May 2006 - Posts
Nothing to do today, Heard few topics, 2 of them are boring and I was going into asleep. The speaker was bad, the content is bad. Well. tonight I am going out with my 3 SG friends. As I blog last year, they were my uni schoolmate. All got married. They are coming at 7pm.
1) MCE was developed by Microsoft Research China. And you may build MCE application by using Hosted HTML, XBAP(XAML Browser Application) and MCML(Media Center Markup Langauge). And for more information, you may go to blog.mediacentersanbox.com and read their blog.
2) Speech Recognition(SR) and Text to Speech (TTS) are keeping research. Now, there will be English-US supporting in Vista Beta2. However, more will be coming when released Vista. But.....cantonese may not be including yet. Have to wait. And the speaker told us that about 40% of code need to rewrite for specific language, only about 60% of code can be share in difference langauge. And TTS, now Anna(the new female voice in Vista) can speak English more like human, you may try it if you have beta 2. But male sound are still no-name yet.
This is the first day that we have training. Due to the late sleeping last night, this morning I suppose have to wake at 7am and get to cafe for the breakfast at 7:30am to 8:30am. But I am late wake at 7:50am, a bit hurry to finished my fast breakfast within 25 mins. That means that I spend 15 min to get the morning bath.
After that, took the bus to a local SG training Center as we use a room from that training center. I met a handsome, smart guy who is coming from the Windows Client Product Group Team. Took handsome photo with him.
About the training, Due to the NDA, i cannot disclose many things. But all I can tell is.....the training is making me disappoint. I feel bad. I learn little thing only. Before I come, I thought this is some Hands-On training as this is called Vista Training Lab. However, No PC, No VPC are installed Vista except those from Product Group. We are sitting like in Seminar and listening only. Bad experience and many complain this as well. All I can tell here is. There will be IE7.x in 2007, and IE 8 will be in 2008. That is.
After training, we have dinner near the hotel I am living in. Many seafood and they tasted nice. I took photos on every diskes. And then we took group photo and I also took photo with the girl from the agency. Oh yes, i forgot to mention, there was a girl also was in airport to pick us MVPs up. And one of them are same girl in last year. She remember me. And I felt sorry as I cannot remember her and I never contact any girls who I took photo with. I am a lazy guy, you know. Even last few times, in Global summit, I took photo with Japanese MVP Lead, I also did not send any of them email. Anyway, a bit amazing as I only met that girl in SG few days last year and she can remember me.
And today, I found a TW MVP wearing a t-shirt mention Vista after Microsoft Global Summit 2005. Oh....never see that t-shirt, I ask him if he get it from TW's event. Then he told me that it is from last global summit. Oh.....How come I never see it and get one too. NICE T-SHIRT.
Later on, I will go to "MoHan Southern Street" for drink with TW and CN MVPs. Fir night, and sure we must go out for fun than staying in Hotel. This time I make closer with them as we are less people, we may talk more and closer. Easier for me to remember others with my bad memory on who they are.
Arrive SG la. I use about 1 hour to get to the Arrival Exit from Aeroplane, I have to do the scanning on my package after the plane, interesting, SG security is higher than other country(including US). I then found no person to pick me up, i go around, from one end of airport to another end, and back to the first end again. Then I take a seat in the exit area to wait. Finally, someone come to me and ask if I am Ken Lin. She is just holding a A4 paper and writing my name in normal pen. How can I see it??? Anyway, I still have to wait for another half hour to get another one from other plane and then take the same car to hotel.
And then I check in to the hotel, arrive my room, WOOWOWOWO, so BIG, it is double size of the noraml room. And I have taken some photos. SO BIG.....it is VIP room. No wonder, when I check in, the hotel service man take me to the room(normally, they won't do it, just give you key and you go in your way). He even ask for my package and help me to hold it.
Anyway,I just found out that tonight. and Microsoft gave us SG$40 dollar on room Service. See if my room mate get anything to do or if my friends got anything to do. Otherwise, tonight sleep early. And my computer,.....the screen is .....dying again, have to offline la.
