The Vacuum Tube : Windows

IronPython, the Next-Gen Glue for the .NET Platform

Viral Tarpara — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:00:00 GMT

Although, I was unable to attend MIX '07 this year, one of the most exciting announcements at the event was Silverlight, a next-generation media delivery format for the internet. Couple with this announcement is something that I was amazed by. Microsoft has announced support for Python and Ruby using their Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)! Python was my first scripting language and one of the first projects at my engineering internship at Intel was was to convert a whole bunch of nasty PERL code into a manageable script library that could be extensible and modular ~~I'm sure I'll get a few emails from PERL fanatics~~. IronPython is fully CPython-compatible implementation that gives programmers the ability to directly interface with .NET objects and attributes. In addition to the manageability benefits of the platform, IronPython yields substantial speed improvements over CPython around 200%! Learn more about IronPython and IronRuby by watching the MIX session here!

Student Game Designers to Show Off Their Skillz

Viral Tarpara — Fri, 18 May 2007 02:35:00 GMT

It has been a while since I've posted, and I promise I'll post explaining why I've been on hiatus. But when my buddy Sam Stokes, Academic Evangelist at Microsoft told me about this event, I had to spread the word. Come out, its FREE ~~as in beer~~!

Students at California State University, Fullerton have put together a short game camp to show off their work this year in game design.

· A person who attends this camp will know how to use FREE tools to design video games that can run on the PC or the XBOX 360 at the end of the 3 hours of sessions.

Note: Creator’s club required for XBOX 360, but the design tools are free) This is age appropriate for high school students 8-12^th grade, and 11^th graders who will be deciding on what school to attend, may want to see this, CSUF is the ONLY Cal State school with a FULL game design curriculum in place, all the way through the Master’s program.

· If you have students or if you would like to learn more, please contact Sam Stokes at 949.637.5736 directly.

· If you are attending, please use the click to attend site: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=118410

· This is important so that the students have some knowledge of how many folks will be attending, but not required.

· Invite your customers, friends and family

· Unfortunately there will be no food due to the use of computer labs ~~*I thought this was supposed to prepare you for the real world*~~ for the sessions.

CSU Fullerton requests that HS students under 16 bring ~~your fake IDs~~ their parents.

DirectX Daddy Alex St. John: The Most Amazing Interview Ever!

Viral Tarpara — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:44:00 GMT

Shacknews has, what can only be described as, the most inspirational interview on the internet as it applies to life at Microsoft ~~or at least how it used to be~~. Joining the company 8 months ago, I've had my fair share of crap happen to me, none of which I'm going to talk about ~~give me 10 years and some stock options~~, but reading this article really put things into perspective as to exactly how an individual really can make all the difference at a company. For those of you who don't know Alex St. John, current CEO of Wildtangent, he was the face of the Microsoft to the gaming industry. He practically created the DirectX ecosystem during the Windows 95-era. Amongst the topics in the article, the insights into the publishing industry, 3rd-party developer relationships, and corporate "politickery" stand out. If you haven't read this article, you're really missing out.

Alex, you're my hero! ~~Sorry Marlboro Man.~~

Gentlemen and Lady ~~I know there's at least one out there~~, your Moment of Zen!

And There Was Much Rejoicing: Visual Studio Works in Vista!

Viral Tarpara — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:26:00 GMT

During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability ~~basically things that annoy you~~ from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility ~~Wordperferct 2.0 thanks you~~, some of the system enhancements, such as ~~User Account Control~~, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact ~~made sucky~~ Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements (hazaa!).
Many of the Windows Vista enhancements are documented at the Windows Vista Development Center.

This download installs the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista for the following Visual Studio SKUs:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual J# 2005 Express Edition (English Only)
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Controller
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Code Profiler
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer

Daylight Savings Time Information for the Frustrated IT Professional

Viral Tarpara — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:54:00 GMT

I'm sure there are more than a handful of you that are swamped with some DST issues. If you want to find the latest updated information, refer to these two links:

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2007/03/02/get-your-daylight-savings-time-dst-answers-real-time.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007/default.aspx

The first link will point you to information regarding a live chat room where you can share, troubleshoot, and get information regarding your DST issues. The second link will point you to a blog dedicated to the DST issue. Hopefully you can all resolve your questions!

Microsoft IT Showcase: How We Deployed Vista

Viral Tarpara — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:32:00 GMT

Hi everyone! I want to invite all of you out there to join Microsoft for a live webcast on March 27th, 2007 to learn how Microsoft deployed Vista within the company. It will give all attendees a great 300-level view of the process as well as an inside look at MSIT! Register here! The webcast will be presented by Chad Lewis, Microsoft IT Group Program Manager. For more information on our many IT showcases and whitepapers, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase

And now back to college basketball :)

Vista, Office 2007, BDD, Exchange, Infrastructure Protection Oh My!

Viral Tarpara — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:29:00 GMT

Test Windows Vista and 2007 Office system for your organization http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx Download the free Business Desktop Deployment 2007 solution to get all the deployment tools http://microsoft.com/desktopdeployment...(read more)

IBM Discovers the IT "Ark" with Open Desktop Platform

Viral Tarpara — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:23:00 GMT

I read this article and thought to myself, "Cool!" Then reality set in. I've been waiting for Apple to enter the enterprise space for a while, though, knowing full well that there are a plethora of manageabilty issues related to deploying and securing OS X in large numbers. Since Apple is probably a few month away from having a proper roadmap for enterprise, it seems IBM has done some legwork to help them out as they are supporting Apple in their new desktop platform. IBM's support of OS X shows that Apple is increasingly winning mindshare in the industry as a business operating system (see: Lotus Notes for OS X). They plan to roll out the platform internally to about 5% of the company which is admirable. I'll be waiting for IBM to release more information on how they plan to easily *cough* manage 3 different OSes with granular control using their "Open Client Offering." I'm sure IBM has their top people on it...top people