Keith Combs' Blahg

TechNet 2.0 - Episode 3 – TechNet Search

If you've been reading my blog about TechNet 2.0, you know we have some great new improvements coming. One of my favorites is the improvements we've made to the TechNet Search experience at the http://technet.microsoft.com website. I think the reason for this is because I have spent an unusual amount of time using search on the microsoft.com web properties over the past 7-8 years. Working on webcasts, chats, and researching blog questions will do that.

Another reason I am extremely interested in search is because I have received my share of feedback about the tools you use to do searches for answers. Mainly feedback about the search firm "that shall not be named". Grin. It's ok. We can say it. Google is a key site and tool you use and we know it. But we want to be better than Google when it comes to helping IT Pros find information about Microsoft products and technologies.

With that in mind, I called up John Martin to record his thoughts around the topic of TechNet Search and what we have in store for you. Here's the podcast recording for Episode 3 and as before, you'll also find an .MP3 version attached at the bottom for your iPod or Zune pleasure. I'm recapping some of the main points just below the Silverlight player

Episode 3 Podcast

Introduction

We know a lot of you come to technet.microsoft.com to find something. It could be information related to an error message. It might be information on architecture and design of a product. Finding stuff like articles, scripts, downloads, and error message explanations have all been traditional scenarios we want to support.

Much of what you see coming in TechNet 2.0 is information architecture at work – that is, how we organize our sites, centers, pages, and content. And that’s one important way to improve discoverability. Site search is the other big way. Millions of customers use TechNet Search every month and it’s also one of the top areas we hear that you want to see improved.

Strategy

We want technet.microsoft.com to have the best search for IT Pros looking to find technical information about Microsoft products. That means going beyond “10 blue links” on a page to something smarter and more useful. Because we own a lot of great assets like the TechNet Library, TechNet Blogs, Knowledgebase, Download Center, Connect, Video, and TechNet Forums, we have a lot of previously untapped data we are getting ready to surface.

Highlights

In the screenshot at right (click the pic for a large view), you’ll notice we spent some time making the result set easier to read. Fonts, colors, and other formatting help the readability. But you’ll also notice “refinements” that help re-shape the query to improve the end result.

Now for the cool part. For result items from certain sources, we’re going to start showing you more data in the result set. The core idea is that with more data about the result item, you can make a better decision about whether its what you need or not.

We’re getting started later this month by surfacing more data in search from Microsoft Connect and TechNet Forums. In the screenshot, you can see that for the forums items, you can see if the thread has been answered or not, which might be helpful if you are troubleshooting and want answers, not discussions.

You can also click on the button on the right side of the result item to filter your results to show only that item type (e.g., Forums threads).

We’re just getting started with this using Connect and Forums data, but we will increase the amount of data we bring into search and might even be able to include Profile data, which would mean not only could you see that a forums thread was answered, but you could also see who answered it. We’ll talk more about profiling in a couple of episodes, but it’s just another example of an information domain we can tap and use in search to provide better answers.

We are just beginning. This is really the first step. We will continue to provide improvements to search for all of the rich data types. We are modeling some of the searches around decisions you might make for key scenarios like Troubleshooting. As you start to use the new search, please provide feedback on the direction we’re taking search.

When can I see the new Search?

Fortunately you don’t have to wait long to start using the new search. We anticipate making it available before the end of the month. By all means come back here and comment about your likes and dislikes with the way it works, results you are getting and is it helping you find information.

On Thursday of this week in Episode 4, we’ll look at the Troubleshooting feature in the TechNet 2.0 wave. In addition to that, we are also going to discuss improvements to the download control which I think you find interesting.

Windows 7 Battery Notification Messages – update from the Engineering Windows 7 blog

“Over the past week we have seen a little bit of blogosphere activity regarding Windows 7 and batteries, specifically the new Windows 7 message “Considering replacing your battery”. Since this is related to the engineering of Windows 7 we’re going to use this blog to provide an update to people. As we have talk about many times, we have a relentless focus on the quality of Windows 7 and we take seriously any reports we receive that indicate a potential problem that could result in a significant failure of the OS.

In a previous post we talked about the steps we take when we receive a bug report, in particular when we start to see several reports that appear to be the same. For the past week or so we have been diligently working through these steps and more to see if there is anything in Windows 7 we need to address regarding this issue. At this time we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context.”

The above excerpt is the first paragraph from blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2010/02/08/windows-7-battery-notification-messages.aspx.  Please go there and read the entire article. That article was written by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division.

