TechAgility

Just a brief update as to some of the changes that I have discovered in WES 2011 CTP2 (as opposed to the original CTP) – this was simply built on a default VM Template based on Windows 7.

Also some useful reference links:

• Windows Embedded Standard 2011 CTP2 New Features and Changes
• Discovering Windows Embedded Standard 2011 – What is different to WES 2009? – Part 1
• Choose the Right Windows Embedded Operating System
• HORM in Windows Embedded Standard 2011 CTP

Please review the screenshots below (sorry about the quality, I’ll redo them this week)

• There are additional Templates (including Thin Client) that seem to have most of what people would need to get themselves started
• The Summary page then indicates anything that’s not there – in this case the VMware Drivers were missing – I just ignored this and moved on, once completed it appears to have managed to find it and installed it
• Disk Footprint
  • This is a huge improvement on the first CTP – Minimal install used to be 650Mb, and just adding Explorer ONLY saw it jump to 2.6Gb
  • Estimated OS footprint was listed as 1946Mb for the Thin Client template
  • After installation it appeared (at least in the VM as only 1.57Gb)
  • To be fair – there does not appear to be too much installed by default though?
• It looks just like Windows 7 – seriously
• So without even telling it what HW I have just check out the listing from Device Manager – only two items were not sorted!!
• No drivers were installed or referenced by me – I just let the wizard do its thing and here it is with the Internet working
• One curious thing I noted was that there is no RUN command, or Search function in the Start Menu, not that this is a bad thing on an intended Thin Client?
• I was able to check that both FBWF and EWF is installed by default
• As things stand I’d say this is a huge leap forward by Microsoft from the disk space point of view as it now looks quite likely that with some judicious pruning then a relatively useful Image can be created to simply act as the dedicated Client Device for Citrix, VMware VDI instances
• If you’d like to get your own copy of the Image Builder Wizard (IBW) then log on to connect.microsoft.com to download

So after thinking on this some more I had the following thoughts?

• This is essentially Windows 7 “super lite” and appears to be pretty much compatible with everything
• It’s so easy to build a new runtime it no longer needs a developer to create bespoke instances?
• Comes with the choice of enabling either Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) or File Based Write Filter (FBWF) to protect the base image
• A “Thin Client” install is only 1.5G in size – well down from the standard Windows 7 with Office reaching more like 20Gb
• Sure – the terms of the EULA specifically prohibit the *install* of Full MS Office Products
• But that doesn’t preclude any Application Streaming or Virtualization efforts?
• At only USD$90 a runtime version, and only 1.5Gb – will this be *THE* VDI base OS of choice?  
• It’s small, light, cheap AND it is non-persistent straight out of the box – it’s certainly worthy of some consideration?

written by dcaddick

***UPDATE***
If you would like to follow this – check the discussion at XDA Developers

I recently purchased an LG GM730f as a new mobile – specifically because I thought the form factor was quite good, it also used a microUSB as a connector AND it was being advertised as being able to be updated to WM 6.5 in the New Year. So I sent an email to LG Australia in the first week of Jan asking when they might be releasing it and I got a reply back at the start of the week saying it was ready.

So this is my experience and hopefully it will save you from wasting some time? And if someone from LG would like to contact me I’d be glad to get things resolved?

But it appears that in some cases that the Web Site doesn’t work accurately?

This was sent from LG after I discussed with them that the web page they first sent me to failed to work correctly:

Dear David Caddick,

Thank you for emailing LG Electronics Australia.

We apologise for the problem you have experience with trying to access our website, please try the following website address:

http://au.lgmobile.com/web/web.support.laf?q=201011412401

I hope this has been of some assistance.

So this should bring you to this location at http://au.lgmobile.com/web/web.support.retrieveSoftwareDownload.laf:

So by clicking on Download you should get this tool:

If you have already installed this it will be shown as a desktop Icon like this:

And when up and running it looks like this:

So I started clicking on the “Start Updating for Smartphone (Windows Mobile)” as this seemed to be the most appropriate place to start? J This then pops up with:

Click on Next get you a reminder to save your data:

So at this point the phone changes to a black screen with:

                   !

