May 17, 2012 0

Bing Search API moves to Azure

By in application platform, cloud

As of today, the Bing Search API is now being offered on the Windows Azure Marketplace. 

For up to 5,000 queries per day, developers can use the API for free to query Bing for web, image, news and video search results as well as related searches and spelling suggestions.  For queries over 5,000 developers can subscribe to various tiers of queries per month.  For instance, 10,000 queries is $20/mo and 20,000 queries is $40/mo (all the way up to 2.5 million queries per month).

The new Bing Search API supports both XML and JSON formats.

Bing Search API
https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/5BA839F1-12CE-4CCE-BF57-A49D98D29A44

It is also worth noting the features that are included in the Microsoft Translator API which is treated separately than Bing Search API.

Microsoft Translator allows for the automatic machine translation of text into specific languages via web service API.  For up to 2 million characters per month, developers can translate text for free.  Moving up to 4 million characters costs only $40/mo.

Microsoft Translator API
https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/1899a118-d202-492c-aa16-ba21c33c06cb

 

Transition your application to the Windows Azure Marketplace:

1. Sign up for the Marketplace.

2. Read the migration guide on transitioning your application. You can expect the transition to involve targeting a new API end point, moderate changes to the request and response schemas, and a new security requirement to authenticate your application key.

3. Subscribe to the Bing Search API and create an application key. You will not be charged for API usage until the trial period expires.

Important note…the Bing Search API 2.0 will be decommissioned on August 1, 2012 so existing developers are encourage to migrate their applications as soon as possible.

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April 30, 2012 0

A Career in Technology

By in education, general

I’m taking a break from geeky technology today to write about a great experience I recently had.  Last week, I had the opportunity to assist in hosting 100 high school girls at our Microsoft Technology Center for the 2012 Microsoft DigiGirlz Day.

The day was packed with great information on Microsoft products/services, tips for professional networking and preparing for a career in technology.  I also had the pleasure of participating in a “speed networking” event which allowed the attendees to practice rapid-fire networking with a stranger.  I was very impressed by the enthusiasm and passion many girls had towards technology-related careers.

I wanted to tackle the two most popular questions I was asked that day with a couple responses here.

 

“What should I study for a career in _______?”

Well, for starters, I’m not a career advisor, nor have I ever played one on TV.  As a disclaimer, nothing will beat meeting with a professional guidance or career counselor to talk about your unique situation.

With that said, my biggest feedback to students looking for advice on their education is to studying general disciplines that will carry over multiple jobs or even careers.  For instance, business, communications, etc.  There are several statistics that claim the average worker will change jobs 10 times in their career.  Also, knowing that there are fewer jobs today than in past years, it’s important to spend time distinguishing yourself from your peers.  Two graduates in the same program will have similar qualifications – why should someone hire you over another candidate?

Versatile Qualifications.  It is very important to learn relevant skills for your career.  In addition, differentiating yourself and adding transferrable skills will give you the longest return on your education investment.  A minor in business or communications can add depth and versatility to your qualifications.

Internships/Experience.  Do as many internships, job shadows and informational interviews as you can.  Seriously.  Not only do they add real-world experience, but it is a perfect way to build your network.  People getting jobs today are doing this.  If the company you intern or meet with isn’t hiring, at least ask to leave a resume behind and maintain a relationship.

Stay Connected.  Build your network.  If nothing else, take someone out for coffee every couple of months.  If you don’t know what to talk about, ask them questions about their job.  It will get easier as you go.  It may be surprising, but companies often create jobs just because they want someone to work with them.  Always strive to leave that lasting impression.

“Where can I go to learn more about Microsoft technology?”

Here’s a list of resources for students to explore.

Student Hub: http://www.microsoft.com/student/en-us/Connect/default.aspx#fbid=wPyV0bbZ4Cl
Student Newsletter:  https://register.msftstudent.com/signup.aspx
DreamSpark: https://www.dreamspark.com/
Microsoft Careers/College: http://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/collegehome.aspx
Microsoft Students to Business:  http://www.microsoft.com/studentstobusiness/home/default.aspx

More information on DigiGirlz:  http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/en/us/programs/digigirlz/default.aspx

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April 30, 2012 0

Twin Cities Windows 8 User Group

By in desktop, education

This just came across my inbox and I thought I would pass it along.  It also sparked a need for a consolidated list of local technology user groups, so I’m including that as well.

First, hot off the press – the Twin Cities Windows 8 User Group – a user group for people who make software to learn about all things Windows 8.  Find more information here:

http://www.meetup.com/Twin-Cities-Windows-8-User-Group/

The first meeting is coming up on May 22 and will cover WinRT APIs.