Lenovo ThinkPad W510 – first impressions

Friday afternoon I received two Lenovo ThinkPad W510’s. The one I decided to look at first is the model with the 1920x1080 Multi Touch screen.  Let me first say I am not a big fan of this high a resolution on a screen that is 15.6”.  I have two other laptops with 15.4” screens that have native resolutions of 1920x1200.  But this machine is very different.

The Specs

Here are specifications for the machine I am currently reviewing. It is a ThinkPad W510 Model 4389-2UU. It has a Intel® Core™ i7-820QM quad-core processor 6MB Cache. I loaded the machine with 4x4GB PC3-8500 1066MHz SoDIMM memory sticks for a total of 16GB of RAM. The machine arrived with a Seagate 500GB 7200rpm hard drive.  I pulled that drive and set it aside then installed my Intel 160GB Generation 2 SSD drive.

The screen is 15.6" (396mm) FHD (1920x1080) color, anti-glare, LED backlight, 242 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, 95% Gamut, MultiTouch (touchscreen supports two-finger touch).  To keep the screen calibrated, this model includes a Pantone huey™PRO X-Rite® Colorimeter.  The color calibration sensor is in palm rest near the fingerprint reader.

The video chipset is the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 880M with 1GB of discrete memory. The chassis has a VGA DB-15 connector which is typical. It also includes a DisplayPort connector (supports single-link DVI-D via cable 45J7915); and has a Maximum external resolution: 2560x1600 (DisplayPort)@60Hz; 2048x1536 (VGA)@85Hz; 1920x1200@60Hz (single-link DVI-D via cable 45J7915).

The W510 is 15.6W" (WxDxH): 14.68" x 9.65" x 1.26-1.41"; 372.8mm x 245.1mm x 32-35.8mm. The 6-cell weight starts at 5.66 lb (2.57kg); 9-cell: starting at 6.01 lb (2.72kg).  For those of you keeping score, this machine is slightly wider than a T61p, and slightly heavier.  If you are used to carrying around a T61p or W500, you aren’t going to get bent out of shape by the difference.  This isn’t a T400, T410 or T410s so don’t bother comparing them on size and weight.  This is a bigger and heavier machine.  But it isn’t a huge, fat, 17” pizza box either.

The eval unit I have includes the 5-in-1 reader (MMC, Memory Stick, Mem Stick Pro, SD, SDHC), Two USB 3.0, one Powered USB 2.0, one USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, modem (RJ-11), Intel Gigabit ethernet (RJ-45), and an IEEE 1394 FireWire 400 (4-pin connector; 1394a-2000 standard).  I have no idea why Lenovo still includes a modem and connector. In fact, I’m a little perturbed with it’s placement because it’s in the location where I would expect a couple of USB ports.

Under the Covers

I needed to go pretty deep into the case right away because I wanted to change the memory configuration and hard drive.  The W510 has four 204 pin DDR3 memory slots.  Two are easy access from the bottom of the machine, and two are underneath the keyboard.  In case you are wondering, the ThinkPad T61p uses 200 pin DDR2 SoDIMMS that are not compatible with the W510.  I have other machines that use the 204 pin DDR3 sticks so I pulled the memory out of all of them and loaded this machine with 16GB of memory.  In the next 30 days I’ll put all of that memory to use with virtualization.

Lenovo also changed the primary hard drive bay.  It’s underneath the machine and accessible from the bottom.  It isn’t hard to swap drives, but it’s nowhere near as easy as the T61p, W500 or T400.  I don’t really like the new design because I do a lot of drive swaps, but I can live with it.  It certainly isn’t a deal breaker.  The machine is designed for people that don’t swap drives often so you need not be concerned.  Be happy there is relatively easy access.

Multi Touch Screen

Touch interfaces are the rage.  They’ve been around for years and thanks to Apple and the iPhone, people have started to discover them en masse.  The model I received for evaluation has the 1920x1080 resolution Multi Touch screen. I was eager to see he brightness and color of the screen because I fell in love with the screen on the W700.  I plugged in the laptop and fired it up.  The first time I saw the screen it had a slight rose colored hue to it.  I just grinned. 

I launched the Pantone hueyPRO X-Rite application and started the color calibration process.  That is so kewl. You shut the lid, it does it’s thing then beeps on completion and you get to see the results.  MUCH better. I am not a Pro photographer so I’ll let the Pros chime in on the screen from their reviews, but it looks pretty good to me. Extremely good for a touch screen device. The screen itself is listed as an anti glare screen but I noticed more glare on it than my T61p or other laptops. It appears there are some anti glare coatings on the screen. I’m not really sure.

I do know this, I would not order the multi touch screen. I don’t have a big use for multi touch applications on a device like this so I would order the FHD 1920x1080 without the multi touch option.  For developers, it would seem to be a no brainer to get this option, but I’m planning on getting a slate style device this year so I would forgo the option on this laptop. 