Emergency Download

And on the computer you see:

So clearly at this point – even though ActiveSync was working fine before this there is some need/requirement for LG’s “process” to use a specific driver to communicate with the Phone when it is placed in “bootloader” mode? So at this point I clicked on OK, and then tried to install the USB Driver

So then at this stage you’d think you should be able to go back and check that the Modem Driver is installed:

And then I should now be able to Start the Update?

But as you can see by the screenshot above this first checks comms with the mobile – and as a consequence it initiates another install sequence of the USB Modem Driver:

So now we are completely in a loop – I could remove the USB Modem Driver, but then regardless of whether it’s installed or not – the process ALLWAYS tries to install the Driver before starting the update.

I can cancel, but this doesn’t help in trying to get anywhere.

Why can’t LG just do this like all other WM Vendors?

• Download a ROM update
• Plug phone into PC
• Start ActiveSync
• Run ROM update executable

I have been using Windows Mobile devices since 2003 and this would have to be one of the *worst* Update mechanisms I have ever experienced

Anyway, if you keep at it long enough and manage to get it in to the “Bootloader” mode then you can try using “Start Updating” without the Smartphone side of things (I know, but by this stage I was willing to try anything?) and it does appear to get going

It also looks like It does download a 107Mb ROM image and that would be about consistent with my experience?

And then goes ahead and flashed the phone

So eventually this gets to 91% or better and the phone starts booting to WM 6.1….. <sigh>

So I have now tried this 6 times or so, from Windows 7 and XP Pro and even though the Web Site clearly indicates that there is a new Update available, and that’s what I was told from LG, it’s clear that they still need to do some work to get this out? I for one am sick and tired of reflashing my Mobile Phone only to find it *STILL* on WM 6.1…………..

If I hear any news I’ll update at the top of this post

written by dcaddick

While I was at the local MS TechEd event some while back I went and had a chat to the folks manning the Bing Search booth and this also deals with the info regarding Live Earth and mapping etc, and the up shot of this chat was they they forwarded this info as a follow up – of particular note was the Air Services noise monitoring which is awesome in the detail it displays regarding flights in and out of Sydney Airport.

Here below I can see that the forecasted cool change is nearly here as the Northerly wind has clearly swung around to the West as we now have incoming commercial jets from the East, the first one is a Jetstar A320 from Hobart on short finals closely followed by a Qantas Boeing 737 400 series from Brisbane. The main excercise of this is that you can nominate where your house is located and then if you feel that the flight is too noisy you can pinpoint it and send in a note?

1. Technical

There is a developer comparison paper that highlights the various mapping features and benefits, and importantly the differences between the web services and APIs. This document can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/maps/developers/.
There are two interactive SDKs, the AJAX version at http://www.microsoft.com/maps/isdk/ajax/ and the new Silverlight Map Control at http://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp.
To start developing with Bing Maps, visit here to obtain a free evaluation account https://mappoint-css.live.com/MwsSignUp/Default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0 .

2. Supporting technologies (web links are embedded within each)

Mapcruncher – a Microsoft research tool that allows you to render your own picture files (schematics, floor plans etc) atop a Virtual Earth map.
SQL server 2008 with new Spatial Engine enabling Business Intelligence to be transformed to Location Intelligence.
Photosynth – stitches together a large collection of photos transforming in to a unique viewing experience.
VE Server –is an on-premises, integrated set of visualisation, search and analysis capabilities that delivers maps, imagery and geospatial analysis through a web browser behind your firewall, onto private or classified networks, and onto portable platforms.

3. Bing Maps example sites (some require Silverlight)

ABS data -  Demographic data mashup
Sentinel & Country Fire Authority data – Australian Bushfire locator
Imagery of Brisbane city from 1958 to 2008 – Imagery from 1958 to 2008
US data mashup including Swine Flu RSS, demographic data etc (zoom in to Florida for the best experience)  – IDV Solutions
Traffic cameras embedded within Bing Maps from Soul Solutions (local partner) http://tc.soulsolutions.com.au/ and http://soulsolutions.com.au .
Noise monitoring service for Australian airports – Air Services noise monitoring

4. Content

Aerial imagery and road data is critical to any mapping platform. Microsoft continues to upgrade our aerial imagery available globally and specifically we have deployed to over 100 areas within regional Australia and NZ in the last few months. We also provide optional and exclusive access to Birdseye imagery and have extensive coverage for Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, Canberra, Gold Coast and Wollongong with more to come. See http://bing.com/maps/?mkt=en-us and click on the location search tab and enter “Sydney, AU” and zoom in and you will see the Birdseye tab enabled. Click on that tab to bring up the Birdseye imagery.

written by dcaddick

I remember watching these grainy images on a Black and White TV in primary school when it happened, now looking back I can scarcely believe the audacity of the folks at the time to think that they could get there and back safely based on the technology of the day? 

