Softwaremaker - Announcements

Microsoft releases SongSmith: Karaoke in reverse

William Tay — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:27:01 GMT

A short but note(pun-intended)-worthy blog entry. Microsoft releases SongSmith: Karaoke in reverse.

Microsoft Research on Thursday is releasing software that gives musicians, both casual and professional, a new way to speed up song development. Called SongSmith, the $29.99 application creates musical accompaniment based on whatever is sung into the computer's microphone.

In order to do this, the software processes the pitch and tone of what's recorded and lets users hear how it might sound if they had a little backup in the form of a virtual piano, drums, and keyboard. Microsoft is expecting them to use the new track either as inspiration for further song development or as a simple way to create karayoke-quality recordings for friends and family members.

The software lets users change the feel of a song completely using various sliders that adjust mood, volume levels, tempo and what instruments are being used. Users are also able to purchase additional instruments from Garritan for a small fee that can drastically change the way a track sounds. Each purchased instrument comes wrapped in a special installer that automatically adds it to SongSmith. Dan Morris of Microsoft Research tells me there may eventually be a marketplace for other sample providers, although for now the software is using it exclusively because of its the only compatible format.

SongSmith lets you simply sing into your computer's microphone to hear what it would sound like if you had a back-up band.

(Credit: CNET Networks)
SongSmith is starting out as a digital download only, and will be available from Microsoft's recently launched digital downloads store front. Morris says there are no current plans to make the software part of a larger suite of music oriented products from Microsoft. Competitor Apple has offered a slightly similar feature in its Garageband software that gives you virtual band mates that can accompany you as you record music with an in-line microphone, however each of the instruments must be programmed by the user.

One interesting thing to note is that the technology is fully capable of providing automated accompaniment in near real-time. Morris says the only hurdle there is that the programming does all its magic by seeing where users are going with a melody and compensating accordingly. Morris also says a Web based version of the software could be possible later on down the line, although development in that area has been slowed down due to latency and recording quality bottlenecks.

Embedded below are before and after clips of what SongSmith is capable of. As mentioned before, to change the sound of this song users simply need to adjust a slider or two.

Microsoft Surface Computing

William Tay — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:31:37 GMT

I have seen this in the labs in MSFT Corp Redmond at the Centre of Information Work for some time. I am so glad that it is finally out and will be available to the public.

What is even more cool is that the user interface of Surface is done in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). How about that ?

PDC 2007 will be postponed

William Tay — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:15:08 GMT

Postponed. Why ?

Microsoft PopFly

William Tay — Sun, 20 May 2007 15:23:23 GMT

I had talked about Yahoo! Pipes here. It didnt take long (well, maybe longer than some of us would like ..) before MSFT Corp came up with something even better ... AND I mean real better with Silverlight and the works.

I have played around with it and I am IMPRESSED and HOOKED. Upsize my mashups, please.

While Microsoft Popfly is still in alpha, you can still check it out here. To find out what it actually is, there is a good demo-ONLY video here.

Welcome to the Social.

PDC 2007 - in Los Angeles

William Tay — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:40:51 GMT

The Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC), the premier definitive developer event focused on the future of the Microsoft platform, returns in 2007 after a short 2 year break ...

... and its back in Los Angeles again !

I had such a great time back in PDC2005 in Los Angeles, presenting, networking and shooting the Visual Studio 2005 launch video, etc. That event in 2005 must rank tops in my book amongst many of the Microsoft technology events I have attended and/or presented over the years.

Microsoft tends to align PDC events with key product development milestones so we tend to hold the events every couple of years, sometimes even more. There isn’t a set schedule. Therefore, there shouldnt be that "Ah - I think I will skip this and go next year" mentality or something. The last 2 PDCs were some of the biggest Microsoft public events - with the announcements of Longhorn, WinFX, Office Server systems, Vista, etc

It is definitely NOT an event you want to miss. I encourage some of my friends, developers and IT-Pros from Asia-Pacific to save up and attend. The investment made will be well-worth it.

Registration will open in Q4. Do check it out and, more importantly, stay tuned to the registration site here for more details.