Today, I follow the sample on creating the Microsoft Gadget for Vista Sidebar, the sample article are based on Vista Feb CTP,
http://microsoftgadgets.com/SideBar/DevelopmentOverview.aspx. I follow the article and created folder with ".gadget" extention, created xml and html file. I don't even try the transparent yet. But....It does not work and I cannot add it to the sidebar.
Don't know what happen and why it does not work. It is not reasonable if Feb CTP works but not in the most updated build 5381. Why? Anyone has Feb CTP and help me to test it???
Last Sat, Jack was wondering a special feature on Vista, it is "using your USB Flash drive" to be the ad-hoc extra memory for your computer. He mention that the "transfer rate" should be faster from Harddisk than from USB or from USB Flash Disk. And after searching, I found the MAIN is.....random read/write speed. For the traditional harddisk, the disk still need the physical "header" to search, go to the sector and do the read/write. The worst case will be one sector in HD head and second sector in HD tail. And back to head again and back to tail again. So, the key for ad-hoc memory will be........same tech of REAL Memory, read/write random in fast speed. And the below was the one i found, i forward it to here as i like the pictures.
ReadyBoost - Using Your USB Key to Speed Up Windows Vista
One very cool feature of Windows Vista – especially for machines not natively equipped with the kind of horsepower to fully enjoy the rich visuals of Windows Presentation Foundation (Avalon) applications is ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost enables you to plug a USB key into your machine and have Windows Vista use it as memory. I hadn’t actually used this myself, but had heard of it long ago. When a reader emailed me asking if this was an urban legend, I decided to check it out for myself and was very impressed with how easy and seamless the process is.
Installing/Configuring the USB Key as Memory
First I took a standard USB 2.0 key (I’ll list the prerequisites shortly) and plugged it into my machine. I’m running Windows Vista Beta 2, Build 5346, but I’m told that this works with the latest CTP made available to beta and TAP members as well as MSDN Subscribers. Upon plugging the USB key into my computer, I was greeted with the standard "AutoPlay" dialog box asking how I wanted to the operating system to treat the USB key. However, with ReadyBoost I get the additional option (circled below in the screen capture) of using the key to "speed up my system".
Once I click the "Speed up my system" option, the Properties dialog box for the device is displayed where I can specify to start/stop ReadyBoost usage of the device and how much space I want used as a memory cache. (Actually, according to one of the Product Specialists here, this space is used more as a flash-based page file than true RAM, but the impact is that the more space you choose here, the more benefit you’ll get in terms of overall system performance.)
(In order to return to this dialog box, open the Computer window, right-click the drive (F: in this case) and select Properties. From there, click the Memory tab (as shown in the previous screen capture and adjust the settings as needed).
For the inquisitive, opening the drive in an Explorer window reveals that ReadyBoost has created a cache file of the specified size.
Things to Know About ReadyBoost
If you have a USB key configured to use ReadyBoost and then insert a second key, Windows Vista will display the Properties dialog box where you’ll see the message on the Memory tab as shown in the following screen capture.
While ReadyBoost will work with other devices – such as SD Card, CompactFlash, etc. – I’ve only used it with a USB key and here are the baseline requirements the team gave me regarding what ReadyBoost will work with:
- The USB Key must be at least USB 2.0
- The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly across the device.
- The USB Key has to have at least 64mb of free space
Well, This morning Tony told me that Windows Vista Build 5381 is released and he is downloading now. I am waiting for his download completed and try to install it.
I found from newsgroup and there are few interesting point,
1) installation will be only 40 min. Much shorter now.
2) The Audigy sounded awful until set it to Stereo from Quadraphonic
3) Weather Gadget is missing
4) Recycle Bin Gadget is released
5) Now you may try "upgrade" from WniXP SP2
6) The way to change registry and let "administrator" showed when GINA(select user screen), IS not working now.
And again, I will be trying in VPC 2004 with VS2005 R2 addition, while Tony will try install in VMware 5.5, I will come back after download and install.