I have since been to the Space Centre in Houston and been amazed at the facilities and the length they went to test every conceivable possibility – even to the point of building a Vacuum Testing facility 118ft tall big enough to take the full Command Module, rotate it, and apply heat equivalent to the sun’s rays and leave the astronauts in it for up to 8 days at time just to make sure it’s up to the job before sending it up – amazing stuff

Since its construction in 1965, NASA’s Space Environment Simulation Laboratory in Houston, Texas, has been the primary location for testing of flight hardware for the manned space program, space shuttle systems, and satellite systems. This 1968 photograph shows three astronauts entering Apollo Spacecraft 2TV-1 for an eight-day manned thermal-vacuum testing. (Official NASA photograph, June 11, 1968)

It’s worth checking out the fantastic archive photos at the Boston Globe?

A 70mm Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System (ALOTS) camera, mounted in a pod on a cargo door of a U.S. Air Force EC-135N aircraft photographed this event in the early moments of the Apollo 11 launch. The mated Saturn V second and third stages pull away from the expended first stage. Separation occurred at an altitude of about 38 miles, some 55 miles downrange from Cape Kennedy. (NASA) #

written by dcaddick

I was at a conference with some other HP Colleagues a couple of weeks ago and we got to chatting about travel and it turned out that one of the chaps had travelled plenty around Asia and the US but hadn’t been to Europe or UK at all and was now going for his Wife’s Brothers wedding. So after discussing some of what my wife and I had been up to I promised him a compilation of the links regarding some of our chat.

So, for better – or worse, here it is for anyone who is heading that way? 

Accommodation:
Serviced Apartments in London, Europe, Asia and Australia
http://www.citadines.com
Serviced Apartments in US and London (these are around 55 – 70 quid a night, great value)
http://www.clubquarters.com/Locations.aspx (needs membership ID)

Ideas for what to do in the Cities?
Search the Guardian/Observer newspaper web site – Look for 24 hours in Madrid, or 48 hours in Paris, etc.
i.e. for Madrid http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search/Travel?search=madrid&search_target=%2Fsearch%2FTravel%2FTravel&fr=cb-guardian
Not only does this give you a good run down on the “essentials” but it’s a good starting point for making a list?

Flights etc…
www.lastminute.com

Train travel – global site
http://www.seat61.com

Things to do in London:
TNT Magazine (free – found outside nearly all London Tube stations)
http://tntonline.co.uk/tnt_today
Time Out Magazine (NYC and Sydney as well)
http://www.timeout.com/london
Go and see the Palaces:
http://www.londontown.com/London/London_Palaces
In particular make sure you find the time for Houses of Parliament, St Pauls Cathedral and the Westminster Cathedral. The Victoria and Albert Museum might be worth a go as well – but be prepared to spend the day?

Get along to the Borough Markets opposite London Bridge Station (open Fridays and Saturdays)

There are loads of Gastro Pubs in London, use this to find some? http://www.toptable.com/en-gb/venues/best-for/?l=7&id=29
                When looking for pubs in UK and other places to eat in Europe use this as a guide?
How to make the best of a Weekend in Paris with no prior planning?

Getting around London:
Tube – http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/default.aspx
Try and get an Oyster card before you get there – dead easy to top up on the fly and avoids heaps of queues!

Not only that but you can add, say 20 quid then use a combination of Bus, Train, Tube out and back and it will automatically cap the charge at a max day usage as per these details http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/singlefares/5196.aspx great and easy way to get around and works with RFID – it’s the way ALL public transport should be done

written by dcaddick

So I got this message from my brother today via LinkedIn:

Martin Caddick has sent you a message.
Date: 2/12/2009
Subject: Victorian Bushfire appeal
Many of you know of my other passion of (http://www.everrest.info) which I’m waiting patiently to go and visit for longer periods of time. I spoke to Sunsail yesterday about a idea I had where if anyone was to provide a receipt from either Red Cross or the Salvation Army proving their donation to the fire appeal, then I / we would give them double that as a discount on any charter. Result that I’m after is that anyone who thought they might like to charter would see this as an opportunity to make a sizeable donation to the appeal and also have a cheaper charter holiday. ie. make a $500 donation and get $1000 off your charter.

