Ruud de Jonge

!!!! High Performance Computing sessie op 10 December !!!!

Doe mij er maar 1 voor thuis ... Wordt mijn score in Halo 3 dan beter ?

Maar even serieus ... Wil je alles weten over HPC rechtstreeks van de Microsoft US mensen ? Schrijf je dan in voor het event op 10 December.

Sprekers van de Microsoft Product Group laten je zien dat Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (WCCS) een uitgebreide HPC oplossing is, ondersteund door een breed ecosysteem van partners, producten en services. Wat krijg je deze dag? WCCS Architectuur, hoe het intergreert met bestaande datacenters en Windows desktop infrastructuur, WCCS, WCCS deployment, operationeel management en een overzicht van WCCS als ontwikkel platform.

Inschrijven kan vanaf vandaag! En zoals te doen gebruikelijk vind dit alles plaats in het Microsoft Innovation Center in Barneveld.

Announcing the RTM of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 with immediate availability for MSDN Subscribers

Executive Summary

On Monday,  Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 will release to manufacturing which means that the English version of the product is immediately available to MSDN subscribers.  Visual Studio 2008 is the next generation of Microsoft’s award-winning development tools and focuses on enabling rapid application development, enhancing collaboration among development teams, and providing development tools support for the latest platforms.  For the first time, developers have full tools support for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system and the .NET Framework 3.5.  The release of Visual Studio 2008 is the first release of the 2008 launch wave that also includes Windows Server and SQL Server.

Details

Visual Studio 2008 enables customers to rapidly create connected applications on the latest platforms, including Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Office System, and the Web with the highest quality user experience for the each member of the development teams as well as the end user.

Visual Studio 2008 provides over 200 new features, including…

• Productivity: Improved language and data features that help developers gain greater productivity in creating modern software
• Collaboration: Expanded and improved offerings for software development teams, including tools for database professionals and greater collaboration between development organizations and graphic designers
• Platforms: Tools that speed creation of software and services on the latest platforms, including the Web, Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Windows Server 2008

The .NET Framework 3.5, based on proven technology, adds new features in several major technology areas including:

· Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness throughout the runtime, compiler, and class libraries. This new feature will let code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of collections using the same syntax.

· Integrated support for Web 2.0 AJAX style applications and services in ASP.NET and Windows Communication Foundation. Providing customers with direct support of REST/POX and JSON support within in their ASP.NET applications.

· New workflow-enabled services technology provides customers with improved and long-running services by adding new Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation tools to simplify building workflow-enabled services.

· Additions to the base class library (BCL) to address some of the most common customer needs, including integration with Event Tracking for Windows and new add in hosting model for extensibility.

2008 Global Launch Wave Vista Sidebar Gadget - eh .. Doen !!!

Download the Vista Sidebar Gadget for your computer.
Installing a new Sidebar Gadget is simple, just right click the download link and select "Save Target As..." unzip the downloaded file and double-click to auto-install. You will see a new Gadget appear in your sidebar instantly.
> Download Vista Sidebar Gadget File

Yeah .... : Commentaar Kaspersky over Microsoft & Beveiliging

Quote uit een artikel uit Webwereld van vandaag :

Volgens Kaspersky 'doet' Microsoft het de laatste tijd prima, want in plaats van op het Windows-besturingssysteem, richten malware-programmeurs zich meer en meer op andere software. "Exploits voor Windows zien we sinds Service Pack 2 en Vista steeds minder. Het vizier wordt nu duidelijk meer op 3rd-party softwareleveranciers gericht. Software als Adobe Reader, Winzip, Quicktime en Adobe Flash ligt onder vuur. Het is dus niet alleen noodzaak dat gebruikers de updates voor Windows installeren, maar zeker ook de updates voor de geïnstalleerde software blijven bijhouden."

Ik ben blij met de erkenning van onze inspanningen, maar we zijn nooit klaar .... Het lijkt een beetje op een tegeltjesspreuk maar :-) : "Security is a Journey, not a Destination ...."

Microsoft Unveils Windows HPC Server 2008

Common set of HPC productivity tools reaches across desktop and clusters, including new Parallel Computing Initiative for multicore development.

