Categories
Uncategorized

Thoughts on potential competitors, new technology, and a new Windows division President

Gosh, has it really been nearly two weeks between blog posts? Given the lack of blog posts, you should surmise that it’s been a busy few weeks at the company given we’ve been closing the end of our fiscal year, going through the last bits of, well, delivering RTM bits of Windows 7, and working on future products and services.

Today was a busy day at work, and in the news with lots of coverage of potential competitors, new technology, executive announcements and even tips and tricks for organizing your schedules, finances and other routines. 

But first, a moment I noted on Twitter.

I love movies. This past weekend we watched The Terminator series. In the two sequels, I noticed that the evil Chrome T-1000 Terminators that also jump back from the future to do in the poor heroes of the film are eventually sent packing by the dutiful, more real and established T-101.

At least they were real competitors, ones the T-101 could directly engage, rather than just being taunted from the future by the promise of a superior T-1000.

Enough about movies. On to exec announcements.

As On July 7, TechFlash broke the news that Steven (Sinofsky) was the new President of the Windows division. With Jon DeVaan, Steven has brought what’s been categorized as "new discipline to Windows engineering" – it’s been and continues to be a good partnership. These two guys have worked together closely at Microsoft, back to the days when Jon was a dev on the Excel team and Steven was the Visual Studio program manager (as noted at WinHEC ’08). The two of them continue to work towards developing and delivering Windows 7 with high quality.

It’s a huge effort and responsibility, and it’s great to have these guys leading the way on Windows engineering, along with so many talented, super smart and dedicated people on the product team. You can read more about Jon in this interview with Mary-Jo Foley and in this Q&A on Microsoft Presspass, and get a sense of Steven from his old techtalk blog (perhaps he’ll revamp it) and from this interview last year with Ina Fried. Of course, the Engineering Windows 7 blog provides even more backstage and interesting news from the Windows effort.

On competition, I thought of Miyamoto Musashi’s epic work The Book of Five Rings, and the passage that states…

In the Today is your victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

Something to keep in mind as we near the RTM and eventual commercial release (aka GA) of Windows 7.

Tags: Windows 7, Windows 7

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows 7

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available at http://bit.ly/l25CH

Categories
Uncategorized

New on the release of Windows 7 (it’s October 22), changes to Windows 7 Starter Edition, Xbox Live CDNs and more of what I’ve read

As you already know, the big news this week was the announcement of the date for general availability (GA) of Windows from the Windows 7 Team Blog, posted by: Brandon LeBlanc (Jun 02, 2009) – "This is one of those posts where I’m truly excited to be writing. I get to tell you when Windows 7 will be on store shelves! According to input from customers and partners we’ve made a lot of progress with Windows 7. Our milestone-to-milestone approach for Windows 7 is built on a great deal of feedback from customers and testers. This has been pivotal to the development of Windows 7. I blogged a few weeks ago that it’s looking like we’ll have Windows 7 ready in time for the holidays."

Also of interest is this article on Why Microsoft Built Its Own content delivery network (aka CDN), as Rich Miller covers the announcement that Microsoft "will begin providing on-demand access to the full versions of retail video games. That means titles like BioShock (6 Ggigabytes) and Mass Effect (7 GB) can be downloaded through the Xbox Live online gaming service, which has more than 17 million members. The growth of these type of bandwidth-draining services has been a major driver in Microsoft’s decision to build its own content delivery network."

Let’s talk about Windows 7 Starter – Windows 7 Team Blog – The Windows Blog – "There has been a lot of talk recently about Windows 7 Starter, so I thought I’d dive a little deeper into what it means to have this edition of Windows 7 running on a small notebook PC (a.k.a. a netbook). Today, the Starter edition of Windows is designed for entry level PCs and available only in certain regions. We first introduced a “Starter edition” with Windows XP, and did again with Windows Vista. Starter comes with limitations, such as being able to run only 3 concurrent applications on a PC at a time (this excludes background processes such as anti-virus applications, wireless and Bluetooth, and system tools like Explorer and Control Panel)."