The FHD is super bright. That is the biggest gripe I have with the other 15.4” 1920x1200 based laptops I have. Those screens don’t have nearly the brightness and contrast as this screen. I still detect a slight graininess but I believe that is due to the touch screen.  The other W510 evaluation unit I have has the HD+ 1600x900 screen and it is bright and extremely clear.  However, that screen dropped the resolution below the tolerable limits for me, so the 1920x1080 FHD screen is going to be the one I get when it comes time for a purchase.  Windows 7 and the DPI settings allow fine adjustments to font rendering to suit your preferences.  I run 1920x1080 at 115% or 125% DPI.  Looks great and it’s easy on my eyes.  Lenovo has a winner with these screens.

My manager, John Martin, will snicker at the next comment or two.  You see, I was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and we were reviewing some data I had on my T61p.  I turned the machine so he could see the screen and he had a surprised look on his face.  I said, “What?” He remarked at how clean the screen was.  I must admit I do like my screens fingerprint and dust free. I cleaned the screen just before I flew to Seattle. You can imagine my shock of all of those fingerprints on the W510 screen after just a few hours of use. Not sure I could live with that.  Clean freak.

Other Stuff

Let me tell you about a couple of minor things I thought were pretty cool before I get into a Windows 7 re-install and the tips and tricks associated with that.  First up is my favorite new button.  The Microphone mute button.  Press it an it kills the microphone and lights up a nice, bright, amber orange.  Because I use my computer now for a lot of phone calls, this is a life savor.  If you’ve ever done or said anything you wished you had not on a live mic, you know what I mean.

I also like some of the power management that has gone into this machine. I will fully explore it in testing over the next 30 days, but I really liked how the management software just shuts down power to the DVD drive until you need it.  Nice. I’ll be testing the power management for real at the MVP Summit.  I haven’t decided if I am taking this machine because I can’t use my data card in this machine (it’s PCMCIA).

The W510 seems to be running fairly quiet and cool, especially for such a powerhouse machine. I have not taxed the system yet.  I have also not tested battery life.  I did observe one thing I am going to re-test.  I noticed if I put the Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000 micro USB transmitter in the USB 3.0 port, the machine fails to boot.  In fact, it seemed to overheat the machine.  Strange.  I am going to try a repro on that tomorrow or the next day.

The machine has two cool looking blue colored USB 3.0 ports.  I was going to trek down to Fry’s today and see if they have any USB 3.0 hard drive enclosures, but I never made it over there.  I am going to try and make the trip after I work out in the morning.

I have a gripe about the Ultrabay.  Once again Lenovo has changed it so that you cannot use hard drive adaptors from a previous generation of ThinkPad's.  Therefore, the T400/W500 Ultrabay hard drive adaptor will not go into the W510 bay.  I looked closely at it, and it appears I could make it work, but I would have to use an exacto knife on the W500 hard drive adaptor I have.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see if the come out with one.  I don’t see it listed yet.

Installing Windows 7 x64 – Tips and Tricks

This is going to be a relatively short section but let me give you some advice.  The eval unit I received came with the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Professional.  Strange.  Nobody in their right mind is going to fill four slots with 1GB DDR3 sticks so everyone has the potential to go well over the 4GB limit for x86 versions of operating systems.  I know, people have 32 bit app compat concerns.  This machine wasn’t designed for them. This is a power user work horse. Use 64 bit operating systems.

When I started looking at the drivers at the Support and Download area, my sixth sense told me something was missing.  My sixth sense was right.  Fortunately I paid attention to that and instead of flattening the original drive, I pulled it from the machine and set it aside. 

I had to go back to that drive and get some files in the SWTOOLS directory.  The SWTOOLS directory has all of the drivers and software that is factory installed.  Be sure to copy this directory to a safe place.  Be sure to use the installed ThinkVantage tools to create a factory disk set.  It’s always the first thing I create when I get a new machine.  It takes three DVDs.

The Lenovo W510 Support and Downloads area currently doesn’t have the power management driver for the W510.  Huge oversight.  This is a key requirement for the Pantone color calibration sensor and software.  It’s also a key prereq for the MIC mute button and other components in the machine.

You’ll also find out most of the USB ports don’t work well with some external enclosures until the power management and NEC USB 3.0 drivers are installed.  My external 2.5” Vantec NexStar 3 enclosure would only work in the combo eSATA/USB port.  It would not work on the powered USB port or either of the USB 3.0 ports until the drivers were installed.  Thankfully it worked because there were some key drivers needed on it.

