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My baker’s dozen of recent, interesting MSDN blogs posts (082208)

Late on a Friday, the kids are finally in bed and I just burned through the rest of my mail and feeds from MSDN blogs… so here are a few posts I found of interest and recommend…


As Ian mentioned here, a “Huge congratulations to some of my colleagues who have just won recognition from the Computer Weekly Blog Awards.”



  • Steve Clayton’s “Geek in Disguise” blog won the “Company Blogs” category
  • Jason Langridge’s “Mr Mobile” blog won the “Wireless and Mobile Blogs” category
  • Mike Taulty’s “Bits and Bytes” blog won the “Programming and Technical Blogs” category
  • Ray Fleming’s “UK Schools” blog won the “Public Sector Blogs” category

Super effort!

OneNote Videos on TeacherTube (Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson) — Mike Tholfsen, the OneNote Ninja, found some time to record and upload a bunch of videos about OneNote to Teacher Tube. The video he did on the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers is included in the collection. Mike is promising a bunch more that are specifically targeted at education users including teachers and students.

Free Download To Help You and Your Customers Save Energy and Carbon Emissions (Reaching Out to Microsoft Partners in Australia) — “I installed the Edison PC Power Management application today. It’s a great piece of software we are officially endorsing and it provides a consumer-friendly interface to help the users decide how much power saving they want to do – but it also tells you in environmental language…


Terry Zink’s Anti-spam Blog : Strengths and weaknesses – Terry says that “From time to time, I like to reflect upon my own personal strengths and weaknesses. I may be a spam fighter, but I’m also a professional working within Microsoft and I want grow my entire asset base of skills, not just in spam analysis. You know how on interview coaching, they say to you “If you’re ever asked one of your weaknesses, give one of your strengths that if overdone, could be a weakness”? For example, you could say “Sometimes I work too hard” which is overdoing dedication to the job. It’s kind of a way of weaseling out of the question.”


Free Download To Help You and Your Customers Save Energy and Carbon Emissions (Reaching Out to Microsoft Partners in Australia) — “I installed the Edison PC Power Management application today. It’s a great piece of software we are officially endorsing and it provides a consumer-friendly interface to help the users decide how much power saving they want to do – but it also tells you in environmental language…”


Thomas Cheah – the Speaker Idol winner (MSDN Malaysia blog) — “The experience in Speaker Idol competition at TechEd SEA 2008 was great. It reminds me of those debating competitions that I participated when I was in high school. Presentation skills are something that will go a long way in your career. Most people have no problems giving presentation, but not many can see how well they are presenting. Speaker Idol is a good testing ground for this. With the 10 minutes time limit, it requires you to focus on giving the most captivate presentation that is within the attention spans of most audiences. Most people tend to be long winded and afraid to miss out every single detail in the presentation. This risks losing the audience attention before the core message is presented.”


Adrian Ford on XPS et cetera : Automatically Opening XPS files from MXDW — MXDW – the Microsoft XPS Document Writer – includes the ability to open XPS files that are created. To enable this, you’ll need to dig into the preferences dialog where you’ll find the following on the XPS Documents tab…”


//steve clayton: geek in disguise : The Fall of Google, the Rebirth of Microsoft and the Changing Face of Apple and Linux — Steve says that “I usually try to re-title my posts from the originator but on this occasion I felt the title of a recent post had to stay. “There is a whole load of commentary in Rob’s post that is of course music to my ears, and on Apple in particular he was joined this week by a hard hitting post from Michael Arrington. What really caught my eye in Rob’s post was this part where he talks about Microsoft Equipt…”


MIS Laboratory – Teaching Resources for Information Systems Faculty : Microphone on Facebook: Converse with Microsoft — Randy says that “The Microsoft educational community has launched a new application on Facebook called “Microphone”. Microphone is a Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/microphone) that links the Facebook community directly with experts and enthusiasts from Microsoft Corporation. Since it is a Facebook application, members of Microphone will be kept current on all things Microsoft relating to new products, training and workshops, conferences, technology careers, research, and the Digital Lifestyle.”