RENO, Nev. — Nov. 13, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today released the first public beta of Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008, a server operating system and tools designed for the fast-growing high-performance computing (HPC) market. Microsoft also established the Parallel Computing Initiative, a program creating a set of common development tools across multicore desktops and clusters.

Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, is based on the Windows Server 2008 operating system and is designed to increase productivity, scalability and manageability. Windows HPC Server 2008 has been renamed to reflect its readiness to tackle the most challenging HPC workloads. Key features are new high-speed networking, highly efficient and scalable cluster management tools, advanced failover capabilities, a service oriented architecture (SOA) job scheduler, and support for partners’ clustered file systems. The beta is now available for download at http: //www.microsoft.com/hpc; the final version will be generally available in the second half of 2008.

“With the new advancements, Windows HPC Server 2008 can allow customers to achieve the levels of scalability and performance of the most efficient clusters in the Top500 benchmark while making it dramatically more productive to deploy, utilize and integrate the advanced HPC clusters within their environment,” said Kyril Faenov, general manager of HPC at Microsoft. “By upgrading to Windows HPC Server 2008 on our 2,048-core production test cluster, we increased the LINPACK performance by 30 percent and were able to deploy and validate the cluster in less than two hours using out-of-the-box software. Expanding beyond traditional MPI-based HPC applications, Windows HPC Server 2008 enables support for high-throughput SOA applications with its advanced Web service routing capability and paves the way for bringing HPC capabilities to a broad range of enterprise applications.”

This efficiency is currently being demonstrated at the Holland Computing Center in the Peter Kiewit Institute at the University of Nebraska, one of the largest clusters in the world. The new 1,151-node Windows-based cluster is expected to enhance the curriculum and resource capabilities by providing compute cycles for a broad variety of government, research and industry uses.

“We see this as a tremendous opportunity to advance the research capabilities of the institute to meet the growing and emerging demands of the university community as well as our business partners,” said John Callahan, director of technical infrastructure for the Peter Kiewit Institute. “The scalability and demonstrated performance of the Windows platform has empowered us to provide a medium through which we can develop and train students in a new specialization on parallel computing.”

Adding to performance, Microsoft is also showcasing the ways cluster administrators, end users and developers can increase productivity with a common set of tools that span the desktop and cluster. Cluster administrators can save time with Microsoft System Center for application-level monitoring and rapid provisioning and SQL Server Reporting Services for capacity planning and auditing. End users can save time with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for data collaboration and the Windows Workflow Foundation for automating processes across workgroups.

Mixed, dual-boot clusters can also improve cluster efficiency. Because dual-boot clusters flexibly serve both Linux and Windows users, they increase utilization rates by expanding their number of addressable users. Examples of customers deploying large mixed clusters include the University of Iowa, Cambridge University, 3M and Baker Hughes Inc. Leading technology partners that have announced mixed cluster support for Windows HPC Server 2008 include Altair Engineering Inc., Cluster Resources Inc. and Platform Computing. Clustered file system vendors that have announced support for Windows include Panasas Inc., Quantum Corp.’s StorNext, HP PolyServe, and Sanbolic Inc., and IBM Corp. has plans to support IBM GPFS on Windows.

Multicore and the Future of High-Performance Computing

Deepening its investment in developer productivity, Microsoft also created the Parallel Computing Initiative, which encompasses the vision, strategy and innovative developments in systems, runtimes, programming models, libraries, language extensions, and development tools across desktop and cluster. Designed to simplify and enable parallelism for a broad set of commercial applications in the multicore and cluster environments, this initiative adds to currently available standards-based tools such as Message Passing Interface (MPI) and OpenMP and native parallel debugger support in Visual Studio 2007. New technologies include the Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework that will enable developers to express parallelism and improve efficiency and scalability of parallel applications. Over the next six months, Microsoft will ship customer technology previews of this technology.

Demonstrating how Microsoft’s investment into parallel programming is expanding the high-performance computing market, market leaders in the actuarial insurance software market, such as Milliman Inc. and Towers Perrin, have already announced native support for Windows HPC, introducing a large new segment of performance-sensitive customers to the benefits of parallelism.

