One Store, One Codebase with Universal Windows Platform

 Windows Bridges are coming to span all devices!

A single app platform to cover the whole Windows device family that includes PCs, Tablets, Phones, Surface Hub and to include in the future Xbox, Hololens and Raspberry PI.

On the heels of Windows 10, Microsoft is releasing four Windows Bridge toolkits that will bring over your existing code to Universal Windows Platform and add interesting capabilities such as,

• Live tiles

• Active Notifications

• Windows Store in-app purchase

Each toolkit provides tailored tools and run-time technologies for a chosen codebase as shown here. A separate toolkit for the codebases shown here:

• Android apps available in Summer 105

• iOS apps Public developer preview available

• Classic Windows ()apps Work in Progress

• Web apps is available today

Relationships are better managed in August 20 update to Power BI

 

In Power BI version 2 you might have experienced problems creating relationships. This post describes that it has been fixed for at least one source of data with which I experienced problems as explained in my post. 
Here is a summary of my problem:

While using the previous PowerBI with ODATA I had experienced problems creating relationships and the auto-detect relationship feature was not working. Trying to create known relationship also produced the same errors and I believe they were related to something connected to the Analysis, or the model.

Microsoft released an update recently in August. There have been lots of improvements and I had time to look at whether the problem I experienced has been fixed. In additions to improvements to UI that are plain to see, managing the relationship does not throw errors as seen in Version 2.

Here are some details:


The reference library feed from Odata.org and gives access to Northwind database as an OData Service.


Odata_03.PNG


You can chose one table or any number of tables from the tables in the left pane. After selecting the tables in the Navigator you load the to the program. While loading you will see this transient screen providing some loading details.

Odata_06.PNG

After loading is complete, the screen changes to this. The tables appear as Fields in the Power BI's UI as shown.

Odata_07.PNG

Click on Manage Relationships in the main menu, the following page is displayed. The program has correctly recognized the existing relationships and marks them as active. These relationships can be managed by using the set of buttons in the above page, New | Autodetect..|Edit|Delete.

 Odata_08.PNG

More detailed steps are available here.

Hands-on Learning Event in Honolulu 2: SQL Server Reporting Services 2012, November 5

The class is forming and is expected to start on November 5, 2015. Please register at the PCATT.ORG site.

Adata/Pcatt1.png

SQL Server 2012 Express or Developer Edition / Evaluation edition will be used. The emphasis is on Native Mode operation of the Reporting Services.

For details you can also write to:
Hodentek@live.com with course name in the Subject line.

Here are Reporting Services books published by the instructor:

You can buy these and many other computer and programming related books here:

https://www.packtpub.com/books/info/authors/jayaram-krishnaswamy

Windows 10: Fixing the Canon MX430 Printer

While Wi-Fi connectivity is important, to be able to print to a printer is equally important despite the expensive cartridges.

Canon MX 430 is a pretty good all-purpose printer and there was not much problem to go from Windows XP to Windows 7 and Windows 8. After installing Windows 10 recently, I lost connectivity with the printer even after adding manually the printer previously used with old versions of Windows.

PrinterProblem.png

The LPT1 message points to rectifying the situation by enabling bi-directional support in the Properties dialog box.

Printer properties can be accessed as shown here. Right click the Printer icon and from the drop-down click on the sub-menu Printer properties which points to the printer and the fax device.

PrinterProblem30.png

Click on the Printer to open the Properties window and move over to the ports. Herein you will find the check box.

PrinterProblem3.png

You enable it and go back to try printing, you get the same message as previously. You come back and look at properties again. You will be surprised to see it is disabled. I tried couple of times and then realized that probably driver update is needed.

Bing found me the needed driver at this site:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/printers_multifunction/pixma_mx_series/pixma_mx432#DriversAndSoftware

Canon site is good as I could get the driver although the printer is old and not in the launch page for drivers. The site recognized the OS and all I needed to was to get the driver.

PrinterProblem4.png

This image shows the driver details.

PrinterProblem5.png

Download this (mp68-win-mx430-1_02-ejs.exe) to your computer (Toshiba Satellite S70 series) and double click to install. Make sure your printer is turned on and the printer is connected to the laptop with a USB cable.

PrinterCable

Although you are configuring it for operating with Wi-Fi you still need to do this initially so that the printer gets the needed files.

During running the executable the program  recognizes the access point for Wi-Fi connection and on clicking Yes you get connected to the printer and you are ready to go.

