Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: 12/15/2013

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Shush, it's SHS... The Scalable Hyperlink Store

Microsoft Research - Scalable Hyperlink Store

The Scalable Hyperlink Store is a specialized "database" for the web graph. SHS maintains the web graph in main memory, distributed over many machines. The system is available as C# source code as well as precompiled binaries.

Publications

Marc Najork, The Scalable Hyperlink Store, in 20th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., June 2009

Marc Najork, Dennis Fetterly, Alan Halverson, Krishnaram Kenthapadi, and Sreenivas Gollapudi, Of Hammers and Nails: An Empirical Comparison of Three Paradigms for Processing Large Graphs, in 5th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), ACM, February 2012

...

Scalable Hyperlink Store (Download)

The Scalable Hyperlink Store is a specialized "database" for the web graph. SHS maintains the web graph in main memory, distributed over many machines.

Download details

File Name: SHS-release-v1.0.zip

Version: 1.0

Date Published: 18 December 2013

Download Size: 4.44 MB

Hum... how to use this... There's got to be a way I can do something with this...

Here's a snip from the zip;

NOTE: This is a MSR-LA licensed project (so no commercial usage)

Disk2vhd turns 2, v2.0 that is, and a few more Sysinternals utility updates

Sysinternals Site Discussion - Updates: Coreinfo v3.21, Disk2vhd v2.0, LiveKd v5.31

Coreinfo v3.21: CoreInfo is a command-line tool for reporting processor topology, NUMA performance, and processor features. The v3.21 release adds microcode reporting.

Disk2vhd v2.0: Disk2vhd, a utility for performing physical-to-virtual conversion of Windows systems, adds support for VHDX-formatted VHDs (thanks to Brendan Gruber for contributions), now supports WinRE volumes, can capture removable media, and includes an option to capture live volumes instead of relying on volume shadow copy (VSS).

LiveKd v5.31: LiveKd is a utility for performing live kernel debugging of native systems and virtual machines from the host ...

V2 for Disk2vhd seems weird doesn't it, given how long that utility has been around. In any case, it's great seeing it get some love. I wonder how it will evolve in the new Azure world? Disk2vhd2Azure would be kind of cool... :)

A Sweet Summer Sysinternals Suite Refresh

IT Aphorisms - (For example, "I’m not afraid of hard work, unless it is me doing it.")

simple talk - Phil Factor - IT Aphorisms

An aphorism is a concise or laconic statement that expresses an element of truth, and maybe a sting in the tail. such as ‘I’m an atheist, thank God’, or ‘The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.’ An aphorism that is too often repeated becomes a cliché.

The literature of Information Technology in general is short of aphorisms. It IT, we don’t tend to use them much, Although DBAs will recognize Paul Randal’s famous ‘The answer, as always, is that it depends.’ we generally pine for the seventies when greats such as Fred Brooks Jr, with his classic ‘The Mythical Man-Month’, used the form to perfection. It is full of aphorisms such as ‘our estimating techniques fallaciously confuse effort with progress, hiding the assumption that men and months are interchangeable’, ‘Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later..’, or ‘How does a project get to be a year late?… One day at a time’. Fred Brooks wrote in a flowing prose style of extended aphorisms and the book is as fresh as when it appeared in 1975

I’d like to attempt to revive the tradition of the aphorism in IT writing and presentations, and to get you started I came up with a few to give you the idea of the sort of humor I enjoy. I hope you’ll contribute your own aphorisms as comments.

Excuse this complex and intricate code, I didn’t have the time to make it simple.

If every well-known DBA in the world was laid end-to-end, I’d assume it was the effect of the evening Partying at SQL PASS.

I’m not afraid of hard work, unless it is me doing it.

The only time you can predict the release date of software is after it has happened.

Only a youngster can make a fortune with a startup, since age brings the knowledge and experience that it is impossible.

...