I had already downloaded all of the 64 bit drivers I could find and had them stashed on the NexStar 3.  Good thing.  Windows 7 Enterprise x64 doesn’t recognize the ThinkPad W510 Intel(R) 82577LM Gigabit Ethernet or Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN wireless chipsets using the driver base in the RTM build of Windows 7. That means you cannot talk to the internet and Windows Update until you download and install them from the Lenovo Support and Downloads area.

Fortunately, nearly everything you need for a 64 bit install of Windows 7 is on the download area.  The rest is in the SWTOOLS directory including software for burning DVD’s and other stuff.  The ThinkPad W510 I received did not come loaded with “crapware”.  In fact, there was very little pre-loaded.  Thanks Lenovo !!!

Some Final Thoughts and What’s Next

So far I am very impressed with the physical build of the machine, fit and finish, and performance. I have a lot of planned testing coming the next 30 days including running Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, Red Hat, and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop if I have time.

I like the layout of the ports with the sole exception of the RJ-11 port.  Dump that. I’m glad the USB ports are now horizontal instead of vertical.  I am planning on getting a USB data card soon so that will be helpful for it.

That’s it for now.  I wanted to give you some first impressions in the first 24 hours of having the machine.  I went a little over that because it took some time to back up other machines, move memory and SSD drives around, research the missing drivers, etc.  I have not hit any show stoppers so far and Windows 7 Enterprise x64 is flying (as evidenced in the screenshot above).  Click on the screenshot for a larger view of the data.

Windows 7 Valentines Day Theme – now available

Now you have a nice desktop to go with all of your Hello Kitty gadgets!!! Go get it @ http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/f/2/7F2F0382-FAA4-4CBE-B567-AB49ED8A3F24/LacyHearts.themepack

Perfect for that rad new Quad Core Calpella laptop. Grin.

Ok, now that we’ve had our fun with that, back to Mass Effect 2.

TechNet 2.0 – Episode 2 – The New TechCenters

Welcome back to another installment of our podcast series on TechNet 2.0. As you’ll recall from Episode 1, we discussed some of the core scenarios that drive many of the services and features we are putting into the technet.microsoft.com platform. You may think of the TechNet website as the library of information on Microsoft products, or the forums area for asking questions. It’s really much more than that and I asked John Martin some probing questions via interview and captured that here for Episode 2.

As before, I have created and attached an .MP3 version of this audio in case you want to download and listen offline with your Zune HD or preferred portable media player.

Episode 2 Podcast

What is a TechCenter?

There are many services provided to IT Pros in the TechNet platform. A couple that probably come to mind are the TechNet Forums or the TechNet Library. But TechNet is actually a network of sites – and TechCenters are special sites on the network that are dedicated to specific products and technical topics.

Product TechCenters are the online face of Microsoft’s IT products. In the Windows Server TechCenter you’ll notice a number of areas an IT Professional would be interested in. Get started by grabbing a download, or watching a “How To” video, as well as other content areas like Featured Downloads. In short, all of the relevant information on Windows Server.

With TechNet 2.0, we have a lot of new things planned for TechCenters.

Product Branding

Big visual changes are coming. I don’t know about you but sometimes I get a little lost on what section of technet.microsoft.com I might be on. John calls this the “vast sea of blue” because today everywhere you go on the current TechNet site you'll see the same logos, colors, fonts, etc. It’s time for a face lift. You can see that in Episode 1 from Tuesday, and the picture I created with some product-branded TechCenters stacked on top of each other.

Product-branding gives each product a unique home on TechNet. You can certainly see that in the Windows Client TechCenter screenshot below. The color is vibrant and unique to the Windows Client.

Version Scoping

Almost all of our products have two or more versions that are currently being deployed, used, and supported by our customers. But we have been inconsistent and ineffective with providing easy access to version-specific technical content on TechNet. That is changing with TechNet 2.0.

The first place you’ll notice version scoping is in the navigation bar (or masthead) for the TechCenter. In the case of the Windows Client screenshot above, you can see three generations of desktop operating systems.

Here is what it will look like in the Office TechCenter:

In the Office image above, the selected page will display Downloads for version 2007 only – simple. This organization of content is based on the mental model of information-seeking technical people. Product -> Version -> Version-specific content.

Another way we “scope” the center experience is with Search. Based on customer feedback, new centers will offer center-scoped search from the Bing search control in the masthead. This means that when you are in a center and use the search at the top of the page, the search results will be scoped to product area of the center, instead of searching all of TechNet. More on the actual search experience in Episode 3.

Task-Oriented Pages

We’ll talk about fonts and layout in minute but first things first. Our TechCenter page needs to be relevant and useful for the tasks you face every day. From Episode 1, you know we are focused on several core scenarios like learning, troubleshooting, and downloads. Our goal with TechCenters is that our home pages and version pages provide easy access to the best tools and content for those tasks. On the new center pages, you will see prominent features for news, How Do I videos, troubleshooting tools, and top downloads, to help you quickly find what you need.

