Microsoft
Live! 360 conference
- By Jean-Sébastien SLADECEK | Technology January 2nd, 2013
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Recently, I had the chance to attend Live! 360 in Orlando, Florida, a four-in-one conference with presentations focused on Microsoft development (Visual Studio Live!), SQL server building, developing and managing (SQL Server Live!), SharePoint building, developing, implementing and managing (SharePoint Live!) and Cloud Computing (Cloud & Virtualization Live!).
I primarily attended Visual Studio Live! and SharePoint Live! presentations. Over the course of the five days (two days of workshops and three days of conferences), the main subjects discussed were development for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and WinRT with Visual Studio 2012, MVC 4, XAML, JavaScript and jQuery and many more!
On the whole, the presentations and keynotes were excellent, with my favourites being:
- “Build a Windows 8 Application in a Day” workshop by Rockford ‘Rocky’ Lhotka, CTO of Magenic and the creator of the widely used CSLA .NET development framework
- “Windows 8 and the Flexible Workstyle” keynote by Stephen L. Rose, Senior Product Manager for Windows Commercial team for Microsoft
- “What’s New in Windows Phone 8 for Developers” presentation by Nick Landry, Senior Product Manager at Infragistics
- “Application Lifecycle Management: It’s a Team Sport” by Brian Keller, Principal Technical Evangelist for Microsoft specializing in Visual Studio and application lifecycle management
- “Applying JavaScript Patterns” by John Papa, former Senior Technical Evangelist for Microsoft on the Silverlight and Windows 8 teams, and the author of more than 100 articles and 10 books on various technologies
- “Cross Platform C# for iOS, Android and Windows” by Bryan Costanich, Director of Education at Xamarin (the makers of MonoTouch and Mono for Android), former Microsoft Architect and published author
- “Building Single Page Web Applications with HTML5, ASP.NET MVC4, Upshot.js and Web API” by Marcel de Vries, author of articles and whitepapers on .NET and Team System for MSDN
There are many more, but the list is too long to discus in-depth, so let’s focus on the first three listed above.
Workshop: “Build a Windows 8 Application in a Day”
I knew of Rocky Lhotka from having read some of his articles, but had never seen him present at a Microsoft conference and I’m pretty happy that it is done now! Looking back on it, Rocky was by far my favourite presenter of the week (I’ve also got to give a mention to Stephen L. Rose – what a great pitch seller!). Rocky was really sticking to his point, was funny and really knew how to keep the crowd focused. He talked about the Windows 8 development platform and how Windows 7 developers will have to adjust their skills to follow the wave. Then, before getting in the code, he talked about the WinRT platform and its languages projections, application models and how development will now be more in sync to avoid performance bottlenecks and enhance the overall responsiveness of our applications. It was a great day.
Keynote: “Windows 8 and the Flexible Workstyle”
After a great day at Rocky’s workshop, I headed to the opening keynote by Stephen L. Rose even though it was late. I was so convinced by his speech that I wanted to throw out my iPad and Galaxy Nexus and buy a Windows 8 Phone and the new Microsoft Surface tablet.
We were also able to make our mind between Surface and Surface Pro and I saw that even Surface is good, Surface Pro is going to be so great! Biggest differences between these two:
- Surface runs on ARM, meaning that it won’t run desktop applications such as Visual Studio for example
- Surface Pro is going to be able to run Kernel applications (running on an Intel processor), and will also be able to run Flash or Silverlight apps
- Surface will be the Microsoft version of the iPad – but slightly better – and Surface Pro is going to be in a league of its own!
- One drawback of the Pro version: it’s going to have a battery life of approximately five hours compared to 10 hours for the regular one
Like I said before, Steven L. Rose was so excellent that 10 minutes before the end of his presentation when he announced that he was going to take question from the crowd, I said to myself, “What? Already?”
Presentation: “What’s New in Windows Phone 8 for Developers”
I attended a conference by Nick Landry, a Montreal native who spent the past eight years working in New Jersey. Professionally, I don’t do much mobile development, but I’ve always been really interested in it. That said, I went to his presentation with no real expectations other than to learn a little more about developing for the Windows Phone.
And it was greater than expected! We learned a lot, including what makes Windows Phone 8 so unique and some impressive stats:
- There are more than 200/day new applications in the Windows Store
- There are over 28,000 approved developers in the WP marketplace and over 100,000 registered developers in Microsoft AppHub
- The limited number of apps in the Microsoft Store presents a great opportunity for developers to create Windows versions of apps that are already being sold in the Android Play Store and Apple App Store
A few of you may wonder why people bother to develop apps for the Windows Store when only 2.6% of mobile phone users in 2012 used Windows devices. According to IDC (International Data Corporation), there will be five times more Windows Phone users in the next four years! That’s a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 71.3%, making it by far the largest among all companies.
We than explored the subject more in-depth and learned many new Windows Phone 8 features, including what’s new, what the advantages are for developers, and we also talked a little bit about the update dilemma between WP 7.5 and WP 8. We also learned how it can compile data in the cloud, how the activation policy, the tile templates and sizes work. Finally, we reviewed how it is possible to develop and deploy using whatever technology makes sense, whether it is web-based, email or an app. Great subject, great presenter, I had a great time!
