Month: March 2010

Here are some video on HPC that I found on the Microsoft site

HPC R2 Demo:New heat map and Location –based node Management

In this short video (7 min.), Cathy Palmer, lead PM in the HPC team, demonstrates some of the new features for managing and monitoring large-scale clusters with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 1.

See it here

HPC R2 Demo: New diagnostics extensibility features

In this video, Rae Wang, a PM in the HPC team, demonstrates the new features for adding custom diagnostics tests to a cluster running the Beta 1 release of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2.

See it here

 

HPC R2 Demo: New job progress, job troubleshooting

Ryan Baker, UX Researcher in the HPC team, demonstrates the new UI changes in the Beta 1 release of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 for job progress and job troubleshooting. He also demonstrates how the new service-balanced scheduling policy works in this release. This demo was recorded during the SC 09 conference in Portland.

See it here

HPC Templates with Josh Barnard

HPC PM Josh Barnard discusses how to use templates in High Performance Computing. Job templates provide a way to control the job submission process—partitioning the cluster, prioritizing the jobs, and limiting the resources used by jobs. They let the IT administrator specify different handling for different types of jobs. For the user, job templates provide a way to easily submit a job without having to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the Job Scheduler works.

See it here

 

I just found some new tools for integrating SharePoint and HPC (High Performance Computing) on Microsoft here, the docs are here.

HPC Pack 2008 Integration with SharePoint document.

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Windows HPC Server 2008

This section includes information about using the HPC Pack 2008 SharePoint Integration Sample. The sample includes Web Parts that a SharePoint Server 2007 administrator can install on the server. A SharePoint site administrator can use the HPC Web Parts to create a Web-based interface to a Windows® HPC Server 2008 cluster.

You can download the sample at HPC Pack 2008 SharePoint Integration Sample.

In this section:

• What is Included in the HPC Pack 2008 SharePoint Integration Sample
• Requirements for Installing and Using the HPC Web Parts
• Deploy the HPC Web Parts Solution and Specify the Head Node
• Create an HPC SharePoint Site
• Troubleshooting the HPC Web Parts

    On the Microsoft download you can find the;

HPC Pack 2008 SP1 SDK Supplement: SharePoint Integration Sample includes a set of SharePoint Web Parts (in a SharePoint solution file) that adds a job submission interface for a Windows HPC Server 2008-based cluster. You can add the Web Parts to an existing site hosted in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide a Web-based interface for HPC users. The sample also includes the source code as an example for developers who want to modify the Web Parts or develop new Web Parts to access the cluster.
For detailed information about the sample Web Parts and system requirements, steps for deploying the solution file, specifying the head node, creating a SharePoint site that uses the HPC Web Parts, and troubleshooting

You can get it here

Download Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta 2

To download the Beta 2 release of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2, you must be registered on the Microsoft Connect site for the Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta Program: After you join the program, you can download Beta 2.

On the HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta Program site, click Downloads on the left pane to go to the Downloads page. On the Downloads page, you can find:

• Microsoft® HPC Pack 2008 R2 Beta 2: The high performance computing component of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. It includes management tools, a job scheduler, and Microsoft Message Passing Interface (MS-MPI). HPC Pack 2008 R2 Beta 2 must be installed on a computer running Windows Server® 2008 R2 HPC Edition, or any other 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2. HPC Pack 2008 R2 can also be used to install the management tools on a client computer.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition : The evaluation version of the operating system.
• HPC Pack 2008 R2 SDK: The software development kit for writing applications that call the HPC scheduler APIs.

 

I recently got a notice for a bank I deal with the they wanted to verify a charge I did, to protect my identify. But this is where it get stupid.

——————————————————

They send me a e-mail

If you look at the link

Transaction Authorized -  it links to https:// activityconfirmation.chase.com/p/Chase_Fraud_RTM/ProdResponseHash?seq=&resp=Y

Note: Real sequence number has been changed to protect data

Upon clicking the link, the next site I see

activityconfirmation.chase.com and then get redirected to

https:// profile.na.epidm.net/ChaseRTM/HandleResponse.aspx?skey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxd&curres=Y

Note:Real sequence number has been changed to protect data

Who Is profile.na.epidm.net ??? and the web site has broken links on it !

——————————————————

So I call Chase and they do not know who epidm.net is  but they say contact Abuse @ Chase.com  so i do

and this is the best part

the reply is

——————————————————

Hello,

Thank you for forwarding your recent e-mail to our Abuse mailbox. We have reviewed the message and it is a valid notification from us regarding Urgent Chase Confirmation ?

Recent transaction for account ending in xxxx. If you have any questions or concerns about this e-mail, please contact us at 1-877-CHASEPC. Thanks for choosing Chase.

Thank you,

Email Customer Service Representative

email address [email protected]

——————————————————

So not I get reply from not Chase but another company and they do not understand why I think their security stinks.

I then call Chase and after speaking to 20 people i get—you guessed, it no it not a issue.

——————————————————

Why the Chase Bank does not understand is it not good to deal with a bank you redirects you to 3 different domains and they think that fine.