Microsoft reverses Windows 7 Starter limit – Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com updated 9:42 a.m. PT, Sat., May 30, 2009 SEATTLE – "Microsoft said on Friday it would not limit the number of applications available at one time on the Starter edition of its upcoming Windows 7 operating system, reversing its earlier strategy of limiting its capabilities and urging users to upgrade. The move is a significant reversal for Microsoft as it looks to keep a hold on the fast-growing market for small, cheap personal computers — known as netbooks — which are the principal market for the most basic version of Microsoft’s new operating system, expected to roll out later this year. (Msnbc.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.) The world’s largest software company had originally planned that users could run only three programs at one time using Starter. The new plan would not limit the number of applications that could be used."

We have the Kodak EasyShare W1020 10-Inch Wireless Digital Frame, and PC World posted this review. "The wood-framed, glass-fronted Kodak EasyShare W1020 is easy to use, with or without Kodak’s proprietary software." Kathleen Cullen, PC World, June 4, 2009

SanDisk CEO concedes: "You can’t out-iPod the iPod" – "It’s a truth that many open-minded observers have known for awhile now: Apple rules the roost in the portable media player market, and everyone else is just trying to keep up. Sorry, but it’s true. So true, in fact, that SanDisk’s own CEO has finally come forward to admit it, recently stating in a Fortune interview that "you can’t out-iPod the iPod." And believe us, such a statement probably wasn’t easy for Mr. Eli Harari to make. Remember, this is the same fellow that spent boatloads of dough on an "iDon’t" anti-iPod campaign back in 2006. ‘Course, SanDisk is still a (very distant) second place in the sector, and its flash memory is used in all manners of PMP devices. Still, it’s a huge relief to finally hear the mastermind behind slotMusic confess that he doesn’t actually believe such gimmicks will put it on a fast track to first place. Then again, crazier things have happened."

Building Community One Brick At A Time : Are Your PCs Ready for Windows 7? – "When planning for migration to Windows 7, specific knowledge about each computer on the network and its readiness for migration is essential. Manually conducting a detailed network inventory is time consuming and costly; and existing assessment management tools typically require software agent installation on each machine, creating a security risk. How do you gather comprehensive knowledge about your existing IT environment quickly and cost effectively? The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 4.0 Beta gathers essential infrastructure information to answer the question “are your PCs ready for Windows 7?” This tool also assists you with Windows Server 2008 R2 readiness assessment."

DHS names key cybersecurity staff By Jaikumar Vijayan June 2, 2009 05:05 PM ET Computerworld – "U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tapped Philip Reitinger as director of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC), replacing Rod Beckstrom, who quit the post earlier this year citing turf battles with other agencies. Reitinger will be responsible for collecting, analyzing, integrating and sharing cybersecurity information among federal agencies, the DHS said in a statement Monday. Reitinger, a former Microsoft Corp. cybersecurity executive, will also continue in his current role as deputy undersecretary of the DHS…"

Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra’s Priorities in Cheeky Fresh (June 2, 2009) – This morning at the IAC/ACT Management of Change Conference in Norfolk, VA the newly confirmed Federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Aneesh Chopra outlined his priorities. Based on personal notes taken during the talk, here they are. What do you think of them?

Google’s Android to Run Laptops, Taking On Microsoft (Update2) – Bloomberg.com By Tim Culpan, June 2 (Bloomberg) — "Google Inc.’s free mobile-phone operating system will begin running computers next quarter, entering a market dominated by Microsoft Corp.’s Windows and deepening the rivalry between the two companies. Acer Inc., the world’s second-largest laptop maker, will release a low-cost notebook featuring Android in the third quarter, Jim Wong, head of information-technology products at the Taipei-based company, said today. Asustek Computer Inc., pioneer of the sub-$500 laptops known as netbooks, also developed a model that runs on Google’s software, Chairman Jonney Shih said."