This post had me at the first one (darn, I think I've said that too... Doh! lol)

[Humor] Installing Java...

agile scout - Installing Java…

There's some java I love, and some I hate... I'll leave it up to you to guess which is which.

Siena says, "Make Merry with Metro App Building with this Metro App"

Microsoft's 'Project Siena': A Metro-Style app for creating Windows 8 apps

Codenamed "Project Siena,' the "Metro app that creates apps" (as the folks at Surfacegeeks.net dubbed it) is available in the Windows Store as a free download.

According to the description, Siena's main target audience is "business experts, business analysts, consultants and other app imagineers."

Examples of the kinds of Metro-Style/Windows Store/modern apps that can be built using Siena include apps for navigating "media-rich product catalogs," apps for resolving customer-service issues, and apps that make use of photos, videos, pen and voice notes, tied back in to an "asset database."

"Siena works well with corporate and web data and media content: SharePoint lists, Excel and Azure tables, RSS feeds and the gamut of RESTful services," Microsoft's app-description notes.

...

Microsoft Project Siena (Beta)

Learn More

With Project Siena, you can create powerful, highly interactive, device-first, and cloud-connected apps in minutes or hours—as easily as editing a document.

Help Topics

New to Project Siena? No problem. Learn how to connect to your data, work with visuals, and author expressions.

Sample Apps

View and download sample apps, learn best practices, and see how other app builders are using Project Siena to build visually stunning interactive apps today.

Blog

Get the latest from the Project Siena team, including inside tips and tricks, sample patterns, and videos.

Microsoft "Project Siena" (Windows Store)

Description

Microsoft Project Siena (code name) is the beta release of a new technology for business experts, business analysts, consultants and other app imagineers. Now, without any programming, you can create powerful apps for the device-first and cloud-connected world, with the potential to transform today’s business processes.

Apps to explore media-rich product catalogs and create ensembles that together serve a customer’s needs

Apps used on the spot to resolve customer service bottlenecks and logistics exceptions, with the custom intelligence to help the user make local trade-offs

Apps for auditing and inspecting a manufacturing facility through photos, videos and pen and voice notes, all tied to an asset database

Siena apps are as easy as editing a document. You place some visuals on a canvas. You hook them up to your data. You customize how your app looks and works. Then, if you need special logic and intelligence, you write some Excel-like expressions. You can use your app immediately, or share it with colleagues or the world.

With Siena, you can conceptualize, validate and build your app ideas almost as fast as you can come up with them. And if your needs change tomorrow, updating your app is no problem. Open it. Change it. Share it again, and you’re off to do business.

Siena works well with corporate and web data and media content: SharePoint lists, Excel and Azure tables, RSS feeds and the gamut of RESTful services.

Siena apps are just HTML5 and JavaScript and are deployed and managed like any other Windows 8.x app. In fact, developers can open them up, see what’s there and, if needed, extend them in their favorite programming tools.

Install Siena, watch one of the how-to videos at http://aka.ms/ProjectSiena, and then build the app that you’ve been imagining... in under an hour.

Features

Conceptualize, validate and build your app ideas as easily as editing a document

Connect to corporate and web data

Compose rich interactive visuals to create custom, unique apps

Add business logic and intelligence using the power of Excel-like expressions

Use the app yourself, share with colleagues or with the world

Looks like something fun to play with over the holiday's... I wonder if I can convince my wife to build an app? Now THAT would be a true test... (err... um... not of my patience... no... never that... ;)

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

"The Software Inferno" - Dante's tale, as experienced by a software architect

acmqueue - The Software Inferno

Dante's tale, as experienced by a software architect

Alex E. Bell, The Boeing Company

Preface

The Software Inferno is a tale that parallels The Inferno, Part One of The Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri in the early 1300s. That literary masterpiece describes the condemnation and punishment faced by a variety of sinners in their hell-spent afterlives as recompense for atrocities committed during their earthly existences. The Software Inferno is a similar account, describing a journey where "sinners against software" are encountered amidst their torment, within their assigned areas of eternal condemnation, and paying their penance. In an attempt to preserve some of the original Inferno's spirit and archaic prose, I have reused a few translated fragments of Dante's original text taken from SparkNotes³ and am grateful to include this classic material.