These major investments from Microsoft in high-performance computing and parallel programming will enable a broader set of commercial application vendors as well as corporate and research programmers to embrace parallelism and take full advantage of the potential performance gains that are made available through adoption of multicore processors and server clusters.

Lead Enterprise Architect Program (LEAP) - Master Class 4 - Security

Vandaag was het weer zo ver :-) : Workshop 4 over Security, gegeven daar Martin Vliem. Security is een complex en breed onderwerp en dit kwam in zijn presentatie duidelijk naar voren. Wat hebben we toch een mooi vak.

Ook voor deze Master Class was er een uitgebreid pakket aan huiswerk. Je vindt hieronder een (kort) stukje uit het pakket.

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The first session was focused on the (de)coupling of information. Your work resulted in ViCeSSS.

Figure 1: Global Bank ViCeSSS

(showing just part of the core applications)

The second session was about provisioning enterprise information and services to the end user, be they Global Bank employees or customers. Amongst others your advice led to the implementation of G-BOLP using Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server as an enterprise Portal that hosts services like Save & Win, First Financial Mortgage and others.

The third session covered infrastructure design focused on flexibility, manageability and availability; however to build a complete infrastructure supporting the business applications, the aspects of Identity and Access and Security are fundamental as well. Session four therefore builds on the previous session by furthermore exploring the Infrastructure Optimization model into the realms of Identity and Access and Security and Networking. The amount of the material can be overwhelming, so please focus at first instance on the referrals with “must read” tags. If you have additional time please explore some of the other topics as well.

Security is a broad topic and resides under the umbrella of Microsoft’s strategic initiative of Trustworthy Computing (TWC) which started with an executive email of Bill Gates in July 2002. TWC now has arrived at this point (must read), where it is interesting to see that Microsoft is now more working towards a new vision, that will also be shortly covered in the session. Instead of covering the lot on TWC this session helps you architect & design secure enterprise solutions like G-BOLP. We direct our attention at the following topics: Threat Modeling, Identity & Access Management and Network and Platform Security; and how these security principles are implemented in a Windows and Web Services environment.

Note: for this prep document we rely heavily on the work done by our patterns & practices group. They provide guidance on architecture and design of enterprise solutions using Microsoft technologies, although most concepts are not restricted to Microsoft technologies. Be sure to check them out whenever implementing enterprise solutions. All material – mainly books and white papers – are freely available.

Threat Modeling

Figure 1 in the introduction (must read) in the guide “Improving Web Application Security” provides the scope for securing web facing applications. Threat modeling allows you to systematically identify and rate the threats that are most likely to affect your system. By identifying and rating threats based on a solid understanding of the architecture and implementation of your application, you can address threats with appropriate countermeasures in a logical order, starting with the threats that present the greatest risk. We have two documents for you: threat modeling (chapter 3 of the aforementioned Web Application Security guide) and a more recent update called "Threat Modeling Web Applications" (must read: “at a glance”).

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En nog veel meer info !!!!

Natuurlijk leverde dit weer veel discussie op in de werkgroepen.

Gevolgd door een presentatie van het resultaat.

En ja, het was weer een lange en vooral nuttige dag ....

Ruud

Huh ? Software plus Services ? Wat is dat ?

Ik kwam een briljante video tegen over Software plus Services. In deze engelstalige video van 3 minuten wordt duidelijk hoe Software het verschil kan maken. Alle apparatuur die in beeld komt is al te koop, nu is het aan ons allen om de Software laag te realiseren.

Dit wil ik ook :-)

Don't hesitate - sign up today for MIX08 in Las Vegas

Vegas here we come!  Microsoft’s MIX conference is returning to the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas on March 5 – 7, 2008 and you’re invited to join us.

The Next Web Now

MIX08 is an intimate opportunity for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web. Join Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer in exploring the latest wave of opportunities and help redefine the boundaries between content and commerce, PC and TV, Windows and the Web.