Confirmed:
"As an additional encouragement for people to donate more than they might otherwise, the owners of EverRest in conjuction with Sunsail are pleased to be able to give people up to $1,000 off the price of their charter departing between now and 12 Aug 09. When you provide evidence of your donation to either the Red Cross or Salvation Army appeals you will receive a reciprocal amount off your charter fee."

"The fine print. This can’t be combined with any other offers, it can’t be used retrospectively with any bookings, it’s only applicable for EverRest not any other Sunsail boats and there is a maximum discount of $1,000."

Thanks for your time.

So if you’re interested? head over to his website at http://www.everrest.info and register your interest?

BTW – the Cat is based in Hamilton Island, in Queensland right in the Great Barrier Reef

written by dcaddick

Problem:
So how come the Volume on the TV always seems to jump that little (or a lot?) extra during the ad breaks? If we can all take our MP3’s and set them all to the same volume how come the TV Stations/Channels/Studios do the same thing? Are they just lazy or what?

I know it’s not just me right? Search on google with this string – loud volume on tv during ad breaks and you will get:

TV ads too loud, industry watchdog says – Moves to ‘minimise annoyance’, save eardrums
Editorial: TV Ad Volume: Loud Defeats the Purpose
Five’s ad breaks too loud for ASA
Why are TV commercials louder than the show?
Why are TV adverts so loud?
Why are the ads so loud?
‘Excessively loud’ TV adverts to be banned in crackdown after viewer complaints
Bill seeks to turn down sound on TV ads

Now this is just a quick selection from Australia, UK and the US…..

Workaround:
*If* you have a media centre you can record in almost real time and then get the unit to “skip” the adds?

But to be perfectly honest, I don’t mind the ads and if this is what keeps folks at Channel Nine (here in Australia) able to then produce local content like “Underbelly” then that’s fine with me. I would just like to preset the ad volume at 50% say to compensate what it sound like?

Back to the Media Centre – it is possible to detect Ads and do something about it using something like the DVRMSToolbox but unfortunately the disadvantage of this is that you can only do it when watching shows that have already been recorded – not live TV.

DVRMSToolbox – andy vt’s tools & blog
DVRMSToolbox User Guide

http://www.comskip.org/
Comskip Manual
Tuning Guide
Release History

Potential:
So if comskip manages to create it’s magic based on – “The recording is analyzed on various characteristics such as black frames, silences and changes in aspect ratio”, and my brother has mentioned to me that what happens is that the National TV Station puts out a signal that uses 3 black frames to indicate the “cut” from the program to an ad break so that affiliates can switch in their local ad’s, then if this is the case then surely there is potential to be able to somewhat reliably “recognize” the cut to to ad’s in a live TV transmission?

Can anyone confirm this is the case?

Rather than wait for govt’s to dictate to TV Broadcasters that they MUST have or enforce some kind of “Volume Levelling” system I’d love for the open source community to come up with an alternative that puts the consumer in charge?

I have seen that there are units out there that can limit the “dynamic range” of the TV/Amp system – but I feel that’s a bit of a cheat – in this day and age we should be capable of wresting the volume control away from the advertisers and putting it back in our hands?

written by dcaddick

If you can’t be bothered reading the details – simply use this?

Because the Windows 7 Beta will be offered download-only, it will be provided to you as an ISO image (an .iso file) that you download.  more details below
Update: Windows 7 Beta has still not arrived in “Microsoft Connect” and even though Server 2008 R2 is now there it is still listed as *pending*.

Further Update:
Download link is now here:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
but still very slow……..   ;-P  And it appears to be giving me an Page not found Error?

****Further Update*****
MS would appear to have fixed most of the download performance issues and if you wish to download the ISO from MS you can start here with this Link which *might* work correctly as a direct link for the ISO, regardless I still consider the BitTorrent links below are more reliable as a direct means to download the ISO.