The topology of the Software Inferno is captured in figure 1 and describes the setting for the sorrowful tale you are about to read.

The Journey Begins

Midway through our software project, I found myself in a dark wood, the right road lost. I cannot well recount how I entered it, so full was I of discontent at that point where I abandoned the true path. Yet, the true path is what I had hoped this journey would restore to my troubled soul, and I will now tell of the things I have seen.

...

...

Ante-Inferno

"Leave every hope, ye who enter!" read the inscription on the gate at the edge of the Software Inferno. Here were sighs, laments, and deep wailings resounding through the starless air. Strange tongues, horrible cries, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and hoarse, so were the unwelcoming environs of the Software Inferno.

...

This is an awesome read. It's only 8 pages, great for when you take a break or need to shift gears...

(via SlashDot - The Software Inferno)

[Humor] It's not a bug, it's an...

xkcd - Undocumented Feature

This had people asking me what was so funny this morning. Having just listed to a podcast where they were talking about videos in news streams, this stuck my funny bone...

Does using the Windows 8.x touch/onscreen keyboard in your WPF desktop sound cool to you?

Brian Lagunas - Showing the Windows 8 Touch keyboard in WPF

With the release of Windows 8, the era of touch devices is in full swing. Manufacturers are scrambling to create mobile devices that can run Microsoft Windows with the touch of a finger, without the need for a keyboard and mouse. Even Microsoft has released their very own Surface brand to satisfy this need to run Windows in a mobile world. This is all fine and dandy if you are building Windows Store applications that run on any version of Windows 8, and are built with touch as a first class citizen. Windows Store apps integrate perfectly with the device, such as automatically showing the Windows 8 touch keyboard when giving focus to an input element in the application. Windows Store apps are smart enough to know when I am not using a mouse and keyboard, and I give focus to a TextBox by touching it, it will show the touch keyboard to allow me to input data. On the other hand, if I am using a mouse and keyboard, and I give focus to the TextBox by clicking it with the mouse, the touch keyboard does not show, but rather I use the keyboard to enter my data. This is a nice feature built into the platform.

...

...

This is a pretty cool way to leverage what you've got. If you're already running on Windows 8.x, you might as well use as much of it as you can, right? Brian's post does just that...

IE11 Virtual Machines now just a download away...

IEBlog - IE11 Virtual Machines Now Available on modern.IE

With the recent release of Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7, we have added IE11 for Windows 7 and IE11 on Windows 8.1 to the suite of virtual machines available on modern.IE for testing Internet Explorer across platforms and versions. We have also updated all of the virtual machines based on your feedback, to make browser testing easier. The VMs are available for free for the purpose of testing your site on all versions of Internet Explorer; regardless of your development platform. The images are available for Linux, Mac and Windows across the most common desktop virtualization technologies.

Among the changes we made to the refreshed VMs are:

Windows update is set to off by default to prevent VMs with older versions of IE from automatically updating themselves to newer IE versions

Extended the expiration time of the images

Answers to frequently asked questions are now readily accessible from the Windows desktop

Added a VM build version number and set the IE home page to visit modern.IE to check for VM updates

VMs for testing on IE are just one of many free tools we offer on modern.IE. Check out these additional tools designed to help reduce your testing time:

A static code site-scanner to check for common compatibility problems

Add our compatibility inspector JavaScript library on your site without touching a line of code thanks to Sauce Labs automation

See how your site renders across popular devices and browsers with BrowserStack screenshots

See techniques and code we developed behind the scenes for some amazing HTML5 Web sites through tech teardowns

...