Register at http://visitmix.com/2008 by January 15, 2008 and save $200.00 off the regular price of $1295.00 USD.  MIX sold out well in advance last year, sign up early to make sure you aren’t left out!

Don’t delay, sign up now for MIX08 and join the MIX RSS feed to start receiving goodies long before the show kicks off!

TechEd Barcelona 2007 : Mijn indrukken ....

TechEd Barcelona is nu al weer een paar dagen aan de gang en ik wil mijn aha-momenten graag met je delen.

Allereerst ... de stemming is hier opperbest. Goed weer, interessante content en FC Barcelona heeft gisterenavond gewonnen :-)

Microsoft Student Partners

Ik was aanwezig bij een speciale bijeenkomst voor Microsoft Student Partners. Dit wereldwijde programma is een uitstekende manier voor IT studenten om bij Microsoft betrokken te raken door het mede organiseren van studenten evenementen over Microsoft technologie. In Nederland zijn op dit moment 5 MSP's aktief die binnen de HBO's en Universiteiten ons enthousiasme delen.

Wereldwijd zijn er ruim 1600 MSP's aktief en zij organiseren dit jaar evenementen met ruim een half miljoen deelnemers. Als erkenning voor dit goede werk, zijn de MSP's aanwezig in Barcelona en zijn er speciale sessies ingelast tussen de MSP's en de top sprekers op TechEd. Het sociale aspekt wordt ook niet vergeten : een aantal van de MSP's hebben mij kansloos ingemaakt met bowlen in de avond (maar dat was niet echt moeilijk).

Community

Tussen de ruim 240 Nederlandse deelnemers zijn er ook een aantal vertegenwoordigers vanuit de gebruikersgroepen en een aantal Microsoft Valuable Professionals. Deze personen spenderen veel van hun tijd in het ondersteunen van Microsoft gebruikers met raad en daad. Langzamerhand vormt deze groep een hecht collectief en het is altijd nuttig, gezellig en "laat in de avond" om met hun van gedachten te wisselen. Gerard Verbrugge (MVP LEAD Noord Europa) doet een uitstekende job als aanspreekpunt voor de community.

Sessies

Tijdens deze TechEd worden 100-en sessies gegeven over allerlei content. Ik was o.a. aanwezig bij een sessie over Open XML.

In deze sessie presenteerde Wouter van Vugt en Peter Smulovics over de essentie van Open XML. Ik was onder de indruk van deze sessie en het belang van OXML werd goed belicht. Wil je een goede indruk krijgen van de sessies, klik dan op deze link. De Virtual Teched website is een must-see/do/click etc.

De Borrel

En jawel, gisterenavond was het weer tijd voor de traditionele NL Borrel. In mijn eerdere posting heb ik daar al iets over verteld en het viel niet tegen :-). Ca. 100 Nederlanders hebben zich door een afgeladen Barcelona (i.v.m. voetbalwedstrijd) geworsteld om een drankje te drinken.

Er is echter iets fundamenteels mis met de Nederlandse TechEd deelnemers. Marktonderzoek heeft uitgewezen dat 97 % van de NL Developers mannen zijn. De deelnemers van de borrel waren een goede afspiegeling van dit feit..

Deze eerder geplaatste foto was dus een beetje wishfull thinking ...

Er werd natuurlijk veel over techniek gepraat maar ook andere onderwerpen kwamen aan bod. Wil je meer weten ?, kom dan ook volgend jaar !!!

Sssttt.... niet verder vertellen. NL Aerial Coverage in Virtual Earth per 19/12 :-)

Heel nederland met een 50 cm resolutie ... Welke toepassing heb jij al bedacht ?

Ruud

MSDN Masterclass: Visual Studio 2008 - Working with data using Language-Integrated Query (LINQ)

Er zijn nog enige plekken beschikbaar voor deze level 400+ training ...

Klik op :

http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/msdn/events/visualstudio2008_masterclass.aspx

TechEd Barcelona 2007 : Windows Live & Development

Tijdens de TechEd Developers 2007 Conference in Barcelona worden er een aantal sessies gehouden over Windows Live & Development. Natuurlijk mag je deze niet missen !!!