Overall, the quality of the presentations at Live! 360 was simply amazing. I hope to attend next year and share more about Microsoft technologies with you.
Tags: Apps, Conference, Live! 360, Microsoft, Microsoft Development, Surface, Windows Phone 8
Microsoft gets Socl
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Social December 7th, 2012
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Ready for another social network? Microsoft is opening up its social network – the aptly named Socl – to the public. Originally a research project by Microsoft Research FUSE labs, Socl was meant to be a social search tool for students. Launched in beta last year to Microsoft employees and university students, it enables people to connect based on shared interests and activities. Much more Pinterest than Facebook, the new network is driven by visual content. Users can create collages made up of links, images, captions and videos.
Will you be joining Socl?
Tags: Microsoft, Social Media, Socl
Keeping it cool
- By Laura CHAMBERS | Culture, Strategy May 3rd, 2012
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When it comes to storing stuff online, the options are endless: Dropbox, iCloud, Google Docs, MegaUpload (RIP), Flickr, the list goes on and on. But as the amount of data we produce increases – everything from tweets and calendar entries to Facebook chat history and YouTube videos – so does the amount of energy and resources needed to process and store it all in the cloud.
For today’s Internet giants, finding innovative ways to improve the efficiency of data centres is essential, not just for the environment, but also for the bottom line. Pike Research predicts that by 2015, investment in energy efficient server farms will reach $41 billion. Many companies have already begun to explore cutting-edge technologies to keep server farms costs down:
Facebook
A group of Facebook engineers were given the challenge of building the mot efficient and economical data centre possible. With every aspect designed from scratch, the new Prineville, Oregon facility uses 38% less energy than other Facebook data centres and cost 24% less to build. To share their findings, Facebook created the Open Compute Project, an industry-wide initiative to promote an open-sourced approach to data centre engineering.Google
Google uses a variety of methods to keep its data centres around the world up and running. In Finland, they converted an old mill into the world’s first seawater-cooled data centre where cold water from the Baltic Sea is pumped through the building to cool it down. At its Georgia, USA facility, Google uses recycled waste water to keep things cool, and in Taiwan, air conditioning is used at night and a thermal energy storage system keeps the facility cool during the day.eBay
Unlike other companies that use cold cooling processes to control temperatures, eBay runs its Phoenix, Arizona data centre at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (most data centres run somewhere between 65-80 degrees). With temperatures so high, they are able to use hot water to cool the facility, which significantly reduces the amount of energy used and the cost of operations.Microsoft
Microsoft’s newly expanded data centre in Dublin, Ireland is cooled using air from outside of the building. The new facility doesn’t require any water for cooling, which make it 50% more efficient than traditional data centres.Apple
The company’s data centre in Maiden, North Carolina runs primarily on renewable energy sources and utilizes chilled water storage and outside air for cooling. Apple says that new additions to the facility will include the country’s biggest end user-owned solar array and the largest nonutility fuel cell installation in the United States.Tags: Apple, Cloud Computing, Data Centre, data centre cooling, Data centre efficiency, Dropbox, Ebay, Facebook, Fuel cell technology, Google, Google Docs, Green computing, iCloud, Megaupload, Microsoft, Open Compute Project, Prineville Data Centre, Renewable energy, Servers, Thermal Energy Storage
Kinect – not just for gaming
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Culture, User Experience January 16th, 2012
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It seems the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with Microsoft’s Kinect. The Chaotic Moon Labs created a Board of Awesomeness aka a Kinect-controlled longboard. Our good friends at Odopod used it to create an interactive window installation. And then there’s the group of scientists that are using the motion-sensing device to study glaciers in Norway. One thing’s for certain… Kinect is one awesome piece of technology.
Tags: Board of Awesomeness, Chaotic Moon Labs, Glaciers, Hack Days, Kinect, Kinect Hacks, Microsoft, Microsoft Kinect, Modifications, Odopod
The Friday Weigh In | Got Your Head in the Cloud?
- By Digital Utility TEAM | Mobile, User Experience October 21st, 2011
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Over the past few years, cloud computing has quite literally taken the world of technology by storm. By way of nothing more than an Internet connection, the cloud can provide users with real-time access to their data across multiple devices from anywhere in the world. In fact, chances are high that you’re already using cloud computing – Hotmail, Google Documents and online banking systems are all part of the cloud.
Unfortunately, the accessible and practical nature of the cloud that makes it so appealing to individuals and businesses in the first place could easily be its downfall. Data stored on a cloud server instead of a local computer network has a much higher likelihood of being intercepted by unauthorized parties.
With everyone from Microsoft (Windows 7 + Windows Live) to Apple (iCloud) bundling cloud functionalities into the latest forms of their respective operating systems, it’s safe to assume that the future of computing lies partly, if not fully, in the cloud.
Are you a supporter of the cloud?
- Yes. I love having access to all of my data at anytime, anywhere. (86%, 12 Votes)
- I haven’t used the cloud yet but I can see its appeal. (14%, 2 Votes)
- I had no clue I was already using the cloud. (0%, 0 Votes)
- No. I don’t think it’s secure enough; I’ll continue to keep my data safe on my own personal computer. (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 14
Loading ...Tags: Apple, Cloud, Google Sync, iCloud, Microsoft, Windows Live
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