If you're a company looking to test your product on IE11, or a dev needing to do the same thing, or maybe an IT, or just want to check it out, these VM's are one of the easiest and safest ways of doing it...

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Reduce your lifetime programming typo count with help from typing.io (Yes, a Typing Tutor for Devs)

typing.io - Typing Practice for Programmers

Practice typing the awkward characters in code.

No drills — type through open source code in JavaScript, Ruby, C, C++, Java, PHP, Perl, Haskell, Scala, and more.

Eliminate the mistyped keys delaying every edit-compile-test iteration.

Not sure this is something I'd ever pay for, but I love the uniqueness of it and heck, can't blame them for trying to make a buck!

(via Bram.us - Typing.io — Typing Practice for Programmers)

Researching creating looping videos that don't look like they are looping videos (Think "Speed" loop without the glitch)

Microsoft Research - Hugues Hoppe's publications - Automated video looping with progressive dynamism

Abstract: Given a short video we create a representation that captures a spectrum of looping videos with varying levels of dynamism, ranging from a static image to a highly animated loop. In such a progressively dynamic video, scene liveliness can be adjusted interactively using a slider control. Applications include background images and slideshows, where the desired level of activity may depend on personal taste or mood. The representation also provides a segmentation of the scene into independently looping regions, enabling interactive local adjustment over dynamism. For a landscape scene, this control might correspond to selective animation and deanimation of grass motion, water ripples, and swaying trees. Converting arbitrary video to looping content is a challenging research problem. Unlike prior work, we explore an optimization in which each pixel automatically determines its own looping period. The resulting nested segmentation of static and dynamic scene regions forms an extremely compact representation.

paper

video

talk

results

comparisons

progressive example

demo tool

Not really sure what to tag this as, but I thought it was really kind of cool, I mean who doesn't love a little "..selective animation and deanimation of grass motion, water ripples, and swaying trees..?" :)

(via Kurt Shintaku's Blog - DOWNLOAD: “Video Loops” – A unique Animated GIF generator from Microsoft Research)

Want an introduction to Microsoft System Center 2012 R2? This ebook might be what you need, "Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2"

Microsoft Press - Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2

We’re happy to announce a new free ebook – Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 by Mitch Tulloch with Symon Perriman and the System Center Team.

DOWNLOAD LINKS

Download the PDF - here

Download the Mobi file for Kindle –coming soon

Download the ePub file – coming soon

Introduction

Microsoft System Center is one of the three pillars of Microsoft’s Cloud OS vision that will transform the traditional datacenter environment, help businesses unlock insights in data stored anywhere, enable the development of a wide range of modern business applications, and empower IT to support users who work anywhere while being able to manage any device in a secure and consistent way. The other two pillars of the Cloud OS are, of course, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Azure, and Microsoft Press has recently released free Introducing books on these platforms as well.

Whether you are new to System Center or are already using it in your business, this book has something that should interest you. The capabilities of each component of System Center 2012 R2 are first described and then demonstrated chapter by chapter. Real-world and under-the-hood insights are also provided by insiders at Microsoft who live and breathe System Center, and those of you who are experienced with the platform will benefit from the wisdom and experience of these experts. We also included a list of additional resources at the end of each chapter where you can learn more about each System Center component.

I've gotten really behind the ball when it comes to keeping up with System Center (I think SMS was the last time I felt I knew a little about it, so, yeah, a while). When/if I want to catch up, this book looks like a must read.

'What's New in Visual Studio 2013," a four hour tour...

Channel 9 - What's New in Visual Studio 2013

Developers, are you trying to figure out what Visual Studio 2013 has to offer you? Whether you develop for the web, Windows, or Windows Phone, and whether you are using C#, XAML, HTML, or Visual Basic, this course is for you. It focuses on some of the key new features, addressed individually in sessions throughout the day, so that you can tune in to the specific tools that will help you develop more quickly and easily. Start by learning about the integrated development environment (IDE), and then attend sessions including improved IntelliSense, easier debugging, and better tools for application lifecycle management (ALM).