Hopefully, this early announcement will help in making sure this event gets into your (or your company's) budget planning for next year.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/

geoBlog - Geographical (Location) Based Logging ?

William Tay — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:16:07 GMT

So, while waiting for a new turn in my career to start, a couple of motivations spurred me to a 2-weekend-long project which I have completed, more or less.

It is no surprise I have always been interested in all kinds of distributed technologies and I have always wanted to hack out a interesting prototype based on GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G and the likes.

One of the motivations I had is to log events based on the trail I have been or want to go on (on a mountain hike, on a cruise, rafting, sailing, etc). It would be nice to have a map associated with it and pinpoint the locations that we left a trail with an option to leave sticky notes on those markers. With our entire landscape rapidly changing by the day, it is good to capture some good snapshots of where we have been before that landscape changes. This would even be more invaluable with a growing kid in tow so as to strengthen (future) family ties of affinity through nostalgic memorabilia.

I have a PocketPC running on Windows Mobile 5, which I absolutely love. One of my favourite accessories is this Rikaline GPS 6033 Receiver that usually corrects when I feel (or am) lost. With the advent of greater usability, adoption and availability of some great virtual earth or maps technology such as Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth, I knew I could have more possibilities.

Lest you dont know, in Singapore, while GPS Receivers can be bought cheaply and easily, there is a law permitting against the sale of GPS Transmitters without a govt-issued license, for now anyways. This obviously ties back to privacy concerns, which is understandable. However, I dont see how we cannot control the misuse of that if we know the ins-and-outs of this specific technology.

This is where I decided to spend a few days cooking up this project. I used my favouite modelling tool for this one. No need to pay and install anything, learn a new domain language or any sort of technical or programming notations. In any case, it is only meant for me.

Basically, what I wanted to do is to write a small piece of PocketPC software that can read GPS data from a COM port that is already communicating with my GPS Receiver. Depending on what kind of network access you have, you can either stream the data to a host server over the Internet or have a mechanism to capture and log those GPS data in a meaningful way (which means not capturing GPS data in NMEA data format) so that we can send the data across when we get connected.

I always believe a good solution architect needs to have a good grasp of a wide-area of technology breadth. Having experiences with a different variety of technology, solutions and platforms helps to build that.

For example, while it is so much more cool to do real-time streaming, it is generally not feasible to open up that socket to do this for a period of time on a mobile device. Unless there is some significant breakthrough in mobile cell technology, your PDA will die on you before you even walk for 2 kilometres. And to do some effective real-time streaming, you will probably need 3G access (since you will be walking in wide-open spaces) and that usually sucks out the mojo of your PDA big-time. I think its better to log marker points and then transmit that data in a file when you find yourself a hotspot.

Having said that, the days of one big giant hotspot with WiMAX will happen very soon for us in Singapore. So, we may find ourselves in always-connected land soon. Then, I have to think about interested people who are paying bandwidth by the bits. The payload of the transmitted file MUST be small. Transmission must be quick and it must be WWW-Firewall friendly (since its likely you won't be doing this in the comfort of your own intranet environment, but most probably through a public security-tight hotspot). Only relevant data need go through Port 80 - That is a key design principle.

Many people here would think that I would use (W3C) SOAP as a web service to send that data across. I am ONLY looking for a point-to-point scenario, with no interoperability and security in mind for now, so using SOAP (with the extra overheads of the verbosity of its namespaces and angle-brackets) is not a preferred solution for me in this context.

I would stick with a time-tested architecture for this one - Just using Plain Old XML (POX) and Representation State Transfer (REST).

Using my-own partially modified version of JW Hedgehog's GPS Reader and a bespoked Window Mobile 5 Form application, I came up with this:

I had obviously blanked out my co-ordinates because I treasure my privacy as much as the next person. . You can save the data in 2 ways. One - via a single point marker so that you location will always be current as-is. There is no trail. Two - via an array of point markers. In the latter sense, you can choose to leave a trail.