Zie je daar :-)

Ruud

Former President Clinton Joins Microsoft CEO Ballmer to Hail Giving Record

Wow :-)

Company sets new mark in 2007, donating more than $72 million to 25,000 nonprofits.

Microsoft Corp. marked the end of its annual giving campaign by hosting former President Bill Clinton for a campus visit. Clinton, joining Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to reveal the results of this year’s campaign, told a standing-room-only audience of more than 1,000 employees and thousands more watching via webcast that every individual, regardless of status or income, can help solve global challenges such as climate change and poverty.

Former President Bill Clinton praised Microsoft employees on their record-setting annual Giving Campaign in a visit to the company’s Redmond campus Friday.

A Microsoft tradition for 25 years, the giving campaign is a dedicated season of employee involvement and contributions that takes place each October. Microsoft employees donate to thousands of nonprofit organizations working to improve lives. In addition, Microsoft matches U.S. employee donations, dollar for dollar, up to $12,000 per person per year.

This year, employee donations and Microsoft’s matching contributions of cash and software totaled over $72 million, exceeding last year’s tally of $63 million.

“You’ve done a good thing with this giving, because it is inconceivable that we can adequately address these challenges without a strong economy, an effective government and a more viable civil society,” said Clinton. “People have to step into the breach. Benjamin Franklin understood that 40 years before the Declaration of Independence when he organized America’s first volunteer fire department. When you gave all this money — over $70 million this year — you were the 21st century’s great volunteer fire department, and I thank you.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former president Bill Clinton announce the results of the annual Microsoft Giving Campaign -- a record US$72 million this year.

Microsoft encourages employees to be involved in their communities through a unique volunteer program that matches each volunteer hour with a cash donation of $17 to the charity. As part of this program in 2007, Microsoft U.S. employees volunteered 129,665 hours to nonprofits, and the company matched more than $2.2 million.

“Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. One way we fulfill our mission is by developing innovative software that transforms the way people learn, work and communicate,” Ballmer said. “Another way is by using our resources and expertise to help expand social and economic opportunities in communities around the world. Our employees share those values, and this year’s giving effort was just phenomenal.”

In addition to employee contributions in fiscal year 2007, Microsoft directly donated $68 million in cash and $331 million in software to nonprofits worldwide.

Since 1983, Microsoft and its employees have given more than $2.9 billion in cash, services and software to nonprofits around the world through localized, company-sponsored giving and volunteer campaigns.

The company fosters a culture of volunteerism and philanthropy that encourages its 70,000 employees to make a difference.

The giving campaign is one part of Microsoft’s Corporate Citizenship initiative, which combines innovative technology, partnerships and programs to create economic, educational and social opportunities in local communities worldwide, and to help foster a more secure computing experience for people everywhere.

Microsoft giving efforts are aligned with the company’s expertise and largely focused on the Microsoft Unlimited Potential – Community Technology Skills program. The program is designed to narrow the technology skills gap, aid global work-force development, and create social and economic opportunity by providing technology skills training through community technology centers (CTCs). It offers a comprehensive approach to broadening digital inclusion by bringing together critical components, including training grants, software donations, community learning curricula, and a global support network called telecentre.org.

Kom jij ook op de borrel in Barcelona ?

Op woensdag 7 November 2007, organiseren wij een borrel voor de Nederlandse deelnemers aan TechEd Developers 2007 conferentie (en dat zijn er bijna 250 !) in Club Catwalk in Barcelona.

We zijn dus in Spanje en dat betekent dat we pas beginnen om 21:00 maar ... we hebben de club exclusief voor de TechEd deelnemers tot 24:00. Daarna gaat de club open voor het "normale" publiek en je moet maar op hun website kijken wat dit betekent :-)

Het adres is :

Catwalk
Ramon Trias Fargas 2-4,
Bajos Hotel
08005 Barcelona

https://www.mseventseurope.com/teched/07/Developers/news/Pages/Parties/Netherlands.aspx

Tot woensdag !!!

Ruud

N.b. : Ik kan het niet laten om wat sfeerbeelden te tonen ...