PrinterProblem6.png

Get August 20 update of PowerBI and be more productive

Not too long ago PowerBI got the GA status. You may want to read up on the following related stuff:

PowerBI and the Cloud
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/08/doing-bi-in-cloud-using-powerbi-for.html

PowerBI on Gartner's Magic Quadrant
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/07/qlik-is-in-gartners-bi-magic-quadrant.html

Report from SQL Anywhere 16 using Microsoft Power BI
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/02/powerbi-preview-reporting-from-sql.html

Report from an EXCEL application
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/02/powerbi-preview-reports-using-data-on.html

Rapid reporting with Microsoft Power BI
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/02/spin-out-cutting-edge-report-with-power.html

Microsoft Intelligent System Services
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/03/microsoft-azure-iot-services-update.html

Power BI Unchained
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/02/power-bi-unchained.html

 A new update to PowerBI was announced recently and this is the latest update as of 8/20/2015.

These following are the advertised improvements:

• Import Excel Power BI artifacts (Data Model, Queries, Power View) into a new Power BI Desktop file
• HDInsight Spark connector
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse connector
• Support for Custom MDX/DAX queries when importing data from SSAS
• Navigator dialog improvements: ◦Resizable Navigator dialog
• Ability to multi-select items in Navigator (CTRL+Click, SHIFT+Click, etc.).
• Query Editor improvements: ◦Query Group creation/deletion improvements (multi-select, etc.)
• Ability to Split Query (i.e. refactor common base steps into a new query)
• Query Icons to reflect type of query in Queries navigator pane
• Data Modeling improvements: ◦Resizing of columns in Data View
• Moving Measures from one table to another
• Live Analysis Services Connections: Ability to change the database from Edit Queries dialog.

You can see there are plenty of things coming together and probably frequent updates keeps needed things in good focus. Since connectors are the next big thing, there are new connectors which should add to productivity.

You download the new PowerBI from the link mentioned earlier.

While using the previous PowerBI with ODATA I had experienced problems creating relationships and the auto-detect relationship feature was not working. Trying to create known relationship also produced the same errors and I believe they were related to something connected to the Analysis, or the model.

Interestingly as soon as the error was generated Microsoft wanted to know about it and a sort of 'ticket' with all relevant information from my application was generated and mailed to Microsoft. I am sure it will be scrutinized.

Azure Data Factory does more than moving large volume of data

AWS has Data Pipeline; Google has Google Cloud Dataflow and Microsoft has recently offered Azure Data Factory and as the name suggests it is more feature rich and of course it does move data automatically using PowerShell scripts or the Azure Data Factory Console. General availability of Azure Data Factory was announced on August 12, 2015.

If you are interested in getting started you can go here .

References for developers:

• AWS Data Pipeline
• Google Cloud Dataflow
• Azure Data Factory

Just like SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) replaced the older Data Transformation Services (DTS), Azure Data Factory (ADF) is an evolutional replacement for SSIS. It can of course do lot more than what SSIS accomplished with more bells and whistles taking in stride the plethora of new sources, cloud services, and new devices that have come into existence.  One of the main features that have had the most impact are the emergence of Azure Cloud; big data integration and the mobile workforce.

Here is an overview of how data flow along from its sources to the end user formats where data is consumed. There  is extraction, cleaning, transforming, analyzing, visualizing and reporting.

 

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Where do to find ADF?

Azure Data Factory is still in preview and perhaps for the time being free (check with Microsoft!). You need to have a Microsoft account. You can then log on to the Azure Portal. From Azure portal you can get to the Azure's Preview portal, a portal where you find the latest Azure related offerings.

adf01

Creating a new ADF service is very easy. Just create a New Data Factory.

asdf02

 

 

Windows Azure management easier with Mesosphere's Data Center Operating System (DCOS)

Mesosphere Datacenter system is a new OS that spans all of the machines in the data-center/cloud. Applications, services and data can be deployed - highly scalable, and elastic.  Recently Microsoft is teaming with Mesosphere (it is rumored to be bought out by MSFT) to get added value from Microsoft Azure using Mesosphere Meso DCOS by porting Apache Meso for Windows Servers and at the same time catering to Linux. 

You can run Meso DCOS on Microsoft Azure. It is free on Microsoft Azure (https://mesosphere.com/azure) but requires a bit of information about yourself at this link (https://mesosphere.com/azure). You can also sign-up for early access at the same link.