Once I press the Send button, an XML Data file is transmitted to my host server POX-style. In this sense, it only transmits when you tell it to. It doesnt transmit on its own. Like I said, it doenst really make sense to do a full streaming transmission (like a transponder) because of mobile cell power capabilities (or lack thereof). Privacy concerns should be subdued here. Some processing would be done at the data host server upon receipt and using Google Maps (Documentation API here), the point markers would be rendered like this on your webpage (WhereWasI.html or something to that effect):

I termed this geoBlog (tm). I thought that is really cool. I can capture these snapshots and save them as part of my Glog and keep a memory trail of where I went and what I did. I intend to use this cool project on my cruises, hikes, holidays and vacations soon, especially the one to Alaska, which I hope to be doing soon.

F * * * * I N G A W E S O M E ! - if I can say so myself.

Some of these images can be retrieved over the years over family dinners when the kids have all grown up and the landscape totally changed and I am sure it would bring up some great conversation.

To the geeks out there, I will make this application free-for-all-to-use. And because this is freeware - dont expect any support, service-level-agreements, warranty or any sorts of guarantee from me.

I have only tested it via my ETEN-M600 PocketPC. The data host is just a IIS6 Web Server on Windows Server 2003.

There are 3 parts to this entire solution (More details of the setup can be found here.):

The Windows Mobile 5 Application. You will need to install the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 for this to work, if you havent done so.
The Host page that receives and processes the data
The WhereAmI page that renders the map.

Of course, for [2] and [3], you would have to host the service yourself somewhere. I used Classic ASP technology for this. Why ? Because, I only needed to simple single host page to parse the XML coming over and saving it to a file and its easy to set up (no need for any complex IIS setups) if you want to transmit this to your own self-hosted server (for more privacy) if you have sufficient pipes. This is my own example here (anony) and here (auth) or here. (auth). If you would like to add more of your own features and port it to a ASP.NET version, you are more than welcomed to do so and share this with everyone else.

To the paranoid in us who suspects some kind of secret routing during data transmission, I am neither interested in knowing where you are/went nor do I care. But, for now, I will make the source bits available to you if you request for it. I intend to make the source bits public once I deem it ready. I am still doing some optimization and tweaking around it but it is generally very usable for now. I could think of different features and functionality to add into this but this is supposed to be a weekend long project for me. Nothing more than that. I will let the others decide what they want to do with it.

In the meantime, I have set up a simple forum here to collect any form of comments / criticisms / feedback / bugs / requests or whatever. Any enhancements, clarifications can be found here as well. Once I have the source bits ready, I will announce the host place for it. In the meantime, if you want the source bits for inspection now, just let me know.

Have fun geoBlogging (tm) ...

Moving on ... and swallowing the Red Pill, finally

William Tay — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:36:59 GMT

... Life is really about moving on. - Oprah Winfrey

Well, what else can I say ? After going through rounds of remote and local interviews conducted by the MSFT Corp product teams as well as the Microsoft subsidiaries and field offices in Asia Pacific for various opportunities and roles in the past year and going through my very own intensive decision-making process (Yes, I have my own methodologies with Spreadsheets and CheckBoxes), I have made a decision.

It wasnt at all easy as some of those packages looked really really good and attractive, especially those that require me to uproot me and my family and relocate. It seems the theme is - The further I relocate, the better the package. But I have to look past the bows and the ribbons and see what is at the bottom of the box.

In the end, I decided to stay home and be with the home team for now. One of the key motivations is that I really have to cut down on my travelling. (which also explains why I cannot be here) While the roles differ a fair bit, I sat down and looked at what I was doing and where I wanted to go. I have been near the front-line for some time (as evident by my post here) but I wasnt measured by front-line numbers. As I sat down comfortably in my seat for some time, I realized I wasnt being challenged enough. I need to learn new skills. I have achieved a lot with my technical ones and there is no doubt that I left a rich legacy behind. This is evident by the emails, requests and engagements I frequently get from Microsoft's customers as well as the Microsoft field offices in APAC (see the evidence of presentations, articles, engagements I have over the past years).