The Windows Client TechCenter above is a good example of this, with a commitment to news, tools for troubleshooting, learning resources, and product group bloggers all on the home page of the center. This is one way we are trying to make it easier to find the most useful content and resources.

And finally, in order to make the pages easier to read, we are improving the style by going to a fixed width template and making the font sizes larger. John makes fun of my vision but fonts and styles are an important part of the online experience. I really look forward to these changes so I can reduce the amount of printing I do and reduce eye strain.

Summary

As you can see, the visual elements of TechNet 2.0 continue to play an important part in the overall experience of the site. But we are going beyond visuals to change the way TechCenters are organized and how we design our pages – so that you can find things faster and be more successful.

So far, we’ve only talked about improvements to browsing for content – what about Search? I get a lot of feedback on why people use Google and how they’d like TechNet search to improve. We are going to tackle the subject of Search and the search experience in Episode 3 next Tuesday, so come on back!!!

HP Elitebook 8540w – now available for config to order

Another of the top end machines on the market is now available for your config to order enjoyment. I am referring to the eagerly awaited HP Elitebook 8540w.  This machine has it all and if you want it all, be prepared to drop some coin for the privilege of owning a highly engineered speed demon like this.

I configured an Elitebook 8540w with the following configuration: HP EliteBook 8540w Mobile Workstation, FreeDOS, Intel® Core™ i7-820QM Processor (1.73 GHz, 8 MB L3 cache, Mobile Intel QM57 Chipset, 15.6-inch diagonal LED-backlit FHD (1920 x 1080) Antiglare w/2.0MP Camera, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M with 1GB GDDR5 video memory, 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 160GB SATA 2.5 Solid State Drive (I’m assuming Intel Gen2 but unconfirmed), BluRay DVD+/-RW, Full- sized keyboard with numeric keypad and dual pointing devices (touchpad and pointstick) with scroll zone, HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth® 2.1 Wireless Technology, Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3), HP Mobile Broadband (powered by Gobi™) with GPS Verizon Wireless, 56K v.92 high speed modem, Integrated Smart Card Reader, 150W Hardware Kit 8540w, 8 Cell 73Whr 8540w Battery 1 year warranty), Limited 3 year standard parts and labor warranty (3/3/3). 

This came to $5722 on the public buying site this evening. I believe I’ll have an evaluation unit in a few weeks and will put it through it’s paces when I get my hands on one.  Let’s hope the price of DDR memory drops like a rock, soon.

TechNet 2.0 – Episode 1 – Core Scenarios and Branding

The TechNet team at Microsoft is planning some big changes to the website over the next few months – they call the project “TechNet 2.0” or “TN20” for short. John Martin leads the TechNet team, (he’s also my boss!) and he and I decided to partner on a new blog series to introduce all the new things the team has planned and get feedback from the IT community.

So, each Tuesday and Thursday in February I’ll post a new episode here that covers some important aspect of this project.

Last week I sat down with John to record a podcast on episode one of this series.  In this episode we are going to go over the vision for TechNet, the core customer scenarios we think are important, the TN20 project, and some new things we are doing with branding. 

Here’s the podcast on those subjects and below is a summary of what we talked about. You’ll also noticed at the end of this post I have provided the podcast in .MP3 format for podcast subscribers.

Episode 1 Podcast

TechNet is Microsoft’s site for IT professionals, here to make you successful with Microsoft products and as a technical professional by providing the best technical content, essential tools for the job, and connections to Microsoft product groups and the technical community.

What are we trying to do with TechNet?

We are on a mission.  We want to make TechNet the best possible online experience for IT Professionals. As you can see, our mission goes beyond just providing product documentation and whitepapers. Sure, we still want to provide the essential architecture and planning guidance for our products and technologies, but we also want to connect you to people inside and outside Microsoft and enable you to actually participate in the TechNet experience. 

And, in order to do that, we focus on five key scenarios.

1. Help Me! - Help me find technical content and solve technical problems, quickly
2. Keep me Smart - Provide me with content and resources to increase my technical skills and stay up-to-date with the latest developments in my area
3. Connect me with the product - Show me your future plans and let me provide feedback
4. Connect me with people - Help me find and engage smart people at Microsoft and in the community
5. Downloads - Make it easy for me to find and download the bits, tools, and resources I need to do my job

Across all five scenarios, we invest in:

1. Content quality, relevance, and timeliness
2. Ease of discoverability
3. Opportunities for community participation and contribution

John does a great job in the podcast of describing each and what we think they mean.  Is he correct?  Feel free to comment below.