Asustek puts Android netbook on ice | Mobilize – InfoWorld By Dan Nystedt and Sumner Lemon June 2, 2009 – "A day after an Asustek Eee PC running Google’s Android operating system was shown at Computex Taipei, top executives from the company said the project will be put on the backburner for now. The Eee PC with Android is not ready yet because the technology is "not mature," said Jonathan Tsang, vice chairman of Asustek, on the sidelines of a press conference at the show Tuesday. "For the time being this project is not a priority because our engineering resources are limited," he added.

Windows on Small Notebook PCs: The Momentum Continues in the US and the UK – Windows Experience Blog – The Windows Blog Posted by: Brandon LeBlanc Jun 01, 2009 — "On the eve of the Computex, the largest computer exhibition in Asia and the second largest in the world, we got word that PC World, the largest electronics retailer in the UK, is de-assorting (i.e., getting rid of) all of the Linux small notebook PCs in their stores and going all-Windows. It’s pretty big news from across the pond that they’re making this move, but what’s even more important is the “why” behind the decision. In April I wrote about why Windows market share on small notebook PCs has jumped from under 10% in February 2008 to 96% a year later (that number has increased since then…more on that below), and PC World agrees with our thinking. You can read the entire PC World press release, but to save you some time, I’ve pulled out the key points: http://bit.ly/e07Uh

HEXUS.net – News :: Shuttle’s X50 all-in-one flaunts Microsoft’s Windows 7 at Computex Taiwan news: "There’s all sorts of tech on show at this year’s COMPUTEX, but two items are clearly prevalent – Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and touchscreen all-in-one PCs. If 2008 was the year of the netbook, 2009, it seems, is shaping up to be the year of the touch-enabled nettop. Although Taiwan’s annual trade show doesn’t officially kick off until tomorrow, we’ve been browsing what’s on display and there’s a huge number of touchscreen all-in-ones from many of the industry’s big names." Shuttle’s X50 award winning all-in-one PC demo’ed w/ Windows 7: "smooth as silk" http://bit.ly/15Nkfy 

Different Types of Sleep Disorders Triggered with Daylight savings | Tips to Stop Snoring – AirWare, Inc., maker of Brẽz premium nasal breathing aids, the first commercially available device for inside the nose that is clinically proven to reduce snoring and increase overall sleep quality for the bed partner, today released five tips to help consumers easily transition to Daylight Savings Time. The company asked Michael J. Breus, PhD, a leading sleep specialist certified in clinical sleep disorders and author of Beauty Sleep, to offer some easy to follow methods for coping with the transition to one less hour of sleep.

Lifehacker – Build a $14 Video Camera Stabilizer – Video camera – "Professional video stabilizers are prohibitively expensive. You won’t get $10,000 worth of stabilization out of a $14 DIY model, but you will get radically smoother video for a tiny fraction of the price. How does the DIY model provide smooth video? Instead of the complex arrangement of balancing mechanisms, resistance bands, and springs, the DIY stabilizer relies on a simpler system. Your arms and a counter weight at the bottom of the stabilizer work together to minimize the movement. Camera shake is radically reduced when the weight of the camera is offset by a equal or slightly heavier weight at the bottom. Sound about right for your needs? You’ll need some pipe, a disc weight, some hand tools and a power drill to put this one together. For photos and a step by step build guide, check out the PDF below. If you need to stabilize video in a car, check out how to make a dashboard stabilizer out of a sponge."

Satisfy Me : Want to know more about Bing? Live webcast on June 1, 2009 @10:00AM Pacific Daylight Time – Want to know more about Microsoft’s new Bing? Then take a look at the new Bing Interactive Product Guide, the Virtual Press kit (filled with screen shots, fact sheets and more) On Monday, you’ll have a chance to learn even more in a live, interactive webcast where you will see examples of Bing and can ask the Bing team questions.