Architects Rule! : Herows will always ruin your it organization — Philippe says that “Working in an IT organization can be challenging. There are exhausting late night emergencies and deadlines, unpredictable technical complexities as well as executive management commonly suffering from extreme ADD. “As this leads to countless hours away from family, friends and your own precious solitude, you find those few who stand out willing to sacrifice everything to accomplish success.”


RFID Momentum (Microsoft Manufacturing & Resources Blog) — July 29, 2008 4:12 PM “I asked Greg Walker, a Supply Chain Specialist on our US Manufacturing team to guest blog with me on this topic. RFID Momentum is building and we wanted to jump in and share some perspectives from Microsoft.”


The Web and Microsoft : Photosynth really can be practical — 22 August 08 04:14 PM (klevereblog) “When something like Photosynth is released you begin to wonder what are the practical use cases. I found this “synth” on the site today that really shows the power of Photosynth. It essentially is photo tour of the Art Gallery of South Wales. Not only do you get a 360 view of the room, you also are able to zoom in closely and see the artwork on the walls. There are several similar situations where this could be used. Real Agents would love something like this. I think the real power in something like Photosynth would be potential for social scenarios. I know there has been talk before where individuals would be able to combine their pictures into a single “synth”.


imageAnd last but far from least: the award-winning Jason Langridge posted this in reference to something he “Spotted this over on Steve’s Blog and couldn’t help by repost it.   Our Office Labs team has released a prototype tool that helps you manage email overload. This concept test provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system. You can get more details here…”

OK, one more from TechNet:

Dave posted a video of his chat with Brad Anderson on Virtualization and X-Plat Support: “A few weeks back, I had a chance to sit down with Brad Anderson, GM of Microsoft’s Management and Services Division (the folks who build System Center). We talked for a handful of minutes about virtualization, Ops Manager x-plat extensions, and some strategic developments and perspectives on what’s coming in the near future. Money quote:


“I think it’s kind of ironic that our major competitor in the area of virtualization is not heterogeneous … and Microsoft is.”


Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs 






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Gizmodo: AIM for Windows Mobile now available

Gizmodo reports today that AIM for Windows Mobile is now available as an RTM…



“It’s been in beta for the last few months, but for Windows Mobile users who’d rather not risk their phone to be a lab rat in a suit, AIM for Windows Mobile is now in final release form. If you are on your mobile now, just go to this link and hit “products” to make the download. If you are on a Windows Mobile device and you don’t want AIM, then we are truly, truly sorry for wasting your time. Feel free to drop by Brian Lam’s place for a personal apology via back rub any time. No, it won’t be strange at all. [AOL via MobileBurn]”


Tags: AOL, Windows Mobile, Microsoft, blogs






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Your questions: ‘If we installed the December 2007 Microsoft daylight saving time updates, are we covered for the changes this Fall?’

Recently, I received a question similar to one I answered last year on daylight saving time and time zone updates to Windows:


“We updated our systems earlier this year for daylight saving time [the rules for the US and Canada].  Is there anything we need to do?  Should we also update our systems with the last DST update? [referring to the August 2008 cumulative update]


Generally, the answer is yes.  As I noted earlier here, it depends.

See this blog post for a top-level look at the latest DST and TZ updates for Windows.  We also tell our customers that for some companies that don’t have a presence in an affected time zone, no DST updates may be required. However, Microsoft strongly recommends that customers apply the time zone updates for all affected products. There are a couple of reasons for this:



  • First, customers may have users who travel to an affected time zone, and as such, their applications could be affected by not having the current time zone updates installed on their client machines.



  • Second, applying the current DST updates to all machines and applications keeps their environment up-to-date and consistent with worldwide changes. This could be important when communicating with another end user or company in an affected time zone, or where different IT environments come together and coexist.