What is TechNet 2.0 ?

TechNet 2.0 is a broad initiative kicking off this month to increase your success with the core scenarios above. We especially want to make sure to improve the way you discover information. 

This of course includes site navigation but as you’ll see in other parts of this series, we have a few tricks up our sleeve I think you’ll like, that go beyond just navigating the site. 

TechNet 2.0 project goals also include better content quality and timeliness, and new opportunities for you to participate in the site.  I am not going to steal the thunder from all of those key areas right now. We’ll describe those more fully in future episodes of this blog series.

Now that you have an idea of the strategy and mission, let’s take a look at one of the new features of TechNet 2.0 since it’s going to be immediately visually apparent.  In fact, you don’t even need to wait to see some of the changes I am alluding to.

New TechNet brand and Product-branded centers

As you can see in the screenshot at right, the TechNet brand has been updated to a new look-and-feel and the TechNet home page reflects the new design and color scheme. But, as you can see in the picture (click the pic to see a much larger version), TechNet will no longer be a vast sea of blue – TechCenters are changing.

When we launch TechNet 2.0, you’ll see each major product TechCenter will be “themed” with its own unique brand elements.  For IT pros, TechCenters are the online face of each product and each product will have its own unique home on TechNet.

The most striking example of this will be Office with the orange theme, but all centers will share some important common elements in their design. This will provide a consistent experience across the TechCenters which should make the site easier to use and the content more discoverable. 

I like the product oriented branding.  The color and theme immediately registers with me and helps me determine if I am looking for information in the right place.  For instance, check out the Exchange TechCenter.  Their logo is there, theme, and versions.  We will dive deep into versioning, and other changes to TechCenters in later blog posts.

Summary

TechNet 2.0 is a broad initiative to make you more successful with core scenarios on TechNet. The TechNet team focuses on Content, Discoverability, and Participation across five core customer scenarios. One major change to TechNet will be how TechNet and TechCenters are branded. But that’s not all. We will dive deeper into all the new features that make up TechNet 2.0 release in the next seven parts of this series.

Please comment.  We would like to know in each part of the series what you think.  We take your feedback seriously and it helps us frame and prioritize what we do now, and in the future.  It’s one of the reasons I went to work for the TechNet team.  Where else could I have a more measurable impact on the IT Pro customer base than technet.microsoft.com?

I’m also part of the v-team already thinking about TechNet v.Next so it’ll be important to get your feedback on what you like and dislike over the next few weeks and months.  We look forward to that conversation.

On Thursday I’ll post TechNet 2.0 - Episode 2 – TechCenters. In that episode we’ll talk about the new TechCenters design and how they help you find what you need, quicker. See you Thursday!

TechNet 2.0 – the big reveal starts tomorrow

Tomorrow I’ll be releasing Episode 1 of a series of blog posts and podcasts on TechNet 2.0.  TechNet 2.0 (TN20) is the project name for a series of improvements we are making to the IT Pro services at http://technet.microsoft.com.

It would be helpful for me to know how many of you would like more than just Windows Media Audio (WMA) for the episodes that include podcasts.  For instance, tomorrow I’ll be posting the first episode with a Silverlight audio player embedded in the blog post.  I’ll also provide a link to the .WMA file at an attachment to the post.  The attachment will be a properly constructed <ENCLOSURE> so you can subscribe to the feed for the series from a Zune or other player.

Should I just blow off even providing WMA and instead use MP3?  MP3 seems to be the happy medium because it can be used everywhere that I know of, including an iPod.  Chime in and let me know.  I figure someone out there has an iPod.

You’ll also notice I created a tag for this series of posts.  This will give you a unique RSS feed for the information. TN20 is the project acronym so it seemed like a nice string to use for a blog category and feed.  I’ll likely use TN20 as a has tag on twitter as well.

More information and a interview with Microsoft Group Program Manager John Martin here tomorrow. 

Quick Reminder – Windows 7 RC expiration looms

Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:

• Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

• Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
• Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.
  Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.

• Windows starts to a black desktop.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.
• Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971767 for more information.

The Slate Era Begins?

Like many of you I watched the information pour in from the Apple event today. I’m actually pretty thrilled Apple is launching a slate style device.  In fact, Matt Hester and I submitted an audition for a radio show and the subject we used in the audition is slate computing.

Introducing the iPad

As expected, Apple introduced the device with much fanfare.  Music, video, ebook capabilities, web surfing, etc. The device itself looks very similar to the iPhone and iPod Touch and runs many if not all of the applications from those devices. It seems that most people are underwhelmed with some aspect of the device.  How many of them have actually seen or touched the darn thing?