However, the desire to learn new skills is strong. So what if I can architect, design, code, build and configure ? - but Can I sell ? Can I pitch ? Can I talk to CXOs where and when it matters ? What good is a great software if you cannot convince people to buy and use it. I keep asking myself this all the time. Business issues and dynamics always interest me. New skills and new challenges in new environments always intrigued me. I always believe it is the mark of a great person to see how well he adapts to changes and not by the number of lines he can code in a single minute.

I decided it is time to put my money where my mouth is. I need hard numbers and I need to be measured by it. I need more technical breadth and I need to learn new business skills. I wanted more time to pursue and learn other technical interests such as Speech Recognition, Location-Based Services, GPS and other Mobile Technologies, Grid/Mesh/P2P Computing, etc and then learn how to pitch them to businesses. Sure, I will miss those technical and evangelistic activities I have been known for in my area of Web Services and related architectures, but I am sure I will build new foundations again and blaze out new trails. And I am also sure all the communities locally and regionally I was helping grow (as a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft MVP) has grown and more importantly, more than apt to carry on by itself. All the mechanisms have been put in place and the torches have been passed to very capable hands who can do a lot better job than how I did.

This blog stays and I will still be blogging about technicalities of software, products, etc. I will still carry on some of my previous activities - albeit of a different depth but more breadth, so look out for new blogging categories. I sure will miss what I have been doing for the past 5 years but isnt that what moving on is all about ?

Transcending Across All Boundaries: The Power of Community

William Tay — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:40:52 GMT

I remember it was very late last year / early this year when I had a conversation with Martin Kulov, who is the Director .NET Development of the National Academy for Software Development in Bulgaria.

Basically, Martin pinged me and we talked about his idea and dream of bringing a PDC/TechED-style event to the Balkans, where he sees an increasing demand.

He then proceeded to invite me to present in this conference in Sofia, Bulgaria this year. I cannot tell you how honoured I was to receive this invitation. However, I had to put this on hold due to heavy work and family committments. Lest you dont know, while Sofia is generally only 2 spots below Singapore in the usual Country dropdownbox due to its alphabetical legacies, both countries are very spaced apart geographically. To compound this, airlines dont usually fly direct between these 2 countries and therefore, the end-2-end flight map (that routes you to so many different places) will be a lot more mileage than what it appears on a point-2-point straight line on a map. Ultimately, this trip for me alone will cost the National Academy for Software Development in Bulgaria a lot of money and cost me a lot of time (which still equates to money)

I am a person trained and educated in Economics and this, obviously, doesnt make much economic sense. It is not like they have that much money in their coffers anyways since there were no sponsors. So I told him that if I could hook him up with other influential speakers nearer his region, it makes much more sense. With great content comes great value for the participants and that ultimately means that it will be a well-attended event. Who knows - someone may come along and drop their golden coin to sponsor it.

I then proceeded to ping my peer Microsoft Regional Directors / Speakers I know who would be interested in speaking in the Balkans. Of course, there were many. Sofia, is afterall, a beautiful city, so I was told. People like Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte, Ted Neward, Goskin Bakir, etc gave their full support.

My wonderful friend in New York, Stephen Forte, deserves full mention as an ultimate leader who was passionate enough to make sure this event becomes a success in the Balkans. He tried all ways, including trying to negotiate with the airlines for a cheaper fare in exchange for more travel awareness to the Balkans. In the end, his passion and hard bargaining and negotiation skills shone through and he won over MSFT Corp to be the main sponsor for this event by convincing them that this is THE event for Microsoft in that part of the world and this is THE time.

With Microsoft declaring themselves to be the main sponsor, other vendors, like Telerik, follow suit as well and voila - We have the birth of DevReach in the Balkans.

If you are interested, you may want to sign up here. The PR of this event can be found here.

I believe years later, when I move on to a new career path and DevReach becomes the de-facto PDC/TechED of the Balkans, I will look back at this episode and smile. I had a big hand to play to make this event and dream come for Martin and all the wonderful people of Bulgaria. The bulgarian software industry will grow, develop and mature and keep abreast of time and everyone is better because of it.