What’s New in Visual Studio 2013- (01) What's New in the IDE

What’s New in Visual Studio 2013- (02) New Features for Web Developers

What’s New in Visual Studio 2013- (03) Application Lifecycle Management

What’s New in Visual Studio 2013- (04) What's New for App Developers

I caught this live last week and it's a great series. Christopher Harrison and Susan Ibach did a great job in providing a good deal about the "new" that's available in VS/TFS 2013. And if you're a shortcut key collector, you have to catch these...

"How to React to Enemy Contact" if you're an 88M, 730th Transportation Company Shows How...

730th Transportation Company Trains on How to React to Enemy Contact

730th Transportation Company training at Fort McCoy, Wis., during the Combat Support Training Exercise (CSTX) 86-13-01. The unit is rehearsing a combat maneuver called the wagon wheel. Video by Staff Sgt. Jerimiah Richardson, 366th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.

This is my son's unit when they were at their annual training this past summer... Not really sure why the video's category is Comedy. :/

Surface RT/Pro/Pro 2 User Guide PDF's available

Kurt Shintaku's Blog - DOWNLOAD: Surface RT/Pro/Pro 2 User Guides

If you’re new to Surface, download your Surface User Guide. These printable manuals have info and tips to help you get the most from your Surface.

Surface RT User Guide (PDF)

Surface 2 User Guide (PDF)

Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 User Guide (PDF)

Taken from:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/userguides [GD: Post Leached in Full]

Will come in handy for those who get a Surface under the Christmas Tree...

Monday, December 16, 2013

Bing Code Snippets - C#, JavaScript, HTML and XML code snippets for Bing dev's

Visual Studio Gallery - Bing Code Snippets

A collection of C#, JavaScript, HTML and XML code snippets for Bing developers.

The Bing Code Snippets package uses the Code Snippets technology of Visual Studio to provide blocks of code that you can insert into your C# or JavaScript Windows Store applications. These snippets support the following Bing technologies:

Translator control

Translator API

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) control

Speech Recognition control

Speech Synthesis (Text to Speech)

Requirements

The Bing Code Snippets package requires Visual Studio 2013 on Windows 8.1. In addition, working with Bing Translator, OCR, and Speech Recognition technologies require that you download the relevant controls and acquire credentials from the Windows Azure Data Marketplace.

...

If you're doing, or thinking of doing bing dev, I think these snippets might come in real handy...

Roslyn Gets Turned On (Oh, get your mind out of the gutter...)

C# Frequently Asked Questions - Throwing the Big Switch on Roslyn (Matt Gertz, VS Managed Languages Development Manager)

So, the entryway to my house has eight light switches along the wall. Two of them control the porch lights, and another two work the same entryway light (despite the switches being only a couple of feet apart). I haven’t the foggiest idea what the rest of the switches do. I’ve been scared to try them out, actually. (I worry that one day I’ll accidentally throw one of them and find out later that my couch is missing or something odd like that.)

However, I am pleased to announce that we’ve turned on quite a different switch here on the Managed Languages team, with very successful results! As many of you know, we’ve been diligently working on a replacement for our VB & C# compilers (and certain IDE pieces that leverage them) which is code-named “Roslyn.” Roslyn introduces a far more open model for compilation, which will allow developers to reach inside the compiler itself and see the world (or, at least, solutions and projects) as it does; this, in turn, will lead to far richer IDE and diagnostics being able to be developed at considerably reduced effort and cost.

And now, we’ve turned on The Big Switch in the Visual Studio organization and turned on Roslyn!

The Big Leap Forward ...

So… you’re done?

Not quite. “Dogfooding” is a prelude to being done, but there’s still a bit of polish to put on before the new code is truly complete...

So, then, when can we see it?