Overall, Microsoft strongly recommends DST patch installation on all affected systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with the world’s current time zone information.  Customers should review the updates available and posted at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist for the latest and updated information of Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time, as well as the main DST and TZ page at http://www.microsoft.com/dst2007.

Customers who need the latest updates for the recently-added and revised countries (including new time zone rules for Argentina, Morocco and Pakistan), should get the latest update.  Consumers may update their PCs by visiting Microsoft Update at http://www.update.microsoft.com/. Also, network managers and sysadmins should be able to get the latest Windows OS update as published this month (August 2008, KB 951072) as an “Update Rollup” via WSUS. See this past post illustrating the availability of the update from 2007. 

Technically, there are scenarios where updates and patches are not required, but Microsoft strongly recommends DST patch installation on all affected systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with the world’s current time zone information.

Microsoft’s product update schedule:  As I originally posted here, most Windows applications (and some services) reference the underlying OS for DST and time zone information, but some do not.  Microsoft Windows has established an annual update schedule (as outlined here); as noted in a prior post, many of our product teams are also following a similar annual product update cadence, with provisions for semi-annual as needed.  For each, the window closes for additional updates a few months (generally four to six) prior to the release date.  The regular Windows release provide a regular schedule for other product groups to follow.

Following the Windows regular cadence for publishing newly legislated DST rules and time zone updates, our “Cumulative DST and Time Zone Updates” will be released in November/ December (to the Download Centre and via Windows Update respectively) for the coming calendar year; when needed, we will also provide a semi-annual update in the July/August timeframe.  The group will also publish the new or modified TZI keys in an update to Microsoft KB article 914387 for IT professionals and sysadmins who may need that information.  We hope that this will provide a more predictable way for our customers to anticipate and plan for our scheduled product updates as they are published.

Implementing changes:  A note on making changes to daylight saving time and time zones: as officials consider changes to DST and time zone rules in their regions, in order to achieve more seamless transitions it is recommended that…  


  1. official confirmations of planned changes to DST and time zones, and

  2. ample advance communications and notice of the change be provided, along with concentrated efforts on promoting the change.  

Although such changes may be seen as a minor, local inconvenience (and not just for our customers in the impacted region but for enterprises around the world regardless of the systems in place), it is advised that long lead times be provided to implement these changes.  Ample advance notice and concentrated efforts on promoting any change should be provided to the people and businesses impacted.  In general, less than six months until such a change may not be enough time to get consumers, businesses and service providers alerted to the change.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST. 3,410,000; 2,490,000 (up from 900K a year ago); 1,472,886


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Of interest: Jerry Seinfeld reportedly in Microsoft’s new ad campaign

So. I’m having lunch, going through my mail when the phone rings…

“Did you hear? I read a report today that Jerry Seinfeld will star in Microsoft’s new ad campaign.”

Cool.

And the Chicago Trib reports that Jerry Seinfeld will appear with Bill Gates in the campaign…

“The new ad effort is expected to use some variation of the slogan “Windows, Not Walls,” according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people say the point is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting. The campaign, said to debut Sept. 4, is one of the largest in the company’s history.”

We’ll see.

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Advisory: Daylight saving time coming to an island nation near you: Mauritius changes in October

[Please note that I have revised this blog post, as of 081808.]

Location of MauritiusAs noted at http://www.afrol.com/articles/29955 late last month (July 23, 2008) and in L’Express newspaper, the government of Mauritius has decided to adopt Summer Time (as it’s known in Europe, aka daylight saving time) in the island nation of over 1 million.   According to the announcements we’ve seen, the country will begin recognizing Summer Time in October of this year.


“Mauritius will be the first sub-Saharan African nation to do so, connecting the island more closely to tourist and business markets in Europe.

According to the official reports, DST in the “Star and Key of the Indian Ocean” will begin on October 26, 2008 and end on March 27, 2009.