‘IT is the central nervous system of the company’ – Hardware – Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com By Tim Ferguson Published: 26 May 2009 17:15 BST Show related articles CIO John N Johnson oversees an IT department of more than 5,500 staff in over 50 countries who support some 80,000 employees across the company – and all of them working for one of the biggest technology companies in the world, Intel. Johnson originally arrived at the chip giant in 1981 and joined the IT department in 1999 before becoming CIO in 2005. His team is responsible for developing enterprise applications used across all of Intel’s departments as well as running the company’s data and voice networks and datacentre operations. silicon.com caught up with Johnson to talk about the company’s big projects, the magic of wireless and Gen Y.

Windows Virtualization Team Blog – Information and announcements from Program Managers, Product Managers, Developers and Testers in the Microsoft Windows Virtualization team.

Lifehacker – Properly Erase Your Physical Media – Hard Drives By Jason Fitzpatrick, 4:00 PM on Sun Feb 15 2009, 111,000 views — "A whopping 40% of the used hard drives on eBay contain easily recoverable personal data. Use the following guide to ensure your personal data never makes it out into the wild. Kessler International, a computer forensics company from New York, conducted a study of used hard drives available on eBay. Almost half of the hundred drives they sampled, purchased in random bulk lots, contained data that was easily recovered. A shocking amount of them required no more recovery effort than plugging them in and powering up. They found personal photos, financial records, emails, personal and corporate correspondence, corporate secrets, and more…"

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Windows 7.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Challenge-Windows 7, media, Windows 7

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://bit.ly/oHyOy

Categories
Uncategorized

Windows 7 Release Candidate now available, with more info on what’s new in the RC, MED-V, and improved SSD support

Windows 7 Release Candidate Takes the StageLots of news today (as noted in the news today) on the availability of the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC). Remember, only download the Windows 7 RC from a trusted source – via Microsoft – to save yourself the security risk.

As noted on MSDN and TechNet, the RC is an opportunity for enthusiasts, IT professionals, developers and folks like you to take the OS for a spin and test it a real world environment. With the Microsoft Windows 7 Compatibility Center site now live, you can also get more help with devices and applications on Windows 7 as noted here (from my Twitter post).

Stephen Rose – Sr Community Manager – Windows Client IT Pro put together a video for the Springboard site on what some of the new features in the Windows 7 Release Candidate area. You can find it in his post "Want to learn what’s new in the Windows 7 RC?" and view it here, too.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:9bbba6ce-394b-4cdf-9780-aaa52d7d77e1&amp;showPlaylist=true" target="_new" title="What&#39;s New in the Windows 7 RC" rel="noopener noreferrer">Video: What&#39;s New in the Windows 7 RC</a>

You can also read more about Windows 7 Pro & Windows XP Mode in the Q&A with Scott Woodgate as he discusses the new Windows XP Mode with Virtual PC and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V).

As noted by Microsoft_Gov, Windows 7 RC will have 13-Month Life Span, and PC users can run it until June 1, 2010.

Elinor Mills of CNETNews offers a quick look at some of the security enhancements in Windows 7, with mentions of DirectAccess and BitLocker To Go. 

And a personal favourite story of mine today, from the Engineering Windows 7 blog courtesy of Michael Fortin, is the Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives (aka SSDs, also as picked up in Tom’s Hardware WRT optimization for Solid State Drives).

Around the office, many of us have been particularly interested in the features in Windows 7 to reduce writes. The article is a good read and be sure to check out the frequently asked questions: I read it with interest as I build a new Windows 7 Media Center PC (details to come) which has a 60GB SSD at its heart coupled with a low power WD Green drive for content storage. Prices are getting quite affordable for good sized SSDs (I’ve looked at 30-128GB drives and settled on a performance 60GB model) and reliability is higher than ever.

"Many of today’s Solid State Drives (SSDs) offer the promise of improved performance, more consistent responsiveness, increased battery life, superior ruggedness, quicker startup times, and noise and vibration reductions. With prices dropping precipitously, most analysts expect more and more PCs to be sold with SSDs in place of traditional rotating hard disk drives (HDDs).

