned for our next milestone, when we make it available worldwide!
See the full blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2012/08/01/visual-studio-2012-and-net-4-5-complete.aspx
Windows 8
We congratulate the Windows team on reaching the RTM milestone today, and wrapping up the Windows 8 release. RTM is an internal milestone, in which the bits are released to manufacturing. What this means is that the team is done engineering the software, and it is now being prepared for distribution. You can read more from the Windows team on the Windows Team and Building Windows 8 blogs. See the full blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/08/01/releasing-windows-8-august-1-2012.aspx
We congratulate the Windows team on reaching the RTM milestone today, and wrapping up the Windows 8 release. RTM is an internal milestone, in which the bits are released to manufacturing. What this means is that the team is done engineering the software, and it is now being prepared for distribution. You can read more from the Windows team on the Windows Team and Building Windows 8 blogs.
See the full blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/08/01/releasing-windows-8-august-1-2012.aspx
Windows Server 2012
We are proud to announce that Windows Server 2012 has been released to manufacturing. That means the final code is complete and we are delivering it to our hardware and software vendor partners this week. We will also make the software available to our volume licensing customers in the next couple of weeks. Get out your calendars and free up some time on September 4. That’s when Windows Server 2012 will be generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. On that day we will also host an online launch event where our executives, engineers, customers and partners will share more about how Windows Server 2012 can help organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of what we call the Cloud OS. You will be able to learn more about the features and capabilities and connect with experts and peers. You’ll also be able to collect points along the way for the chance to win some amazing prizes. You don’t want to miss it. Visit this site to save the date for the launch event. See the full blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/08/01/windows-server-2012-released-to-manufacturing.aspx.
We are proud to announce that Windows Server 2012 has been released to manufacturing. That means the final code is complete and we are delivering it to our hardware and software vendor partners this week. We will also make the software available to our volume licensing customers in the next couple of weeks.
Get out your calendars and free up some time on September 4. That’s when Windows Server 2012 will be generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. On that day we will also host an online launch event where our executives, engineers, customers and partners will share more about how Windows Server 2012 can help organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of what we call the Cloud OS. You will be able to learn more about the features and capabilities and connect with experts and peers. You’ll also be able to collect points along the way for the chance to win some amazing prizes. You don’t want to miss it. Visit this site to save the date for the launch event.
See the full blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/08/01/windows-server-2012-released-to-manufacturing.aspx.
Additional Technical Resources
In addition to the great content you’ll see produced here on the Server and Tools Blog Network, there are a number of technical resources we want to make sure you are aware of. First off the developers in the house will want to bookmark MSDN. The MSDN site is organized into areas for Windows, Windows Phone and Windows Azure development.
Information Technology Professionals will want to visit TechNet frequently as it is the definitive location for news and information on Windows and Windows Server deployment, management and support.
Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft just posted the following:
“Like many people, I’ve been enjoying the Olympics so far. Great opening ceremony, great competition… And watching the swimming, football, gymnastics is all a blast. But I have to say that as a runner, I’m looking forward to track and field getting started. And as a runner, it was inspiring the other day to hear about the great Kenyans in this wonderful NPR story. Iten, Kenya produces some of the world’s fastest runners. Runners there train at 8,000 feet above sea level, and the valley is six miles down. Kenya’s elite runners run up and down these hills every day. And they keep it simple. If these runners want to build their leg strength, they run up more hills. We've been doing our own bit of hard core training here at Microsoft, and our engineers across the company have been setting a blistering pace. Let’s go to a tale of the tape.”
“Like many people, I’ve been enjoying the Olympics so far. Great opening ceremony, great competition… And watching the swimming, football, gymnastics is all a blast. But I have to say that as a runner, I’m looking forward to track and field getting started. And as a runner, it was inspiring the other day to hear about the great Kenyans in this wonderful NPR story.
Iten, Kenya produces some of the world’s fastest runners. Runners there train at 8,000 feet above sea level, and the valley is six miles down. Kenya’s elite runners run up and down these hills every day. And they keep it simple. If these runners want to build their leg strength, they run up more hills. We've been doing our own bit of hard core training here at Microsoft, and our engineers across the company have been setting a blistering pace. Let’s go to a tale of the tape.”
See the full post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/08/02/microsoft-s-setting-a-blistering-pace-this-summer.aspx.
Windows Server 2012 Essentials Release Candidate (formerly Windows Small Business Server Essentials) is a flexible, affordable, and easy-to-use server solution designed and priced for small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices that helps them reduce costs and be more productive. Essentials is an ideal first server, and it can also be used as the primary server in a multi-server environment for small businesses.
Windows Server 2012 Essentials enables small businesses to protect, centralize, organize and access their applications and information from almost anywhere using virtually any device. Additionally, Essentials has the ability to grow as your business grows, providing an elastic solution that allows you to purchase and then perform an in-place conversion to Windows Server 2012 Standard if your business needs change over time.
See additional information at http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/08/21/windows-server-2012-release-candidate-essentials-available-now.aspx.
The space pioneer and legend passed away today. Neil Armstrong was a class act. My condolences go out to his family, fellow astronaut's, and NASA. He’ll be sorely missed.
See http://www.nasa.gov/topics/people/galleries/armstrong.html for more pictures from Neil’s life.
Deploy Windows and Office 2010 with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1. MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits:
Go Get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25175
Yes, it’s true. Here is a list of some of the main features of SkyDrive for Android:
Go get it @ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.skydrive.
See the Windows team post at http://windowsteamblog.com/skydrive/b/skydrive/archive/2012/08/28/skydrive-for-android-phones-now-available.aspx.