I think the iPad looks pretty snazzy and can’t wait to go see it up close and personal at the Apple store near my house. I was a little shocked to read the screen resolution is 1024x768.  Most of the 10” netbooks have similar resolutions so this doesn’t seem to be too odd I guess. The iPad is supposed to give you 10 hours of video playback and comes in a thin lightweight form factor.  Certainly about a third of the weight of most of the tablet PCs on the market.

The iPad includes connectivity via WIFI and GSM 3G cell phone networks.  The first partner announced is AT&T and they mention a $30 all-you-can-eat data plan with no contract commitment. The last time I was an ATT customer things didn’t go so well so this isn’t a big incentive to me. But the device is supposed to be unlocked and considering I am probably going to move to T-Mobile soon, this might be an option for me.

Is this for me?

For me to justify a purchase, I probably need to sell my 4.3” Archos 605 WIFI and my second generation 6” Kindle.  I am using my Kindle quite a lot and although the Kindle screen is very good, it isn’t backlit so you must have a good light source.  The iPad could help correct that deficiency in my Kindle and reading habits. 

When I travel, I use the Archos 605 all the time.  I love to burn time on airplanes and in airports watching video. The iPad is extremely interesting to me for that particular role.  The Archos has been great but I wouldn’t mind a larger screen on a thin platform.   

One thing is for sure, I am not jumping into anything right away. I am happy Apple launched the product. But I am happy because it will create more competition. Just look at the ebook reader explosion taking place.  The Amazon Kindle and Sony started that, and many devices have come to market since.

I’m betting there will be strong competition in this form factor.  Time will tell. Competition will bring features, applications, more connectivity options, and with any luck lower prices.  It’s all good.

Time is running out to win this HP Envy 15! Act now!

We run fun contests from time to time.  Some are harder than others.  The entrance barrier for this one is pretty easy.  Submit an entry about your Windows 7 experiences and thoughts to the community.  The community votes and the best story wins!!!  Share a business or personal success.  Or write about a cool and innovative feature.

Prizes:

1. 1st place - HP Envy 15 Laptop
2. 2nd place - HP Mini 311 Netbook
3. 3rd place - Intel 160GB Solid State Drive

Contest Period: 11/23/09 to 02/23/10

Get started: Click http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9702395.  If you haven’t already joined the Windows 7 Community there, you’ll be asked to create an ID.  It’s pretty painless.  After that, checkout the contest description and rules.  The contest is pretty simple.  Tell a good story and the community votes.  Good luck !!!

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IIS 6.0 FastCGI v1.5 released – download now available

The FastCGI Extension 1.5 for IIS 6.0 and 5.1 enables popular application frameworks that support FastCGI protocol to be hosted on the IIS web server in a high-performance and reliable way. FastCGI provides a high-performance alternative to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), a standard way of interfacing external applications with Web servers that has been supported as part of the IIS feature-set since the very first release.

CGI programs are executables launched by the web server for each request in order to process the request and generate dynamic responses that are sent back to the client. Because many of these frameworks do not support multi-threaded execution, CGI enables them to execute reliably on IIS by executing exactly one request per process. Unfortunately, it provides poor performance due to the high cost of starting and shutting down a process for each request.

FastCGI addresses the performance issues inherent to CGI by providing a mechanism to reuse a single process over and over again for many requests. Additionally, FastCGI maintains compatibility with non-thread-safe libraries by providing a pool of reusable processes and ensuring that each process will only handle one request at a time.

x64 version @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=16cc6b0a-c93b-4b07-af21-b47f5874df66

x86 version @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=227219aa-6aec-4b80-a9fa-76f811ee9e84

Not sure who is running IIS 6 but there you go anyway.

Chevy Camaro – old lessons not learned

The past couple of trips I managed to get the rental keys to a new Camaro.  The first time in Houston was just for a day trip so I only blasted back on forth on the toll way to the event location.  Since it was a day trip, I didn’t really get a chance to see how I like the vehicle.  I did however start to form an impression then.

This time I arrived at the Seattle airport on Tuesday.  As you might suspect, the rental car inventory was really low so they were trying to figure out what to do with me. 

I said stick me in the Camaro.  Score.  They did.  A nice red Camaro for Tuesday through Friday.  This time I would get to drive the car a lot more and on different road types.

Lasting Impressions 

The first impression this time was about the trunk.  The opening for it is small, really small.  I’m traveling with a new Eddie Bauer Rainier 21” roll-a-board my wife gave me for Christmas.  It’s a small bag good for a few days so I was pretty shocked to have any sort of issue getting it into the Camaro trunk.  In contrast, my CIVIC Coupe has a much bigger trunk opening. According to the specs they both have the same cargo volume but is sure doesn’t seem that way.  The CIVIC trunk is deeper and far easier to use. Bad first impression.