Having said that you should still head over to MS Windows 7 download page and be prepared to login with a Live or Hotmail account so that you can get your Product Key.

It also appears that MS has decided to leave the system in place for up to 3 weeks and are not neccessarily going to limit this to the first 2.5 million downloads as previously stated, but it will be capped at 2.5 million if they don’t exceed this number after 3 weeks… 

Until it does arrive formally you might be interested in these two Torrents?

Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD

Windows.7.Beta.1.Build.7000.LiTE
This “Lite” version is quite interesting?

This is a slimmed down version of the Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 (build 6.1.7000).
- It has a lower resource consumption than the full version, using just over 300Mb main memory when idle* – less than Windows XP SP3!
- This solution is ideal for installation on Netbooks, such as the EeePC or MSi Wind. Total install size is just under 5Gbs, making it much more feasible than Vista.
- The following has been deemed unnecessary and stripped out:
*With Windows Aero disabled.
* Speech & Native Language Support.
* All additional languages.
* Inbox & Premium Inbox games.
* Windows Media Centre.
* Music & Video samples.
* Windows Search.
* Tablet PC features.
- Please note that this is 32-bit English ONLY version. Not recommended as a working OS, as it is still beta version, but it is still much more stable than prior builds (e.g. 6801).
- PlusPatch by Orbit30 is included in the .ISO file under the /crack folder – run this with Administrative privileges post installation.
- Please burn the ISO using Active@ ISO burner available FREE at http://www.ntfs.com, using a SLOW burn speed, ie 1x or 2x. If you are using a previous Windows 7 Build, I would NOT recommend performing an Upgrade – use Clean Installation!
- Installation was tested in a virtualised environment under VMware Workstation – installation was under 30 minutes and no problems were encountered.
Any questions post a comment.

And just in case you are interested in the Keynote at CES from Steve Ballmer regarding the release of Windows 7

Windows 7 Home Page

As of today, I am running the Windows 7 Beta on several different PCs including my laptop, my work PC, and my PC at home, which I upgraded recently to Windows 7 from Windows Vista SP1. (I’ll be outlining the PCs I’m using to test Windows 7 shortly.) I’m all connected with HomeGroup, I’ve got several different Libraries set up, and I’m loving the new Windows Taskbar. I’ve got Windows Media Center recording my favorite TV shows and my Zune 80 syncing up with the Zune software. And things are even better with Windows Live Essentials installed. I find the Windows 7 Beta to be an amazing beta release and I am extremely excited for you to get your hands on it later this week! I’d like to take a moment to share some specifics regarding the Windows 7 Beta that I think are very important for people looking to give Windows 7 a spin.

On January 9th, the Windows 7 Beta will be available for Windows enthusiasts to download via the Windows 7 page on Windows.com. The Windows 7 Beta is going to be available download-only (we’re not sending out physical media) and available for a limited time to the first 2.5 million people who download the beta.

The Windows 7 Beta will be available in English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Hindi, and each language will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (except Hindi which will only be available in 32-bit). Because the Windows 7 Beta will be offered download-only, it will be provided to you as an ISO image (an .iso file) that you download. After downloading either the 32-bit or 64-bit ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta, you will be required to burn the ISO image to a DVD to install Windows 7. So you want to be sure you have a DVD burner before spending the time downloading the ISO image.

To burn the ISO image of the Windows 7 Beta to DVD, if your PC comes with Nero or Roxio products – you should be able to burn the ISO image to DVD. If you don’t already have DVD burning software on your PC, you can also check out ImgBurn which is free and can be downloaded here.

The Windows 7 Beta only supports Windows Vista SP1 to Windows 7 upgrades. So if you intend to do an upgrade – be sure it is on a PC running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. We are not yet announcing anything regarding finalized upgrade paths for Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Beta will be only available in one edition, which is roughly equivalent the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista.

Also, another important thing to keep in mind is that the Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

I also need to emphasize that this is a beta of an unreleased operating system. Be sure to backup all your important data. As much as the Windows 7 Beta completely rocks, part of the beta process is discovering bugs and reporting those bugs. Some of those bugs could possibly lead to data loss. I tend to be a risk-taker myself and have gone all-out with the Windows 7 Beta by putting it on almost all my PCs both at work and at home, but not everyone should do this. I recommend using Windows Vista’s Backup and Restore features to ensure your information is backed up before trying out the Windows 7 Beta. Click here for several methods of backing up your data in Windows Vista.

