Blankenthoughts

I had an opportunity to really get out and meet a great deal of the northern contingent of the Heartland district the past two weeks, and many of you have been asking for my slide deck for reference. The title of the talk was:

"Reach End Users With Next Generation Web Applications"

Here's a link to the slide deck.

I'll write more once this crazy road trip is over!

Labels: jeff blankenburg, microsoft, visual studio 2008

Dean Hachamovich - General Manager, Internet Explorer

1. CSS 2.1 - incompatibilities are detrimental to developer progress. IE 8 seems to WORK! Interoperabilities are core. We've provided 702 test cases to the W3C for CSS standards testing. IE8 will interpret web-standards as precisely as can be interpreted.
2. CSS Certification
3. Performance - modern sites rely heavily on script. IE 8 is performing as well as Firefox and Safari, and it's not done. The Back Button, with AJAX, is currently broken. IE 8 gives that power to the developer, so that Back works the way the user expects it to. Pages can be "connection aware" and change when you lose your connection.
4. HTML 5 Start
5. Developer Tools - in browser debugging of javascript and setting breakpoints, etc. CSS management and review on a LIVE page. Sweetness.
6. Activities - no more cutting and pasting from a web page. highlight, and get a menu with plenty of options like "show on map", look up on ebay, search, etc.
7. WebSlices - save part of a page to the browser, and it updates LIVE when you access it. This is functionality enabled by developers.
8. IE8 Beta 1 is available NOW. http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie8

Labels: dean hachamovich, ie8, internet explorer 8, jeff blankenburg, microsoft, mix08

Ray Ozzie talking about the "big picture" of Microsoft's development momentum

Advertising is the economic engine for the web.
The internet is the medium for all future technologies. Content is king. Social networking is exploding. Significantly investing in search.

How is the internet shaping and transforming Microsoft's products and services?

1. The web is a hub. The hub of our technology experiences. There is an explosion of connected devices out there right now.
2. The power of choice for when businesses embrace the cloud. All MS software will be re-engineered to enable "Server service symmetry." Distributed and federated applications will rise.
3. We need to embrace small pieces loosely joined. Think SOA. Transparency, standards, and interoperabilty are key. Multi-device development skills are becoming a necessity.

The next five years: everything about software development will change with the impact of the cloud on applications.

Keeps referring to your collection of internet-enabled devices as your " personal device mesh."

Connected Devices: imagine the bi-directional synchronization of all of your devices, with centralized web-based deployment.

Connected Entertainment: individuals will only have to license their media ONCE. And consume that media from all of their devices. Media entertainments services are progressively transforming to share media.

Connected Productivity: office for the PC, office mobile for the phone, office live for the web that will seamlessly integrate together. The web will become an "experience hub." See Office Live Workspace. It will be the hob of our connected productivity strategy. Think Sharepoint, Exchange, etc.

Connected Business: CRM for all, not just the enterprise. Much more to come in 2008. Think Exchange, Sharepoint, and Communicator hosted services. SQL Server data services available to developers in the cloud.

Connected Development: Everything is .NET...ScottGu will expand on this later.

Labels: cloud computing, jeff blankenburg, keynote, microsoft, mix 08, ray ozzie

My family mocks me constantly because I LOVE new products. Technology, food, clothing...you name it, I'll try it. If I like it, I'm also usually the first to tell everyone I know about it. Today is not one of those days.

Today I had the not-so-good fortune of trying the new A&W Float. It's described as:

A creamy blend of Rich A&W and Ice Cream flavor

It tastes like neither ice cream nor root beer. It's awful. And the aftertaste is even worse. As if I've been sucking on pennies I found on the street.

The bottle and packaging are beautiful. It's a very curvy bottle with very "sodashop" branded wrapping around the bottle. It wasn't until I poured this beverage into a glass that I understood why you can't see into the bottle. It looks like dishwater. Just kind of a grayish-brown swill color. Here's how I'd best describe it: Take a glass of water, and add a shotglass full of cola, and a shotglass full of milk. Now you have the appearance of an A&W Float.

Since this is something I will constantly have for review, expect more product reviews in the near future. Next up: Microsoft Home Server from HP.

Labels: a and w, float, jeff blankenburg, root beer