How did this happen: Through 2 friends who have never met (one in Sofia, the other in Singapore), using the power and the reach of the global community at work (and MSN Messenger), through extensive and collaborative networking, this event became a concrete reality.

Dont underestimate that power of reach and the community - It may make or break you.

Now, if you ask: "How did you and Martin know of each other again?"

Easy - through another reach for the community by the community, via my article on MSDN, he posted a comment on this blog (another collaborative community-driven tool) and we hooked up. The rest is history.

Martin, I am happy for you. You have done a great deal for your community and it is only fair that you see this dream of yours come true.

Make some time for me, I am sure we will catch up over coffee in beautiful Sofia one day.

Axis2/C Version 0.93 - REST Support on Http-GET and Http-POST is here

William Tay — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 08:41:45 GMT

Apache Axis2/C version 0.93 is released. This should please the REST camp and highlights the momentum of how REST can be implemented in Web Services. If you are in KL next week, I will be briefly touching base on the REST-vs-SOAP style of implementing Web Services.

Key Features

AXIOM, an XML object model optimized for SOAP 1.1/1.2 Messages.
This has complete XML infoset support.
Support for one-way messaging (In-Only) and request response
messaging (In-Out)
Description hierarchy (configuration, service groups, services,
operations and messages)
Directory based deployment model
Archive based deployment model
Context hierarchy (corresponding contexts to map to each level of
description hierarchy)
Raw XML message receiver
Module architecture, mechanism to extend the SOAP processing model
Module version support
Transports supports: HTTP\
1. Both simple axis server and Apache2 httpd module for server side
2. Client transport with ability to enable SSL support
Service client and operation client APIs
REST support (HTTP POST case)
WS-Addressing, both the submission (2004/08) and final (2005/08) versions
MTOM/XOP support
Code generation tool for stub and skeleton generation for a given
WSDL (based on Java tool)
1. Axis Data Binding (ADB) support
Security module with UsernameToken support
REST support (HTTP GET case) - New
Dynamic invocation support (based on XML schema and WSDL
implementations) - New

Major Changes Since Last Release

REST support for HTTP GET case
XML Schema implementation
Woden/C implementation that supports both WSDL 1.1 and WSDL 2.0
Dynamic client invocation (given a WSDL, consume services dynamically)
Numerous improvements to API and API documentation
Many bug fixes, especially, many paths of execution previously untouched were tested along with Sandesha2/C implementation

Download the above release here.

Enterprise Content Management Server on ASP.NET 2.0 - ALL FOR FREE !

William Tay — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:22:50 GMT

Sounds like SPAM ? It is not.

This is a 100% ASP.NET 2.0 based CMS solution -- best of all it is free -- check out this blog post for some sites built with it.

All the info you need is here. Let me know your thoughts if you are using it. I will be embarking on it very soon.

[Go_Live_Licenses]WCF and WWF[/Go_Live_Licenses]

William Tay — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:58:09 GMT

Microsoft announced Go Live licenses this morning for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF, previously - Indigo) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) , which lets customers use the January Go Live releases of WCF and WWF in their deployment environments. Do note that these are unsupported Go Lives.)

More information about the Go Live program is at http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/getthebeta/golive/default.aspx.

There are also a couple of community sites for WCF and WWF here:
http://windowscommunication.net
http://windowsworkflow.net

The community sites give users everything they need to start using WWF and WF today. If you have some great samples, do post them to the sites; The WCF sample gallery and WF activity gallery allow you to host the samples/activities on your own site and create links to your own site from the galleries.

As mentioned, I will be introducing more WWF Blogging to this site. Do stay tuned.

Windows Live Messenger (version 8) Beta Invites to give away

William Tay — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:31:36 GMT

It seems that Microsoft is copying the Google G-mail thingy with the invitation lists to its beta software.

I have got a couple of invites to give away for the MSN Messenger (Version 8) or better known as Windows Live Messenger. Drop me an email or leave your email here if you are interested in this beta program.

[Update:] Sorry, many people have written in to me and all invites have all been given out.

Won Microsoft Partner of the Year Award 2005

William Tay — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 08:31:25 GMT

Awesome. We won Microsoft Partner of the Year award on top of the the Large Account Reseller of the Year award.