The Windows 7 Beta is targeted toward the enthusiast crowd – people excited and knowledgeable with technology. If you don’t quite understand much of what I’ve written above, it is probably best you don’t try to install the Windows 7 Beta.

If you are an IT Professional, you can visit the Springboard Series for Windows 7 on TechNet (see the Windows 7 tab) on January 9th to sign up for the Windows 7 Beta but also can also get access to dynamic resources including video walkthroughs and the new Windows 7 forums.

written by dcaddick

I was looking through some of the details coming through on the MSDN Blog from the Engineering Team responsible for Windows 7 and thought it might be useful to have a consolidated list of what’s what?

I hope it’s useful?

At Home with HomeGroup in Windows 7
How the Networking side of things will work in your various locations and scenarios.

Accessibility in Windows 7
API’s and the UI.

The Windows 7 Taskbar
Taskbar (as the name implies) along with Jump Lists, Thumb Nails, Notifications, and things like AeroPeek.

Disk Space
File System and what uses all the space on your Hard Drive?

Action Center
MS are actually trying to reduce the amount of notifications you get so that you don’t get annoyed by all those “confirm/OK” dialogs…..

Follow-up: Windows Desktop Search

Engineering 7: A view from the bottom

User Account Control

Follow-up: Managing Windows windows

Follow-up: Starting, Launching, and Switching

Back from the PDC…next up, WinHEC
A list of presentations from the Developer Conference

For those of you interested in the Windows 7 APIs and what’s new for developers there is an overview document that you might find valuable.  SeeWindows 7 Developer Guide on MSDN.

Thank you very much for all the emails you have sent.  I always share them with the team and really appreciate it.

KYN02 Day Two #1 – Ray Ozzie, Steven Sinofsky, Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell (Windows 7 starts +17:00 minutes)
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/KYN02/
PC01 Windows 7: Web Services in Native Code
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC01/
PC02 Windows 7: Extending Battery Life with Energy Efficient Applications
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC02/
PC03 Windows 7: Developing Multi-touch Applications
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC03/
PC04 Windows 7: Writing Your Application to Shine on Modern Graphics Hardware
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC04/
PC13 Windows 7: Building Great Audio Communications Applications
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC13/
PC14 Windows 7 Scenic Ribbon: The next generation user experience for presenting commands in Win32 applications.
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC14/
PC15 Windows 7: Benefiting from Documents and Printing Convergence
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC15/
PC16 Windows 7: Empower users to find, visualize and organize their data with Libraries and the Explorer
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC16/
PC18 Windows 7: Introducing Direct2D and DirectWrite
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC18/
PC19 Windows 7: Designing Efficient Background Processes
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC19/
PC22 Windows 7: Design Principles for Windows 7
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC22/
PC23 Windows 7: Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC23/
PC24 Windows 7: Welcome to the Windows 7 Desktop
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC24/
PC25 Windows 7: The Sensor and Location Platform: Building Context-Aware Applications
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC25/
PC42 Windows 7: Deploying Your Application with Windows Installer (MSI) and ClickOnce
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC42/
PC43 Deep Dive: What’s New with user32 and comctl32 in Win32
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC43/
PC44 Windows 7: Programming Sync Providers That Work Great with Windows
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC44/
PC50 Windows 7: Using Instrumentation and Diagnostics to Develop High Quality Software
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC50/
PC51 Windows 7: Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC51/
PC52 Windows 7: Writing World-Ready Applications
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC52/
ES20 Developing Applications for More Than 64 Logical Processors in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/ES20/

But the most interesting one is…  

Continuing our discussion on performance…

Given this focus across different types of measurement it is important to understand that the overall goal we have for Windows 7 is for you to experience a system that is as good as you expect it to be. The perception of performance is just as important as specific benchmarks and so we have to look to a broad set of tools as above to make sure we are operating with a complete picture of performance.