 

Second, I created a page as a single place to consolidate a list of all user groups.  If there is a group that I missed, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page or use the contact page.

http://www.erickraus.com/usergroups/

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March 27, 2012 0

Chronozoom

By in education, innovation

ChronoZoom is an open-source community project dedicated to visualizing the history of everything. Big History is the attempt to understand, in a unified, interdisciplinary way, the history of cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity. By using Big History as the story line, ChronoZoom seeks to bridge the gap between the humanities and sciences an enable all this information to be easily understandable and navigable.

Check it out!  http://www.chronozoomproject.org/

Examples

Check out a time when there was no “time”

ChronoZoom_main

 

Earth and the Solar System is actually such a small window in history

ChronoZoom_EarthSolarSystem

 

Learn about a time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth

ChronoZoom_dinosaur

 

See the how the United States’ history relative to the universe.

ChronoZoom_US

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March 26, 2012 0

Microsoft’s Private Cloud

By in datacenter, management

On a frequent basis, I am asked by customers to explain “How Microsoft does….” with a wide variety of fill-in-the-blank technologies and scenarios.  I encourage similar request to first check out: “How Microsoft Does IT”.  However, I wanted to answer a popular request now with a current trend around “the cloud.”  Specifically, the Private and Hybrid Clouds.

Let’s first take a stab at defining these concepts.  Private means using resources that are dedicated to your organization, almost always on-premise.  Hybrid, as you may guess, combines on-premise infrastructure with shared infrastructure hosted by a provider.  There are definite trade-offs between these models – including: cost, control and capability.

The definition of “cloud” is more difficult because it depends on the company and the given pain points within IT.  However, most implementations share similar characteristics.  Most private clouds utilize resource pooling, self-service capabilities, elasticity and pay-by-use services that traditional infrastructure can not provide.

The general benefits of a private cloud include increased agility and responsiveness, reduced TCO, and increased business alignment and focus.  In addition, private clouds are more cost effective because of their ability to maintain higher workload densities and resource utilization.

Benefits

Microsoft’s Private Cloud offers four specific benefits.  They are All About The App, Cross-Platform Support, Best-in-Class Performance, Cloud on Your Terms.

All About the App

To an business user, it’s all about the App.  Most business users don’t care whether or not their application uses a “cloud” or a “rainbow” to access their data.  Just as long as it works, works well and works always.

Microsoft allows you to manage applications across the entire application lifecycle from design to deployment to upgrades and decommissioning.  System Center 2012 includes a new technology called Server Application Virtualization which allows organizations to simplify their deployment and management of server applications.

Cross-Platform Support

Microsoft understands that customer needs will vary.  Interoperability and cross-platform support from the metal on up is a core value of Microsoft’s Private Cloud.  Technologies supported include:

Hypervisor – Hyper-V, XenServer, VMware ESX/ESXi
Operating System – Windows, Linux: RedHat, SUSE, CentOS)
Application Development Framework – .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby, Python

crossPlatform

Best-in-Class Performance

Virtualize applications like SharePoint, SQL Server, and Exchange on Hyper-V for best-in-class performance and scalability.  Test lab results show the scale of Microsoft’s Private Cloud solutions:

  • 450,000 concurrent SharePoint 2010 users on 1 physical host (5 virtual guests)
  • 80,000 OLTP users on 1 physical host (4 virtual SQL Server 2008 R2 guests)
  • 20,000 Exchange 2010 mailboxes on 1 physical host (4 virtual guests)

Microsoft is recognized by Gartner as a top-right Magic Quadrant leader in x86 virtualization.

Cloud on Your Terms

Microsoft recognizes that many organizations have investments across on-premise infrastructure, private/hybrid and public clouds.  Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering includes the following common tools that work across all three infrastructure scenarios:

  • management – System Center
  • identity – Active Directory
  • virtualization – Hyper-V
  • development tools – Visual Studio / .NET

These common tools allow customers to move to the cloud as needed by the organization.  Whether the end goal is to move services to the public cloud or to simply become more mature with on-premise services, Microsoft’s Private Cloud offering enables customers to meet the needs of the business today with the option to adapt when the needs of the business change.

image

 

Cost

Microsoft’s Private Cloud solution is a cost effective solution for gaining maturity within your IT service offering.  In order to deliver the same level of cloud capability, VMware costs 4.8x as much as Microsoft.

MSFTvsVMWARE

 

Facts on Microsoft’s Private Cloud Infrastructure.