It will be available soon for Google Cloud Platform and it is already available on Amazon Web Services with the free community edition. Get started free on Amazon here.

Apache Meso (Open source) is not the same as Mesosphere Meso but watch this well rounded video on Apache Mesos by Benjamin Hindman to get a feeling for working with DCOS: "Building and Running Distributed Systems using Apache Mesos" 
Apache Meso:

Meso DCOS:

Introducing the Mesosphere Datacenter Operating System (DCOS) from Mesosphere site.

Install Firefox for Windows 10

You may ask what about Microsoft Edge. I found it was near impossible to work with my blogs using the Microsoft Edge. Simply put, I could get the images to the interactive page on the blogger but it would not bring the image to the blog. Sometimes the image all of a sudden disappears. Sometimes Copy from Notepad and paste to Blogger does not work (Ctrl C, Ctrl V would work).

As it could not address my immediate need I downloaded Mozilla Firefox for Windows 10 from here:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#firefox

It worked as required for my blogging. I am sure Microsoft Edge may be better in many ways. For example it could open a PDF file in the browser, etc.
Here are some screen shots of Mozilla.


Download and install were effortless

 I will check out other features in due course.

 

Here is the version information: 

Upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10- Part 3: Wi-Fi issues solved

I finally made progress connecting the Arris 1670 A router on leased from Oceanic Time Warner to access the Internet from Windows 10 on my Toshiba Satellite S70 series laptop. This post describes the details.

Review these before you read this post:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/07/upgrading-windows-81-professional-to.html
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/08/updating-windows-81-to-windows-10-part-2.html
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2015/08/wifi-broadband-connection-not-working.html

With Windows 10 installed the Wi-Fi sense works right away and you will see all the Wi-Fi sources nearby including your own.

You could click on any Wi-Fi connection and you can connect/disconnect as shown.

AfterUpdate5.png

Oceanic Time Warner replaced an existing cable modem (not Wi-Fi enabled) with a Wi-Fi  enabled cable modem(Arris Touchstone DG 1670 Data Gateway). The next two pictures taken from Arris's user guide shows some details of this router(Wi-Fi) enabled.
Front Panel:

Arris1670DataGateway.png

Rear Panel:

Arris1670DataGateway2.png

Basically it has 4 LAN connections and a Wi-Fi access point to connect to all the devices in the Home (Oceanic calls it Home Wi-Fi). It has capability for 2.5 GHZ and 5 GHz ranges. The security is WPA2-Personal with AES. The Wi-Fi router has pre-configured username and password on the box which can be changed later accessing a WebGUI.

It so happened the Windows 10 interface tried to make a broadband connection to this router which did not work effectively (connected but with limited capability). This did not allow connection to the Internet. The trouble shooting using Windows indicated it was a 651 error.

Afterupdate4.png

This error arose out of WAN Mini-port (PPPoE), an error reported by many on the Internet. The file in question raspppoe.sys appears to be working well. More over, the latest raspppoe.sys file does not support Windows 10 (private communication from raspppoe.com site).

Neither Oceanic Time Warner's nor Arris's help desk could provide any assistance.

Moreover Arris 1670A according to an old userguide (was pre-Windows 10) there was no mention that it supports Windows 10.
This is how connectivity was established.

I removed all connectivity information including the old Wi-Fi connection with the older cable modem+ LinkSys router.

I started from basic the step by configuring the Network adapters.

DeviceManager2.png

Finally I was able to connect to the Wi-Fi from Cable modem using the following settings:
Here is how the Network Connections look:

NetworkConnections.png

Here are properties (events) of the Network Bridge:

WiFiLANRealtek.png

This allowed accessing the Wi-Fi as shown:

FinalWifi.png

Participate in Windows 10 IOT Core Home Automation Contest

Awards range from trips to New York, Rome depending on the category. This contest is to celebrate the Windows 10 IoT Core in colloboration with Hackster.IO.

Home automation is one of the hottest areas in the Maker world and Windows 10 IoT provides just the needed tools to make it happen. Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2  a small foot print, low-cost and is perfect product for developing Home Automation solutions such as,

• Security
• Lighting
• Audio, etc.

Raspberry Pi 2 on Amazon at $41.87

How do get enter this contest?

It is actually in progress and Round 1 is over. You need to create an account with Hackster.io; download the Windows 10 IOT Core and you have all the requirements. Start building your brilliant project and submit.