"In Windows 7, we’ve focused a number of our engineering efforts with SSD operating characteristics in mind. As a result, Windows 7’s default behavior is to operate efficiently on SSDs without requiring any customer intervention. Before delving into how Windows 7’s behavior is automatically tuned to work efficiently on SSDs, a brief overview of SSD operating characteristics is warranted.

"… we believe the future of SSDs in mobile and desktop PCs (as well as enterprise servers) looks very bright to us. SSDs can deliver on the promise of improved performance, more consistent responsiveness, increased battery life, superior ruggedness, quicker startup times, and noise and vibration reductions. With prices steadily dropping and quality on the rise, we expect more and more PCs to be sold with SSDs in place of traditional rotating HDDs. With that in mind, we focused an appropriate amount of our engineering efforts towards insuring Windows 7 users have great experiences on SSDs."

Tags: articles, blogs, Windows 7.

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://bit.ly/14rPee

Categories
Uncategorized

Personal documentary from Microsoft writer makes an impression

Of interest: reminding me of the brief series noted here, I found this article from Nicole Brodeur "Microsoft writer makes documentary on losing hand to cancer", about the film documentary from Joshua Isaac, a writer at Microsoft. Isaac lost his left hand to cancer and has been dealing with cancer – battling Epithelioid Sarcoma to be specific – for more than 10 years. He documented the battle in his movie "My Left Hand" showing this weekend in Seattle…

"My Left Hand" will be shown at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Museum of History and Industry as part of the 2009 Seattle Jewish Film Festival.

"But "My Left Hand" is not just the story of a young father felled by epithelioid sarcoma — a cancer so rare that Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, which specializes in rare malignancies, saw only 16 patients between 1982 and 1995.

"It is a valiant effort to make spiritual sense of his suffering."

You can also follow Isaac’s blog on Live Spaces.

Tags: articles, what I read.

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://tinyurl.com/cngzuk

Categories
Uncategorized

Thinking about the next public release of Windows 7, Digital TV, End to End Trust and more of what I’ve read

A quick post with few interesting links and stories from the reading pile before I head off to my next spate of discussions:

As I posted on twitter, when I clean install the next public Windows 7 build on PC at home, I’ll use WMIC to grab a list of my apps http://bit.ly/cASw. And thinking about the Windows 7 upgrade experience from Vista, my question to users was "have you backed up your files lately?" http://bit.ly/cASw

Need DTV transition help? Zenith provides help guides for last mile of the US Digital TV Transition http://tinyurl.com/d8lnvj

Not to sound like a Microsoft ad, but I had a demo today of the new, sleek LifeCam Show from the HW team http://bit.ly/d6b7h

The folks at EverythingMS posted about this noted from The Windows Blog: Test Your Application on Windows 7 at TechEd 2009 http://tr.im/jteI

Thank to edbott for his post about his views on the real limits of Windows 7 Starter Edition? It does a lot more than you might think: http://bit.ly/yqbuF

I saw an announcement of the new MSI X-Slim 340 netbook is wicked slim, uses Intel new low power chips & has 1366 x 768 LCD Resolution! http://bit.ly/Fjn5y

Want advice on cutting your television bill? Check out his article from MSN Money http://bit.ly/3H7Lbi as we move from cable at home to ATSC

I read Microsoft’s Scott Charney’s paper "Establishing End to End Trust" noted in his RSA keynote available here http://bit.ly/18txET, as well as Microsoft materials from the RSA Conference 2009 http://bit.ly/Hjw3K

There’s been quite a bit if discussion about Comcast’s reported move to encrypt digital channels 30-99 currently clearQAM in the Seattle area. It’s rumoured that on June 14, Comcast will encrypt clearQAM cable channels 30-99 in Seattle/Bellevue area http://tinyurl.com/dtv013009