As you may know, our last generally-available preview for Roslyn was September 2012. No, that year is not a typo. Yeah, we do feel a bit embarrassed about that. Yes, we’ve been a little quiet. No, there was nothing wrong going on here, things were actually going extremely well, it’s just that we’ve just been really heads’ down and focused on The Big Switch and…

Oh, to heck with the excuses, and let me just tell you what we’re doing. ...

Onward!

We wish you all the best for the New Year – 2014 is going to be an exciting year for us all vis-à-vis Roslyn...

Microsoft® “Roslyn” CTP (September 2012)

Traditionally, compilers are black boxes – source code goes in one end and object files or assemblies come out the other end. The Roslyn project changes that model by opening up the Visual Basic and C# compilers as APIs. These APIs allow tools and end-users to share in the wealth of information the compilers have about code. The Roslyn CTP previews the next generation of language object models for code generation, analysis, and refactoring, and the upcoming support for scripting and interactive use of VB and C#.

...

This IS going to make the next version of .Net and VS something very interesting. Gee, I wonder if we're going to be hearing about this much at Build 2014? ;|

Team Foundation Server 2013 Collaboration Provider for Skype Released...

Team Foundation Server Collaboration Providers

Enable support for 3rd party instant messenger clients on the TFS Power Tools 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013

Skype Version 4.0

Release Notes

Tested Skype versions
- Skype 6.11.0.102

Supported features:
- sending Instant Messages to team members
- making calls with team members
- making video call with team members
- showing status and avatar of team members in team member hub (Team Explorer)

Limitations:
- support for group chats/calls was removed in 2012/2013 power tools release

Know issues / Issues / FAQ
For other issues / common questions consider http://tfscollab.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Skype%20Provider%20V3

Supported Power Tools Version
TFS Power Tools 2013

Cool tool, with source, that shows how you can extended Team Explorer, adding communication providers. That said, given the upcoming Skype COM'pocalypse I have to wonder at the long term viability of this...

TFS Administration Tool 2.3 (aka 2013 Version) Now Available

Grant Holliday’s blog - TFS Administration Tool 2.3 (2013) Released

As I did after the last major TFS release, the TFS Administration Tool has been updated to depend upon the TFS 2013 Object Model. You no-longer need Team Explorer 2012 installed to use the tool. It can be installed on machines running either the stand-alone object model (http://aka.ms/TFSOM2013), TFS 2013 or Visual Studio 2013.

This release supports SharePoint groups/roles, thanks to a community contribution. There are no other major functional changed between the release and the previous (2.2) release.

http://tfsadmin.codeplex.com/

Currently, the MSI in the downloaded ZIP file is flagged by Windows SmartScreen as “unsafe” – based upon the experience of the last release, in about a week, it will build enough “reputation” to be considered safe.

...

Team Foundation Server Administration Tool

The TFS Administration Tool allows Team Foundation Server administrators to manage user permissions on all three platforms utilized by Team Foundation Server:

Team Foundation Server,

SharePoint, and

SQL Server Reporting Services.

The tool also allows administrators to easily copy user permissions among team projects and to easily identify any missing permissions on any of the three platforms.
Announcements

December 16, 2013-TFS Administration Tool 2.3 released
We are pleased to announce that the TFS Administration Tool 2.3 has been updated to the Team Foundation Server 2013 object model and it can be installed on machines running either the stand-alone object model or Visual Studio 2013.

This release supports SharePoint groups/roles. There are no other major functional changed between the release and the previous (2.2) release.

It is not required to uninstall the previous (2.2) release. Installing this release will update the shortcut to the latest version.

Please download TFS Administration Tool 2.3, and let us know what you think about the tool. In case you run into a bug please open an issue and include either the contents of the "Output" window as an attachment or the contents of the log file saved in the "Logs" folder so that our team can easily reproduce and investigate the problem. Please feel free to remove the confidential information like user accounts, or server names.

Download TFS Administration Tool 2.3