Microsoft makes a slam-dunk acquisition

William Tay — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:12 GMT

This is a good move. No. Wait, I correct myself. This is a GREAT move.

Windows Live™ and MSN is indeed shaping up very nicely ...

Now, THAT is a drummer

William Tay — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 06:59:36 GMT

One of the posters scheduled for the WorldWide Launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006 on Nov 7 2005 at Moscone West Convention Center.

The traces of what I did here is starting to show more and more as launch dates near.

[Update]: Now, the VS / SQL 2005 World-Wide Launch video to complement the poster above can be seen and heard here. So much for my 0.002 seconds of fame.

Now, aint that a cool drummer dude ?

Adam Cogan in Singapore

William Tay — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:36:08 GMT

Fellow Microsoft Regional Director from Australia and personal friend, Adam Cogan will be in Singapore to present on 2 topics to the Singapore SQL Server Usergroup and our very own Singapore .NET Usergroup.

[Starting at 1830 hrs]
What's new in Reporting Services 2005 + Developing Custom Report Items

Reporting Services makes viewing your data a breeze and SQL Server 2005 brings database reporting to a whole new level. In this session you will learn how to take full advantage of the new Report Designer that is integrated into Visual Studio 2005. We will discuss the core product improvements, reporting improvements, the better integration, and the richer developer experience.

You will also discover how to create and implement Custom Report Items - custom data visualization controls that allow you to make powerful reports.

[Starting at 1945/2000 hrs]
15 Rules to Better Code + Tools to Keep your Code Healthy (including FX Cop)

Are you looking to eradicate bugs and ensure consistency? Learn how to take control of your code, ensuring large, complex source code can be simplified, cleaned and maintained. The focus is on the most popular .NET languages (C#, VB.NET) for both Windows Forms and ASP.NET; however, you will learn how to maintain quality code in any language.

As a project or company grows, managing code standards throughout your team becomes virtually impossible. Consistent code is crucial to future development and maintenance. Learn how to review your web apps and projects.

The tools he will explore include FX Cop, SSW Code Auditor, and Re-Sharper

I hope to see you there.

Certified Web Services Professional

William Tay — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 08:17:35 GMT

I received my Certified Web Services Professional (CWSP) Certificate today in an official business ceremony. I have known this for some time but this is the first time it was made known to the public in an Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) Weave Event. I am one of only 8 people who are in the pioneering batch to receive this certificate. The other 7 people come from technology vendors such as SUN Microsystems, IBM, Software-AG and members of the tertiary educations of higher learning academia.

Topics firm up for Microsoft TechED Asia 2005 in Singapore

William Tay — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 07:40:20 GMT

As timeline nears for Microsoft TechED Asia 2005 in Singapore (24th-26th August 2005), I have managed to firm up my topics. Besides the usual rather cryptic session topics and synopsis (Sessions [1] and [2]), I have added 2 of my own pre-packaged flavours into the mix (Sessions [3] and [4]). I hope the latter 2 sessions will be able to provide a cool new refreshing look at distributed computing (Web Services, ESB, EAI, WS-*) to the audiences and hopefully draw in some good crowds.

...so, 4 topics for the Softwaremaker. It is time to get to work on that.

1) Programming Indigo
William introduces Indigo for the first time to the masses in Singapore. He will explain the basis of its design and programming model and looks at the Whys and Whats of it. Indigo is a huge framework and he will bring the audience in for a quick sneak peek of the future of the Windows Communication Foundation and why it is not just another WS-Toolkit.

2) Building Secure Web Services Using Indigo
William introduces Indigo for the first time to the masses in Singapore. He will explain the basis of its design and programming model and looks at the Whys and Whats of it. Indigo is secure-by-default and offers many ways to tap into pre-existing security mechanisms for building connected, un-trusted boundaries. William will also share his thoughts on the interoperability aspects of WS-Security as well as the best way to move forward. William will also explain why WCF != WSE 4.0++.

3) Transactions in Web Services and WS-OtherThings Developers Love to Hate
The above interesting refreshing Title IS the Synopsis. Enough said.