Next time you see a new Camaro on the road, look at it closely.  It’s rather big car.  In fact, it weighs 1000 pounds more than my CIVIC and you can probably tell already where I’m headed with this post.  The Camaro is 190” long and 75” wide (not including the mirrors).  The CIVIC is 175.5 x 68.9.  You’ll really feel the width when trying to park in a compact space in a Microsoft campus garage.  Don’t do it.

The base model Camaro comes with a 304 horsepower engine.  When you press the gas, it goes. I’m sure the extra 122 horses in the SS model is very apparent but the rental car companies don’t have any of those.  By comparison the CIVIC has a 140 horsepower engine.  Not exactly in the same realm of an American made muscle car is it?

The Camaro handles well enough but you can feel the size and bulk.  When you hit bumps you can feel the stiff suspension. I wondered how the car would sound after banging down roads for three years.  The steering was good and responsive.  The tires were tacky so it went wherever you point it.

The interior and exterior of the vehicle is over stated.  Big dashboard.  Big center console. Big hood.  It’s a cool looking car and I guess that’s the point.  The drivers seat I had used electric controls and you could raise and lower the seat height. At the height I liked in order to see out, my head just barely touched the roof.  You six+ footers are going to have an interesting time.  I like the gauges and controls.

I noticed while driving the Camaro that the gas seemed to disappear a little more quickly than expected.  Since I wasn’t burning rubber that was a little disconcerting.  The website specs say the EPA estimate is 17 in the city compared to the 25 of the CIVIC.  Not bad, but not great.

Back Home

After driving the Camaro around for a few days, I dropped it back off at the SEATAC airport and took my flight home.  We landed and I jumped into the CIVIC and started heading home.  Wow, what a difference.  This is when you can really appreciate the difference in the two cars.

The CIVIC is not overstated in any way.  The trunk feels bigger.  The interior feels bigger but it probably isn’t because the overall car is smaller.  The CIVIC dash is just not as overstated nor is the center console.  The CIVIC feels small and nimble compared to the Camaro because frankly it is.

But it left me wondering why the hell GM and the other American car companies build cars with such an old school mentality.  Now granted the Camaro is a car in a very different genre than the CIVIC Coupe, but I just couldn’t help but wonder if they even attempted to design one that was smaller, nimble, and sportier.  I used to own a Infiniti G35 Coupe, RX7, Mustang, Cellica GT Liftback and other cars.  I’ve driven many sports cars.  If GM and the other American car companies are going to make sports cars, so be it.  Just don’t make sporty tanks.  I’ll stick with my low horsepower, high gas mileage, nimble sports car.

DFW IT Professionals Meeting Agenda and Speaker for 2/4 Announced

Meeting Topic: SharePoint 2010 Overview for IT pros & Information Workers

Topic Description: SharePoint 2010 represents a significant change in features and capabilities from previous versions of SharePoint. In this presentation, Jeff will go through a quick review of the capabilities and features found in SharePoint 2010 and the Sku’s that will offer from Microsoft. The remainder of the time will be spent in hands-on demonstrations of these new features and demonstrate how Microsoft is poised to increase the productivity of today’s information worker.

Location
Microsoft's Las Colinas Office
LC1 Building (Right Tower)
7000 State Highway 161, Irving, TX

Speaker: Jeff DeVerter has been working with SharePoint since 2003 which is early in the “v2” product line. He has been involved in the following disciplines within SharePoint: System Planning and Architecture, SharePoint Governance and Taxonomy, SharePoint end user development, SharePoint Security Planning and Implementation and SharePoint Training

Jeff DeVerter remains very active and respected in the greater SharePoint community maintaining an active SharePoint Blog and is a sought after public speaker. Recent speaking engagements include: Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009, Microsoft Impact Conference, SharePoint Saturday Events in Chicago, Dallas, and San Antonio, and Many online screencast events

Our Sponsor this month is Rackspace! (www.rackspace.com) We are the World's Leader in Hosting and Cloud Computing. All we do is hosting. And we do it better than anyone else in the world. We've set the standard for Cloud, Managed and Email Hosting with our world-class support, expertise and diverse solutions for customers of all sizes, kinds and needs.

Cost: Rackspace is paying for the pizza but please RSVP to help predict the amount of food needed.
RSVP: http://events.linkedin.com/DFW-Pro-Feb-Meeting-SharePoint-2010/pub/199846

Agenda:
6-6:30: Dinner and Networking
6:30-7:00: Announcements, and Business meeting
7 - 8:30: Presentation and wrap up

Website: www.dfwitprofessionals.com