My warning is to deal with banks who understand security and practice it. Do not use a bank if they do not understand on-line security. Sorry Chase you lost me as a customer.

 

 

At the RSA Conference a talk / case study about MOBOTS: A Pocketful of Pwnage was presented.

The idea was to create a application that would be downloaded to an Iphone or  Android. The application which seamed harmless had the opportunity to demonstrate how they could control lots of smartphones. This was a concept not a real attack but proves it very possible to read the full article please go to

 TippingPoint Digital Vaccine Laboratories blog and look for

MOBOTS: WeatherFist Exposed By Daniel Tijerina

or you can click here

The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. It is the same tool Microsoft Learning uses internally to (also check out the beta of SnackBox where we can host your LCDS-created Learning Snacks http://beta.snackbox.microsoft.com/)

The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, including interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia.

 

What does the LCDS offer?

– With the LCDS, the Microsoft Learning community can:

– Develop and deliver content quickly, while it is timely and relevant.

– Deliver Web content that conforms to SCORM 1.2, and which can be hosted in a learning management system.

– Upload or attach existing content. (LCDS supports multiple file formats.)

– Choose from a wide variety of forms for authoring rich e-learning content and Silverlight-based interactive components.

– Develop course structure and easily rearrange it at any time.

– Download sample courses (LCDS must be installed)

Highlights of this release

New v2.4 features for learners and for authors of E-Learning courses and Learning Snacks include:

• E-learning courses are Firefox 3.5–compatible • LCDS authoring is Windows 7–compatible • LCDS authoring and e-learning courses are Microsoft Silverlight 3.0–compatible • Indexing, spell check, and print are compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2010 • Refreshed thumbnail user interface is available, including for the single SCO package option • Community authors get packaging options (SCORM 1.2 and single SCO options) for the first time • Minimum topic limit is now 1 instead of 4 • Kazakh language added for the viewer

Also available on the site are 7 localized LCDS v2.3 versions: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Russian, Hindi, Polish, Turkish, and Spanish.

Get it here

 

 

I heard that Microsoft collected lots of information during Windows 7 beta process, A few weeks ago i went to a talk about the process Microsoft uses to track and look at bugs. ‘They share the following information with me.

 

What else was interesting it to understand how Windows error reporting works. (WER).

Windows Error Reporting (WER) is a set of Windows technologies that capture software crash data and support end-user reporting of crash information. Through Winqual services, software and hardware vendors can access reports in order to analyze and respond to these problems. WER technologies are implemented in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and later.

• Broad-based trend analysis of error reporting data shows that across all the issues that exist on the affected Windows platforms and the number of incidents received:
• Fixing 20 percent of the top-reported bugs can solve 80 percent of customer issues.
• Addressing 1 percent of the bugs would address 50 percent of the customer issues.

Vendors can use WER to view error reports at no charge. This service is available for all products, even those that do not qualify for the "Windows hardware" logo—although Microsoft  recommends that you submit your products to the Windows Logo Program.

For vendors to join the WER site and be able to, view error reports:

1.  Establish a Winqual account.
   To protect companies from impersonation and to ensure that the error reports go to a representative from the correct company, the Winqual Web site requires your company to have a valid VeriSign ID. Check with your Legal Department; your company might already have a VeriSign ID (also called a Software Publisher’s Digital ID for Authenticode).
2. Check on Winqual to see if your company already has an account.
3. Accept the Windows Error Reporting Agreement.
4. Sign in to the Winqual site.
5. Click Windows Error Reports.

If you do not see your company’s error reports, users of your products might not have submitted error reports to Microsoft. However, it might also be because Microsoft does not have sufficient information to match your company with error reports related to your products.

FYI all personal data,  i.e. Who you are are scrubbed form these reports.

 

72 Hours of Non-Stop Geekiness – Free to All Educators!

Put simply: if you spend any time at all teaching others to use Microsoft technology—even if you’re not an MCT—you really ought to attend our upcoming MCT & Educator Readiness Virtual Summit, happening around the clock from April 7 through April 9th.

It’s technical, it’s instructional, it’s fun, and it’s free—you can’t ask for much more than that!

Among the many sessions to look forward to are:

• Train-the-trainer sessions led by course authors
• Deep dives and tips & tricks sessions led by expert MCTs, MVPs, and Microsoft Evangelists
• Technical sessions for IT Pros, Developers, Dynamics users, and Office power users
• Presentation and teaching skills sessions
• Inside looks at Microsoft certifications
• Business opportunities for content developers

…not to mention a ton of interactive expert chat sessions!

Okay, so maybe 72 consecutive hours is a bit too much for any one person to devote to their professional development (maybe). Luckily, all sessions will be recorded for your future viewing pleasure—in fact, once you register for the April event, you can immediately view sessions from last year’s summit and our monthly “Third Thursday” readiness mini-conferences.

Register today—and please help us spread the word: the more people we reach with this event, the more we can justify investing for next year! 🙂

This is a post by  Ken Rosen on Posted 15 Mar 2010 1:10 PM

That I am reposting here.