(Interesting factoid: did you know that Mauritius (according to the Wikipedia entry) is believed to have been the only habitat of the extinct Dodo bird?)

According to the article in Afrol News…


“The use of Daylight saving time (DST) is mostly confined to countries located at high latitudes, including all Europe except Iceland and most of North America. In the southern hemisphere, DST is only used in southern South America (notably Chile and Argentina), New Zealand and some parts of Australia.


“In Africa, the use of DST is seldom and in most cases counterproductive, as the continent’s location close to the equator produces only very small differences in daylight in winter and summer. However, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt follow European summer time, while DST earlier was tried out in countries such as South Africa, Madagascar, Botswana, Algeria, Libya, Sudan and Ghana. These experiments however did not last long and no sub-Saharan country now uses DST.


So, what should you do?


We suggest that customers and partners use Central European Time (CET) which in Windows appears as (GMT+1 Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris) for Mauritius. This time zone matches to the DST rules being adopted by Mauritius and it matches the governments stated intent of being “aligned with that in Europe and the United States of America.”


[Updated 081808] Serve me a piece of humble pie.  After a bit of research, it appears that the suggestion of CET/CEST won’t work. My error.

Here’s why:

Historically, the island nation has only briefly observed DST in the early 80’s, and since then has been DST free.  Now, Mauritius will ‘spring forward’ one hour forward at to UTC+5:00 on October 26, 2008, and then fall back an hour to UTC+4:00 on March 29, 2009. 

Currently, the UTC Offset for Central European Summer Time (CEST) is UTC +2:00 hours; falling back to Standard time will put Brussels back to Central European Time (CET)  in  late October to UTC +1:00 hour.  In looking at our list of time zones and published DST rules, no other country in the southern hemisphere observes these rules: European nations (specifically CET/CEST in this case, currently recognizing Summer Time) have the opposite movements given they are in the northern hemisphere: as we know, summer shifts are different between northern (European Summer Time) and time zones in the southern hemisphere.

In the southern hemisphere, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and the closer Victoria (Seych.) are all UTC Offset +4 hours for Standard time zone, but none observe daylight saving time in 2008 (or beyond).  And as I found no other adjacent TZ in Date & Time that is +4:00h today, it appears that there is no existing TZ in Windows that the country could use. [/update]

OK, the obvious question that was recently asked:



“So, will you add the name of “Mauritius” to that time zone in a future Windows update?”


[Updated & revised 081808] No, at present, Windows won’t update the time zone currently in place by adding the name of this country with a hotfix or other out of band update prior to the implementation of DST in October.   


imageWe’ll follow the lead of the country’s decision to follow “closely to tourist and business markets in Europe.” We will post guidance to inform customers that they may use Central European Time (CET) ‘Abu Dhabi, Muscat’ for Mauritius, and then on Oct 26, set their clocks manually ahead an hour as a work around, as we recommended for Argentina.  We are considering options for how we will address the change in Mauritius in our December 2008 DST & Time Zone update.


We will issue more formal alerts on this news item this month as we have done for other countries that made late-breaking changes to the Microsoft DST & TZ Site, specifically on the DST Hot Topics and Latest News page.  Note that other DST and time zone changes, the decision in Mauritius may impact customers doing business in and with the affected region. 

[Update 091608: See my post re: the upcoming December 2008 Cumulative Update as Mauritius will be added in that release as a new time zone to Windows.]

As noted previously (and included on our Hot Topics site), Microsoft will continue to adhere to the published release cadence and issue the next update to DST rules and time zones in the December release.  We will provide updates on the Microsoft DST & Time Zone site, issue appropriate alerts, and work with our subsidiaries to provide localized guidance based upon the work done we’ve done for other regions in the past (as we did for Argentina last year).  We have started this effort to allow customers enough time and information to ensure that they make the appropriate plans for their organizations. 

For additional information on planning for DST and TZ changes, please see these past articles:


Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Mauritius.






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