Samsung courts Windows 8 Phone

The talking heads on CNBC were all talking about it. Looks like Windows 8 is drawing more admirers. Samsung has unveiled Ativ S with Windows 8 (related story here: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2012/0831/Samsung-unveils-the-Ativ-S-the-first-ever-Windows-8-phone)
I have a Windows 7 Samsung' Focus and I will get a Windows 8 when it becomes generally available.

Can it beat the Android handsets? You bet, I am confident that it will. Microsoft stocks as well as that of Nokia will go up in a matter of mere 2 months. If you do not own them, now may be the time.

The new phone has a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and an 8-megapixel rear camera paired with a 1.9-megapixel front-facing one. The phone will come in 16GB and 32GB flavors. It's 8.7mm thick.

Read the 10  things that Windows 8 phones does better than iPad here including how Internet Explorer 10 will best the Chrome:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0305/Ten-ways-Windows-8-outshines-the-iPad/1.-Windows-8-is-More-Personal-Than-iOS

Get Visual Studio 2012 and .NET 4.5 now!

Free trial versions of Visual Studio 2012 Express or Free Trial versions of Visual Studio 2012 can be downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads

Note: Express for Windows Phone
      Express for windows Desktop will be available later this fall.

.NET 4.5 can be downloaded separately as well from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/net

If you are going to buy, packaged products should be hitting the market soon.

Windows Azure SDK for .NET – June 2012 has been updated to work with the new release as well.

Visual Studio 2012 launch event is about a fortnight from now. Watch the count down here:
http://www.visualstudiolaunch.com/vs2012vle/Home

How is your App work going?

Do you wish to work with Metro Style Apps?

Step 1: Install Windows 8 Enterprise.

Step 2: Download and Install VS2012 Express

Download from here to your Windows 8 Downloads folder.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516.aspx

Double click the executable in your download shown here:

Installation starts

You can proceed after agreeing to license terms.

You should get a Developer License. Read info on this modal window

It's easy to get a license.

From here you can Start a new project, Open an existing project etc.

You can use C# to develop your project.

These are the templates available out off the box. You can choose to develop with any of these.

If you prefer you can use JavaScript and HTML5

Or you can use Visual Basic if that is your strength.

OK, You can use C++

In each of these languages you have the choice to start from a Blank or use prefab templates.

I tried here to create an extremely simple APP using JavaScript that has ,

A splash screen

A button which when clicked changes the text in a textbox

A tool-tip that shows some text when you hover over the text box

A logo for the APP. The image for the logo (Copy right of Microsoft) I copied from the Windows 8 Screen and used it. The name of the APP is AppJayAug20. It's only on my local machine in test environment.

The default.html which has most of the stuff is here.

That's all folks.

Mahalo

Installing Windows 8 RTM Enterprise Evaluation

In the previous post you saw how you can create a drive partition in your lap top running windows 7 Home Premium.

If you have follow this link:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2012/08/windows-8-rtm-is-out-go-grab-it.html

In this post you will review installing the evaluation edition of Windows 8 RTM

Go to this link for downloading both x32 and x64 bit versions

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

Complete the online form on this link that gets displayed here.

https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=518B9627-D97E-4AB5-8126-B50862B8CC8A&lcid=1033&ci=393


You need to register and all that. There is no need for a PRODUCT KEY for this software.

After downloading the file shows up in your CD burner software as shown here:

After inserting a blank disc (I used a 4.7GB RWR) in your CD drive, click OK.

 Now you have the disc with the files shown here:

Now double click the setup file  in the above. The Windows 8 installation activities start.

First there is a lot of time taken up in copying temporary files. This is then followed by installation. You need to be connected to the internet as there may be some new updates. If you bear with this and hang on you will come to a screen which says that your Windows 7 Home Premium cannot be upgraded but you have a Custom Install option. You hit that button which then comes to the screen (taken with a camera) where you will be asked to choose a drive to install as shown here:

The program will be installed to the Windows 8 partition created in the previous
Post.

When the installation is completed (the computer is booted couple of times) the following screen shows up where you can choose the operating system you want to work with. If you choose Windows 8 the computer starts and boots to Windows 8 operating system. You personalize your computer by choosing a color scheme and a name for your PC.

Next you will configure your Wireless access to Internet. You better have your encrypted password to access the internet via your Wi-Fi router. After which you will be asked whether you want a Custom Settings or an Express settings. I chose the Express settings option.
The Windows 8 user interface is quite different from the previous versions and Microsoft hints you here to move your mouse to the any corner of your display to see some navigation menu as shown here.

The screen display goes through a spectrum of colours. During this phase the APPS are installed.


















When this is completed you will see your display as shown with all the apps. These are the APPS that are created during the installation. You will be automatically authenticated to the registration address you provided at the time of registration. My access to Windows 8 is via my Live ID.

You have successfully installed Windows 8.

• To see the navigation menu you need to move your mouse to a corner.
• To shut down the computer you need to access the Settings (by moving to the corner of the display with your mouse (What’s wrong with a right click and a contextual menu? I Ask). From settings you need to access  Power and then shut down or restart.

Looks like tapping (Gesturing) the touch pad seems to work. This computer does not have a touch screen, more about it in my future post).

Mahalo,

Jayaram

p.s: Camera pics are not in focus, too many cups of coffee.

Note added after the post:

I regret I did not check immediately after the installation, but my Windows 7 clock has been adjusted to   Pacific time. I am not sure if I am the only one. I have not altered the computer in any other way.

Windows 8 RTM is out, go grab it.