 

Windows Phone 7 Series promises to be an amazing mobile phone operating system given its innovative user interface and functionality, as well as its great development platform upon which you can quickly and easily build games and applications. With a myriad of new devices, a powerful and immersive software platform, and a new marketplace to attract developers and provide easy access to applications, consumer demand for Windows Phones will be high, and developers will quickly adopt the Windows Phone platform to capitalize on this growing mobile marketplace. This Training Kit will give you a jumpstart into the new Windows Phone world by providing you with a step-by-step explanation of the tools to use and some key concepts for programming Windows Phones.

get it here

 

Programming Windows Phone 7 Series. This preview eBook contains six chapters in three parts (153 pages total):

Part I   Getting Started

Chapter 1   Phone Hardware + Your Software

Chapter 2   Hello, Windows Phone

Part II   Silverlight

Chapter 3   Code and XAML

Chapter 4   Presentation and Layout

Part III   XNA

Chapter 5   Principles of Movement

Chapter 6   Textures and Sprites

Here’s a quick excerpt from the ebook:

Chapter 1
Phone Hardware + Your Software

Sometimes it becomes apparent that previous approaches to a problem haven’t quite worked the way you anticipated. Perhaps you just need to clear away the smoky residue of the past, take a deep breath, and try again with a new attitude and fresh ideas. In golf, it’s known as a “mulligan”; in schoolyard sports, it’s called a “do-over”; and in the computer industry, we say it’s a “reboot.”

A reboot is what Microsoft has initiated with its new approach to the mobile phone market. On February 15, 2010, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series and promised a product introduction in time for year-end holiday shopping. With its clean look, striking fonts, and new organizational paradigms, Windows Phone 7 Series not only represents a break with the Windows Mobile past but also differentiates itself from other smartphones currently in the market.

For programmers, the news from Barcelona was certainly intriguing but hardly illuminating. Exactly how do we write programs for this new Windows Phone 7 Series? Developers detected a few hints but no real facts. The really important stuff wouldn’t be disclosed until mid-March at MIX 2010 in Las Vegas.

Silverlight or XNA?

Intelligent speculation about the application platform for the Windows Phone 7 Series has gravitated around two possibilities: Silverlight and XNA.

Since about 2008, programmers have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of a mobile version of Silverlight. Silverlight, a spinoff of the client-based Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), has already given Web programmers unprecedented power to develop sophisticated user interfaces with a mix of traditional controls, high-quality text, vector graphics, media, animation, and data binding that run on multiple platforms and browsers. Many programmers thought Silverlight would be an excellent platform for writing applications and utilities for smartphones.

XNA—the three letters stand for something like “XNA is Not an Acronym”—is Microsoft’s game platform supporting both 2D sprite-based and 3D graphics with a traditional game-loop architecture. Although XNA is mostly associated with writing games for the Xbox 360 console, developers can also target the PC itself, as well as Microsoft’s classy audio player, the Zune. The 2009 release of the Zune HD particularly seemed to suggest a mobile future built around the device’s revamped graphics and multitouch navigation. For many Zune HD users, the most disappointing feature of the device was its inability to make phone calls!

Either Silverlight or XNA would make good sense as the application platform for the Windows Phone 7 Series, but the decision from Microsoft is:

Both!

The Windows Phone 7 Series supports programs written for either Silverlight or XNA. And this we call “an embarrassment of riches.”

 

You can download the ebook in XPS format here. Here it is in PDF format. And the zipped code samples for this draft preview are here.

Microsoft outlined improvements that make it easier to access desktop virtualization. More information on today’s announcement and Microsoft’s virtualization strategy is available here.

New VDI promotions available for qualified customers to choose from today. Microsoft and Citrix Systems are offering the “Rescue for VMware VDI” promotion, which allows VMware View customers to trade in up to 500 licenses at no additional cost, and the “VDI Kick Start” promotion, which offers new customers a more than 50 percent discount off the estimated retail price. Eligibility and other details on the two promotions can be found at http://www.citrixandmicrosoft.com.

Improved licensing model for virtual Windows desktop. Beginning July 1, 2010, Windows Client Software Assurance customers will no longer have to buy a separate license to access their Windows operating system in a VDI environment, as virtual desktop access rights now will be a Software Assurance benefit.

New roaming use rights improve flexibility. Beginning July 1, 2010, Windows Client Software Assurance and new Virtual Desktop Access license customers will have the right to access their virtual Windows desktop and their Microsoft Office applications hosted on VDI technology on secondary, non-corporate network devices, such as home PCs and kiosks.

Windows XP Mode no longer requires hardware virtualization technology. This change simplifies the experience by making virtualization more accessible to many more PCs for small and midsize businesses wanting to migrate to Windows 7 Professional or higher editions, while still running Windows XP-based productivity applications.

Two new features coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 service pack 1. Microsoft Dynamic Memory will allow customers to adjust memory of a guest virtual machine on demand to maximize server hardware use. Microsoft RemoteFX will enable users of virtual desktops and applications to receive a rich 3-D, multimedia experience while accessing information remotely.

New technology agreement with Citrix Systems. The companies will work together to enable the high-definition HDX technology in Citrix XenDesktop to enhance and extend the capabilities of the Microsoft RemoteFX platform.