Related topics: good resource from Sascha Segan on slashing TV bills with tech http://bit.ly/oeevj – we use a Media Center PC + DTV antenna at home. I’m reminded of advice on cutting your television bill from MSN Money http://bit.ly/3H7Lbi as we move from cable at home to ATSC.  Also see Farhad Manjoo’s brief article on Why We Should Get Rid of TV on washingtonpost.com http://bit.ly/W1t1t

Perhaps this news from Microsoft EMEA spawned the interest in migrating to net TV: the Internet to overtake traditional TV by June 2010 http://bit.ly/HfslL maybe this year in our home

Q&A w/ Windows Live GM Brian Hall on simplifying the online social networking experience http://bit.ly/bVX6V

Be sure to watch the interview with Guy Kawasaki from david szetela at http://twurl.nl/l7ah82. Guy said that "This is as irritated as I get publicly"

I read eweek’s 7 Things to Prepare for Windows 7 http://bit.ly/6rFZV. My recommendation: upgrade your hard disc with details at http://tinyurl.com/d65jmc

Very cool: Forrest J Ackerman’s collection auction is coming up at the end of the month, with Blade Runner Rick Decker’s (aka Harrison Ford) iconic blaster http://bit.ly/12WkRW

I fielded several replies to folks who’ve lost their Hotmail password: I offered some advice on what to do after the jump http://tinyurl.com/cdo3ho

Interesting article from Scott Charney from Microsoft on how the Internet Needs More Trust to Grow, on CIO.com http://bit.ly/hMdvC

Thanks to Marcus for link to video demo More on using parental controls to manage kid’s time on the PC http://bit.ly/3qRlGV

I enjoyed Rob Pegoraro’s article on Cable’s Absurd Insistence on Bulk @ http://bit.ly/GqF5b and now I’m building my own bundle

I sent a note to Mary Hodder letting her know that on average, receive 560 pieces of junk mail per year (ouch) as noted in my post http://bit.ly/lw892 

My props to @olajayi for launching a new company/ service w/ new teaser site up w/ beta sign up http://tiny.cc/dSgzp Good Luck!

New blog post: Thinking about preparing for Windows 7? I’m thinking it’s time for a new hard disk. http://tinyurl.com/d65jmc

My post: Mac vs. a Windows PC, Windows 7 and Windows XP, Tiered ‘net Access & more http://tinyurl.com/dm9dxk

neil blecherman (smart guy) provided this link to a quick tutorial on various sources of clean power from the ocean http://tinyurl.com/dz6gze

Heard on NPR: discussion on Time Warner Cable’s plans to implement tiered billing for Internet access http://bit.ly/8QH1V

Several times this month, I recommended Windows Live Family Safety to friends for use w/ their kids http://tinyurl.com/win7likes2

After we completed a personal, free handwriting font for my youngest at home, I made my own. http://www.yourfonts.com/ is simple & high quality.

I read that 6.4 million lbs of CO2 reduced so far w/ Microsoft Connector shuttles doesn’t include public bus use http://bit.ly/XQVAJ

I found it interesting that 96% of netbooks run Microsoft Windows, so said NPD in InformationWeek http://bit.ly/18eeYo

Whilst I was at home with the kids for spring break, MSN kicked off Stress Awareness Month. Coincidence? I think not. http://bit.ly/15JGYQ

F.C.C. Vote Sets Precedent On Unfettered Web Usage.(Business/Financial Desk). by Saul Hansell. The New York Times 157.54390 (August 2, 2008): pC1(L). 

Comcast Expanding Superfast Broadband To More Big Cities Aims To Take The Speed Lead
New 50 mbps Wideband service far faster than most rivals, but also way pricier, by Reinhardt Krause. Investor’s Business Daily (Dec 12, 2008): pA04.

Survey indicates that more than one-third of U.S. homes now have HDTV from Broadcast Engineering (Online Exclusive) (Nov 24, 2008)

Multichannel reports that over 120 million Americans are now watching online video at least once a month, yet overall time spent watching television continues to rise, according to Nielsen. George Winslow. Multichannel News, January 4, 2009

 

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Windows 7.

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available at http://tinyurl.com/c9z8y3