3,000 host servers (2500 clustered)
15,000 virtual guests

64 blade servers
128 processor sockets, 768 processor cores, 1536 logical processors
12 TB RAM, 16 x 10Gbps Ethernet, 32 x 8Gbps Fibre Channel

MSIT builds 300-400 VMs per month

Migration: MSIT migrated 200,000 configuration manager 2007 clients to 2012 in less than 90 days

 

Sources/Resources

 

Microsoft Private Cloud White Paper
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/3/3/833189A4-87A3-4AE6-8E64-51F70E66EFFE/MicrosoftPrivateCloudWhitepaper.docx

System Center 2012 Capabilities and Feature
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/default.aspx

How Microsoft IT Uses System Center Virtual Machine Manager to Manage the Private Cloud
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/hh748210

How Microsoft IT Developed a Private Cloud Infrastructure
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh378174.aspx

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March 12, 2012 0

Microsoft Research TechFest 2012

By in innovation

I recently attended TechFest 2012, an inspiring event put on by Microsoft Research out in Redmond.  The event happens once a year and allows Microsoft employees and select guests the opportunity to view research projects from Microsoft’s labs around the globe.

While there were some really, really amazing applications demoed at the event, I would have to say my two favorite projects were FetchClimate and Cliplets.  They are both projects available for the general public to use and provide feedback on today! 

FetchClimate

FetchClimate is a fast, free and intelligent climate data retrieval service that operates on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service.  FetchClimate allows users to access climate data for any geographical region during year ranges between 1900 and 2010 in various formats and share this information via a unique URL.

FetchClimate

FetchClimate - Try it now!

Cliplets

An interactive application that allows users to create a type of imagery, a “cliplet” which resembles part photo and part video.  The applications provides the ability for users to import a video and mask certain parts of the video to play and others to remain still. 

Here is an example I created.  Keep an eye on the bird in the middle!

 


more information on Cliplets >>

 

TechFest Project Info

A complete list of the projects shown at TechFest can be found on the TechFest 2012 site:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/events/techfest2012/default.aspx

Follow Microsoft Research

You can follow more of Microsoft Research discussions on Twitter or Facebook.

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February 29, 2012 0

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is here!

By in desktop

At a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event in Barcelona, attended by partners from Europe and around the world, Microsoft shared some key new updates in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview:

Broad range of product changes and improvements. Since the Developer Preview in September, designed to preview the programming platform, Windows 8 has progressed across every dimension. From completing the user experience for touch, keyboard and mouse to refining the development platform, the Consumer Preview improves performance, quality and reliability across all subsystems. With the added features, it represents a more complete view of the capabilities of Windows 8.

• Windows Store with new apps. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview marks the beta opening of the Windows Store, which is filled with a variety of new Metro style apps from both third-party developers and Microsoft. During the Consumer Preview, these apps are available to try and experience at no cost to users. The Windows Store will offer personalized recommendations, and Windows 8 gives users the ability to take their apps and settings with them across multiple PCs, making it easy to discover and try new apps while offering developers the greatest opportunity of any platform.

• Connecting to the cloud across Windows-based PCs and Windows Phone. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers seamless integration with the content people care about across their devices. An optional additional sign-on with a Microsoft account provides access to a host of features, including the ability to roam all settings, use cloud storage, communicate with email, calendar and contacts, and connect to a broad range of services. Your connection to the cloud works across your Windows-based PCs and your Windows Phones.

• Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5. The best way to experience the Web on Windows is with Internet Explorer 10. The browser has been re-imagined to create a new experience designed specifically for Windows 8 devices. It provides an edge-to-edge user interface that is all about less browser and more Web. Fast and fluid, Internet Explorer is hardware-accelerated to enable Web performance.

• Preview of new hardware capabilities. At the event, Microsoft also showcased Windows 8 running on a wide range of new x86- and ARM-based reference hardware. This hardware will be available to select developers for trial and testing as previously announced.

Learn more and download here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview

Continue to follow the Building Windows 8 Blog by Steven Sinofsky for general updates on Windows 8.

 

To install Windows 8 Consumer Preview from USB drive:

1.  Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview in ISO format

ISO Format: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

2.  Follow the instructions on the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to make a bootable USB drive.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

 

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February 24, 2012 0

Consumerization of IT at Microsoft

By in desktop, management, productivity

At Microsoft, we have been supporting “Consumerization of IT” long before it was hot industry trend. Our internal IT department (MSIT) has always had a strategic goal of enabling the workforce and not inhibiting it. Employees are empowered to use devices that increase their productivity, including devices running Windows and even devices running non-Windows software.