Download link for Windows 10 IoT Core, Visual Studio; SDK and other needed tools here.
Although Round 1 is over keep track of it and you may find some fun projects that you can improve upon. Nothing is set in stone.

Final 3rd round will be on September 18, 2015

WiFi Broadband Connection not working with Windows 10

I will follow up this with a more detailed post later.

Oceanic Time Warner (my ISP provider) recently provided a Wifi enabled Cable Modem with faster access to Internet. With this cable modem there is no need for an external router.

Connecting to the Internet using this WiFi enabled cable modem requires access point name and a ISP provided password.

Using this cable modem it was easy to connect Internet to Windows 7 laptop and Windows 8.1 Toshiba tablet, and Windows 10 Technical Preview on Nokia Icon. However, it was not possible to connect Internet to Windows 10 on the Toshiba Satellite S 70 Series laptop.
Oceanic Warner Technical help could not resolve this problem.

This Wifi connects to WAN Miniport (PPPOE) on the laptop and most probably this file is either corrupt or  needs updating.

The LAN connection has no problem connecting to the Internet.

Hands-on Learning Event in Honolulu 1 : Introduction to Structured Query Language

The above course will be offered again as a non-credit course by the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training.

Course summary:
Databases, organized repositories of information, have become indispensable and in fact even more relevant despite the emergence of Big Data in today's world.
In this introductory course you will learn about relational databases and the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL) including sorting; grouping result sets; using DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL. All SQL statements will initially be written for one table. Most practical, modern and relational databases will include a large number of tables and SQL queries have to access information from several tables. This course will then introduce you to querying more than one table. With this skill you will be able to query two or more tables in a database. This is a hands-on course which will take you from installing SQL Server 2012; learning the ins and outs of SQL Server Management Studio and of course a full dose of SQL.

  During each meeting the students will be assessed for their knowledge, competency and proficiency in SQL.

New this session:
SQL Azure Database: SQL Server in Microsoft Cloud
Windows PowerShell for SQL Server


Schedule:
Sept 22 - Oct 22, 2015; Tuesdays and Thrusdays; 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm; 10 mtgs
Contact: PACTT or treinen@hawaii.edu

Upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 - Part 2

In my previous post I described downloading the Windows 10 from the Microsoft's Insider site. In order to backup and clean the computer, I did not install it immediately.

This post describes the upgrading of Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 starting from Microsoft's invitation and some of the problems encountered and the workaround that resulted in upgrading.

 I received a message from Microsoft that I could download the program and install it.

I opted for immediate download and this resulted in the following:

This is the view progress window.

I just decided that I would also keep a copy of the stuff on my computer using the File History in Windows 8.1. Probably it was not a good idea to start another process while the download/update was running. I would advise against it.

Interestingly it stopped in the middle of downloading and asked to accept license terms.

The above screen shows the download failed.

After the File History completed with some 27GB, the downloading restarted.

I think there was another message to the effect that  I am given to understand Windows Media Player(or Center) will be installed.

It took a considerable time to download and begin the updating. Time stamps help to see the various durations.

  

Looks like downloading was successful and the upgrade has started.

It was around 6:00 PM it started and did not complete by 8:30. I left it to complete upgrading for the night.

 Here are more screens from the installation.

This is the Welcome back screen after upgrade is completed.

t

First thing first getting connected to the network. Picked an existing network.

Accepted Express settings.

Now most of the stuff is integrated and device agnostic.

However when I started entering my password, the login screen became unresponsive. I tried to reboot but it always came back to the same login screen and stayed. I could not activate any other key, like the F keys.

Went back to the internet on another computer and presto, many others also had this problem while authenticating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nWY4qN1Ks8

Review this long thread.

http://www.tenforums.com/installation-setup/12355-windows-10-stuck-login-screen-does-not-recognize-mouse-keyboard.html

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-freezes-soon-after-login/e4ca7aec-8975-4e03-b3d8-39f08b3a41ee

It is really frustrating. I tried everything and finally I removed the USB  stick(Nano Transceiver)  that controls my Microsoft Mouse (Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000) and presto, the login screen became active and my password was accepted. I can proceed further now.

1. Try to complete File History back up before proceeding. Once started you do not know  before hand when it will finish.

2. Do not plug anything in any of the USB Ports during the upgrade.

This does not mean other problems do not exist.

In Part 3, I will describe another problem I encountered but still searching for a solution. I have a few hunches.