In addition to these broad strategies there are some specific tools we’ve put in place. One of these tools, PerfTrack, takes the role of data to the next level with regard to performance and so will play a significant role in the beta. In addition, it is worth reminding folks about the broad set of efforts that go into engineering for performance:

• We’ve been building out and maintaining a series of runs that measure thousands of little and big things. We’ve been running these before developer check-ins and maintaining performance and responsiveness at a level above which all that self-host our builds will find acceptable. These gates have kept the performance and responsiveness of our daily builds at a high enough level that thousands have found it possible to run their main systems on Windows 7 for extended periods of time, doing their normal daily work.
• We’ve been driving down footprint, reducing our service costs, improving the efficiency of key code paths, refactoring locks to improve scalability, reducing hangs, improving our I/O efficiency and much more. These are scenario driven based on real world execution paths we know from our telemetry to be common.
• We’ve been partnering closely with the top OEMs, ISVs and IHVs. Our tools have been made public, we’ve held numerous training sessions, and we’ve been focusing heavily on shipping systems in an effort to insure customers get great performing systems out of the box, with great battery life too.
• Within the Windows dev team, we’ve placed a simple trace capturing tool on everyone’s desktop. This desktop tool allows each person to run 24×7 with performance tracing enabled. If anything seems slow or sluggish, they can immediately save the last minute-or-so of activity and send it for automated analysis. Additionally, a team of people visually inspect the traces for new issues or issues not yet decipherable by our automation. The traces are incredibly rich and allow us to get to the root of top issues most of the time.
• For all Pre-Beta, Beta and RTM users, we’ve developed a new form of instrumentation and have used it to instrument over 500 locations in the operating system and inbox applications. This new instrumentation is simple in concept, but revolutionary in result. The tool is called PerfTrack, and it has helped confirm our belief that the client benchmarks aren’t too informative about real user responsiveness issues.

Perftrack is a very flexible, low overhead, dynamically configurable telemetry system. For key scenarios throughout Windows 7, there exist “Start” and “Stop” events that bracket the scenario. Scenarios can be pretty much anything; including common things like opening a file, browsing to a web page, opening the control panel, searching for a document, or booting the computer. Again, there are over 500 instrumented scenarios in Windows 7 for Beta.

Obviously, the time between the Stop and Start events is meant to represent the responsiveness of the scenario and clearly we’re using our telemetry infrastructure to send these metrics back to us for analysis. Perftrack’s uniqueness comes not just from what it measure but from the ability to go beyond just observing the occurrence of problematic response times. Perftrack allows us to “dial up” requests for more information, in the form of traces.

…….

As a result of focusing on traces and fixing the very real issue revealed by them, we’ve seen significant improvements in actual responsiveness and have received numerous accolades on Windows 7. Additionally, I’d like to point out that these traces have served to further confirm what we’ve long believed t be the case.

This post provides an overview of the ways we have thought about performance with some specifics about how we measure it throughout the engineering of Windows 7. We believe that throughout the beta we will continue to have great telemetry to help make sure we are achieving our goals and that people perceive Windows 7 to perform well relative to their expectations.

We know many folks will continue to use stop watches, micro-benchmarks, or to drive automated tests. These each have their place in your own analysis and also in our engineering. We thought given all the interest we would talk more about how we measure things and how we’re engineering the product.

written by dcaddick

So it’s been quite some while since I last did a post of any kind as I was away from Aust. sailing and sampling the hospitality in the British Virgin Islands thanks to my brother (thanks Martin), and then on to New York City, and finally London and Guilford (thanks to Lou and David) before making it back home.

Incidentally just before leaving for this trip the Volvo Ocean Race set off – and if you’d like to navigate your own 70 footer around the world and compete then get on to http://www.volvooceanracegame.org/play.php and sign up?

I’m just getting in to Cochin with 51 miles to go. Look out for “WhyKnot”, and Martin my brother is “EverRest”

See you on Leg 3?

***UPDATE***

Shortly after announcing that they now had over 100,000 players it seems that they have found the breaking point? At the moment the link within www.volvooceanracegame.org the game site that hosts the Flash (?) module for the game comes from www.VirtualRegatta.com, and this is now being reported as Oops! this link appears broken

And from this what I also learnt as this appears to have taken down the same kind of game play for the Vendee Globe as well, AND Google Chrome is quite neat for having a “right-click” menu selection of “Inspect element”

So when called it does seem to have a heck of a lot of detail to my untrained eyes?

****UPDATE****

Now back on line……

1156 miles to go

written by dcaddick