Wow.....Perpare for 2 weeks on creating the powerpoint and demo for Hong Kong College of Technology(HKCT) on topic of "introduction to VB2005". And I also created VPC for the Demo. I have to learn some new features on VB2005, and also this is the hardest and worst seminar I even have. Reason:
1) The MOC for VB2005 is .....BAD. I don't learn anything even I got knowledge on .NET 1.1
2) Powerpoint for VB2005 from MOC also......nothing at all, 2-4 powerpoints, and finished 1 chapter. Cannot re-use at all.
3) I got knowledge on .NET 1.1, so my mind to show/talk in this seminar, mainly foucs on VB2005 new feature, which I suppose should be thinking that the guest listeners are NEW to .NET.
4) Finally, my topic can say.....it is ....."intorduce to VS2005" more than "introduce to VB2005", Not showing any VB2005 Code........(another points.....no code at all.....how to show VB2005? But I at least miss.....MY class)
5) Showing too much for newbies. I talk about win Form, then Web Form, then ADO.NET2.0, and Deployment. Too many for newbies.......
Anyway, Thanks to andyK ask for the feedback. I have to learn from you sin.....heheheh
I just visiting Microsoft Site and found another free e-book, this time it is "Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET". It is the complete technical guide to upgrading Visual Basic 6 applications to Visual Basic .NET, covering all upgrade topics from APIs to ZOrders. It shows how to fix upgrade issues with forms, language, data access, and COM+ Services, and how to upgrade applications with XML Web services, ADO.NET, and .NET remoting. It also provides big-picture architectural advice, a reference of function and object model changes, hundreds of before-and-after code samples, and a CD packed with useful examples.
Wowo, This is the thrid month I join this Community Credit, The first month I was late to submit my points and so even my points are enough to get prize, but cannot get any. In March, I got the 1st Prize --- "i-dog". This time in April, I got 5th prize --- "FlexiGlow FX Illuminated Mouse Pad". It is so beauty......But I would not grab the Grand Prize, the "Projector KeyBoard".
The i-dog I got in March
FlexiGlow FX Illuminated Mouse Pad
Projector KeyBoard
Next month, May, I feel so so so interesting on the MP3 player, why? Cause....Cause...it is a Swiss Army knife with MP3 Player. Microsoft MVPs are award few products on Swiss Army, including Back Bag, Watch(only Colt and me has it). Hope I can win the 1st prize in May. So, Don't wait, come hurry and join www.community-credit.com
Swiss Army Knife with Built in MP3 Player We absolutely love small gadgets that are packed with functionality and this combination MP3 player/knife from Swiss Army is making us giddy with excitement. Capable of storing and playing your favorite tunes as well as providing mini scissors for cutting open new CD packaging (or your shipping box that just arrived from ThinkGeek) - this little tool is a gadgeteer's delight.
The first official Swiss Army knife with a built-in MP3 player - we think it's a beauty. Housed in an aluminum case the tiny removable MP3 player features a high-quality 3 line LCD display and 1 GB of storage capacity. It handles multiple file formats, can be used as a flash drive for your files, and recharges its built-in battery via USB connection.
SQL Server 2005 SP1 Now Available
Microsoft announces the availability of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with Database Mirroring, SQL Server Management Studio Express, additional options for ISVs and normal feature fixes.
This is the first major milestone for SQL Server 2005 since the launch last November which attracted more than 300,000 attendees at 307 launch events, held in 247 cities across 92 countries.
The release of SQL Server 2005 SP1 follows the March 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP) and the initiation of a new customer collaboration model, which allowed active customer feedback to drive final updates and routine fixes delivered in this service pack.
SQL Server 2005 includes functionality for the largest enterprise to the smallest hobbyist, non-professional or ISV, delivering on the team’s vision to provide a complete data platform for all users of every size.
Download SQL Server 2005 SP1
To receive SQL Server 2005 SP1, click the links below and complete the registration form.
Download SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP1
To receive download SQL Server Express Edition SP1, SQL Server Express with Advanced Services, or tools to help manage SQL Server Express, click the links below.