Windows 8 was released to manufacturing (RTM) yesterday. It is now available (90 day evaluation) for download from here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

There is no technical support for this, you are on your own or go to the forums (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsapps). After downloading make sure you install it within 10 days. This windows 8 Enterprise (both x64 and x32) cannot be upgraded and will expire after the evaluation period.

The best way to gain some experience with this release is to download and install it on a separate partition. Windows 7 Disk manager can be used to create a partition easily.

Here are the basic system requirements:
Windows 8 works on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 20 GB
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

Let's get ready to install Windows 8 Enterprise. I am going to do it on my Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) running on a Toshiba Satellite P775 laptop. Make sure you back up your data before you take these steps.

If you need measured steps to do it with screen shots, here it is:

Here I am trying to release some space from my C:\drive

To get to see this you need to go Start | Computer and make a right click and choose Manage from the drop-down list. In the Computer Management Screen choose Disk Management.

Right click the highlighted drive (C:) and pick up shrink Volume..

You get to the Shrink C: screen 

Enter the amount you want to shrink. This was my choice.

Hit Shrink button.

Now you are sizzling. You have 292.97 GB free.

Right click this new released space and click New Simple Volume...

New Simple Volume Wizard shows up.

Read the stuff on it. Hit Next. You need to specify the size of this volume (how many gigabits).

I chose about 40 GB (twice the minimum requirement).

Hit Next. Now in this screen you can choose to create the partitioned drive.

I assumed F: drive. Hit Next to get to the Format drive screen.

I gave Windows 8 as Volume label. Hit Next.

Now you have a F:\ drive with about 40GB. Disk Manager screen gets updated as shown.

You are cooking now. The drive appears in the Windows Explorer as shown.

Now you are ready to install Windows 8 RTM

RIP - Dr. Martin Fleishman

Dr. Fleishman died recently on August 3, 2012. He with his partner Stanley Pons proclaimed what is known as 'Cold Fusion'. The controversial experiment was proclaimed prematurely and with the 'fusion' part highlighted became the focus of the controversy and the backlash that followed was enormous.

We are ready to spend billions on research that is far out at the end of galaxies but we are unable to support something on ground about which we know so little, something that is enigmatic. It is true that some of the results are not reproducible but that is not to say that the observed positive results have no value. Even the positive results at MIT did not gain enough traction.

I am not the one for 'conspiracy theories', but given the nature of the subject which pits the proponents against interests represented by Nuclear Fusion, Inertial Fusion, Fossil Energy, Oil, natural gas etc. makes one wonder about the origin of the negative advertisement.

I believe they should get a fair share of funding to continue the quest, if not for producing large scale energy but at least to explain what the phenomena is about.


Here is a recent video on YouTube about 'Cold Fusion':




Related news here:
http://www.lightparty.com/Energy/WarColdFusion.html
http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Fusion-Fire-Water-VHS/dp/189292501X
http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue44/iccf9.html
http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/02/04/iccf-16-chairman-srinivasan-in-times-of-india/
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1897-italian-cold-fusion-machine-passes-another-test.html

SQL Saturday in Honolulu, August 2, 2012

Guys here in Honolulu are serious and proactive when it comes to SQL Server. They had the
SQL Saturday event two days ahead of Saturday on 8/2/2012. The event was held at the Honolulu Community College.

This PASS event was organized locally by the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training.
These were the talks delivered at the event:

SQL Server 2012 EIM (SSIS, DQS, and MDS) at intermediate level was delivered by Matt Hollingsworth of Microsoft. He gave a reasonably good demo of data cleansing using all of the three tools. He barely touched on Project Barcelona (new data lineage and impact analysis) still under wraps.

Rushabh Mehta of SolidQ gave talks on:
A beginner level Introduction to Data Quality Services (DqS)
An intermediate lelvel introduction to Master Data Management
and
SSIS 2012 Management Considerations and Best Practices

I only attended the 3rd talk which was very good. Lots of enhancements to SSIS since I published my book on SSIS.

Matt gave two other talks:
Building a BI Semantic Model for Power View
SQL Server 2012 Always On Enhancements

I have not dabelled with SharePoint but Wen He of eWorld gave two talks on
Reporting Nirvana -SQL 2012 and SharePoint 2010
Self_service BI with SharePoint

Power View rhymes with Power Point!

I attended the first one which was reasonably good.

There was also a lunch break vendor talk from Nimble Storage. The talk was around Nimble Storage Solutions, I only caught the last bit.

Review of Outlook.com Preview

The new monochromatic interface looks nice, but was there a necessity to depart from the normal email user interface? It is true, Outlook.com is more integrated with Skydrive, the Office programs, Facebook etc. The previous interface had everything visible on the email web page.

It was intuitive to find neither the Office programs nor the Skydrive. What was less intuitive was writing the email itself.
* The TO field comes as a detached box with some contacts.

* You have to click to Add the SUBJECT line.
* The attachments gets organized to a DOCUMENTS folder (I need to read some documentation).
     The FedEx guy to whom I had sent an attachment could not locate it. I had to use their computer (-$5.45) to find the document in my SENT folder, etc.
* Finding Skydrive and Office items were not intuitive either. You need to hover over the Outlook lable at the top

 to reveal a drop-down which will then reveal the icons for MAIL, PEOPLE, CALENDAR and SKYDRIVE as shown.

* The SAVE DRAFT should have been automatic.

However, if you want to revert to the Hotmail interface you can do it. This is good till you get used to the new interface.

This being a Preview will get better in the final product. For Microsoft to beat up Google they have to bring the advertisements along side. Another nice feature would have been the ability to scribe the email in a language of your choice.