However, Microsoft sees Consumerization of IT as more than just devices. Here are a few additional challenges MSIT frequently evaluates:

  • Devices (Phones, Tablets, Slates, Netbooks, etc.)
  • Identity (Corporate, Live, OpenID, etc.)
  • Social Media
      -Internal (OfficeTalk, //mysites, SharePoint, Lync, etc.)
      -External (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, blogs, etc.)
  • Cloud Services (SkyDrive, LiveMesh, Google+, Mozy, etc.)
  • Application and Media Marketplace (Zune, iTunes, Amazon)
  • Rich Media (YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc.)

With consumerization planning, organizations need to weigh Business Value against Risk Mitigation.

ConsumerizationITCostBenefit_thumb[3]

Business Value at Microsoft

Hardware – Microsoft has a 3 tier model for classifying user hardware. MSIT Standard, MSIT supported consumer, Self-hosted consumer devices.

Support – The global helpdesk is tiered much like hardware is. Standard hardware has full support from MSIT, whereas supported consumer products are supported by an offsite third party.  Self-hosted devices have no MSIT support.

Mobile – Microsoft recognizes the EAS (Exchange ActiveSync) logo certification process in determining which devices should be allowed to connect.  Line-of-business applications are supported and identity is handled through an intranet portal.

External Sites – Microsoft supports social media and encourages employees to use sites appropriately through regular training and awareness.  Very few sites are blocked at Microsoft and employees are allowed to connect with other employees, partners and customers through these mediums while at work.

Rich Media – Microsoft does not block rich media as it has become an effective way of distributing information.

Productivity – Enabling Anywhere, Anytime, Any Device mindset enables user to be productive in new ways.

Risk Mitigation by MSIT

Data – Blurring the line between business and personal data is risky.  Microsoft invested a great deal of time defining policies around data security (within IT and within the user population).

Procurement – Based on the tiered model of support, the Procurement department prepares hardware from the standard list as it would normally.  In the case of supported consumer devices, MSIT may work with third-parties to purchase these devices.  Self-hosted devices are purchased by the end user.

Provisioning – Microsoft manages both standard and supported devices under tools such as System Center – Configuration Manager. At this time, consumer devices are unmanaged and are the sole responsibility of the end user.

Software – Some applications are known to be problematic (e.g. peer-to-peer sharing software). Those software packages are among the few that are blocked from running on managed devices.

Management – Both standard and supported devices are domain joined and grant CorpNet (intranet) access. Self-hosted devices are not managed by MSIT.  However, there is limited connectivity to CorpNet available for these devices.

Support – Because all standard MSIT devices include a TPM chip, those devices in addition to supported consumer devices that also have a TPM chip, are allowed to configure DirectAccess. Consumer devices that do not meet these requirements must connect through Exchange ActiveSync.

Training – Microsoft has developed training modules on effective use of public social media tools.  Microsoft employees are also required to participate in regular training around disclosures and confidentiality. 

Summary

As a Microsoft employee, I am able to choose the right device to do my job most effectively.  As a user, there is little thought I need to invest when it comes to how I connect a device to do my job.  The experience is seamless.  More than ever Microsoft is making investments in supporting multiple platforms, heterogeneous environments, and enabling users with a word-class software experience. 

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February 20, 2012 0

Efficient Email

By in productivity

When you receive 200 emails per day, it can become challenging to keep straight which emails need a response, which ones you’ve already responded to and which ones are overdue for a follow-up response.

I work very disjointedly throughout the day. I may receive an email in the morning, but I may not respond until the afternoon. However, I don’t think this is a-typical. Making sure I stay on top of emails is a priority of mine.

[…]

To assist with this, I’ve developed what I’ll refer to as the “Email Triage System” for managing email. It follows a similar framework as an Emergency Room. Highest priority cases get bumped up to the front of the line and lower priority items wait. In the case of my emails, priority is based on the status of an email.

This system has effectively got me “caught up” on emails and within any given day I can respond to all high priority emails.

Check it out for yourself.  Feedback welcome!

http://www.erickraus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Email-Triage-System.docx

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February 10, 2012 0

Controlling your happiness and success

By in productivity

I just got done watching a fantastic TEDtalk by Shawn Achor.  While the focus of the talk is about rewiring our brains that a successful career will bring us happiness, the common theme can be applied to life in general.  It is encouraged that we explore how having a positive take on life will more closely determine our success in life and work, than the other way around.

I encourage you to check it out.  just 12 minutes.  Funny and inspiring.

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

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