4) SOA, SOAP, WS-*, BP-1.0, WSE, ESB, EDA, WCF, EAI: Making sense of all the FUD
Tired of being fed the same stuff over and over to you again and yet have no idea what you are eating ? If you know these acronyms all too well but have no idea what they meant and how they fit into the grand scheme of things OR if you ever wonder sometimes if they are just fluff or stuff, this interesting refreshing session will address some of your Fears, Uncertainties and Doubts.

Birds Of A Feather Discussion Session Forum

1) Preparing Indigo

2) Migrating ASMX to Indigo
3) SOA, SOAP, WS-*, BP-1.0, WSE, ESB, EDA, WCF, EAI: Making sense of all the FUD

I am also in the midst of assisting INETA APAC to help co-ordinate a huge joint 3 Usergroups (WHAM BAM BIG BANG) session on one of those TechED nights. Steve Riley from Corp will, as usual, do what he does best and present on a security topic to all 3 Usergroups (Singapore .NET Usergroup, Singapore SQL Server Usergroup, Singapore Windows Usergroup). There will be a great networking event after his presentation. All in all, this should be a great event and will provide some value to those who cannot make it for the TechED day events.

I hope to see you there.

Tons of new Beta 1 Downloads and new naming conventions

William Tay — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:23:37 GMT

The WinFX Runtime Components Beta 1 is available here, and the WinFX SDK is available here. Also, check out the new Windows Vista Developer Center at http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista.

With this release comes with the official names for many of the technologies that they've been talking with our developers about for several years. In particular, Windows Longhorn is now Windows Vista, Avalon is now the Windows Presentation Foundation, and Indigo is the Windows Communication Foundation.

“Former” code name	Official name
Longhorn	Vista
Avalon	Windows Presentation Foundation
Indigo	Windows Communication Foundation
Metro	XML Paper Specification (XPS)
Least-privileged User Access	User Account Protection
WAP	WinFX Runtime Components

Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 VPC is available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads

William Tay — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:35:16 GMT

The much anticipated download of a fully installed & configured Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 VPC is now available for download to MSDN Universal Subscribers. This is the same VPC that was distributed at TechEd USA and TechEd EMEA and represents a clean install of Windows Server 2003 w/ Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2.

VPC Contents:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Beta 2 (expires May 1, 2006)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 2
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package Beta 2
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Preview
Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Live Communication Server 2003

This VPC does not contain any sample projects or sample data.

Minimum System Requirements:

PC with 2.0 gigahertz or faster processor
1.5 GB RAM minimum
10 GB available hard disk space
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher video
DVD-ROM drive
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1 software

If you have some trouble locating this developer-Godsend --- I have done some snopping already and it is here:

Developer Tools > Visual Studio 2005 > Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 > English > Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 VPC

Do you know what Windows Vista is ?

William Tay — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 13:36:34 GMT

You may ... when it went under the moniker called Longhorn

Quoted in the press: An Open (OSS) Question

William Tay — Mon, 09 May 2005 09:52:32 GMT

I was recently quoted in the press talking about OSS vs. proprietary platforms and solutions. It appeared in the IT Lifestyle Section (Digital Life) of our national newspaper --- The Straits Times 03 May 2005

I had said, and I quote:

... mutivendor expertise and support may be hard to come by for Linux and OSS. And these can add up to a higher total cost of ownership compared to pre-packaged Windows ...

Please click here to see the exact article in pdf form.

Indigo is PUBLIC !

William Tay — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:05:36 GMT

Finally, it is available to the public ! Go get it here. The PressPass is here.

Posting my first blog here on my self-hosted site using dasBlog

William Tay — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:13:53 GMT

Finally, I have dumped my old blog site address that is hosted on DotNetJunkies with .TEXT and am now hosting my own blog here using dasBlog. Having advertisements on the blogs of DotNetJunkies was the final straw that broke the camel's back and triggered me to make this move.

Sorry Doug and Donny. However, thanks so much for providing me with a fantastic blog host for the past year.

This is my first blog post here with a history record of trails here.