SuperSite Blog : PDC 2008

PDC 2008: I’m always in the way

pthurrott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:12:49 GMT

I was sitting in front of Alexander Schek at the Windows 7 reviewers workshop Sunday. Here’s a funny picture he took of this.

Sitting behind Paul Thurrott who takes 80% of my view :)

Good stuff. Sorry about that, Alexander. :) Maybe if you were using a PC, I would have scrunched down a little. :)

Live from PDC 2008: Day 3

pthurrott — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:31:38 GMT

10/29/2008 10:29 PM – Final update – Well, it’s finally over. After hitting a final session with Raf, a big group of us went out to dinner after taking a ride on the famed LA Metro (someone has to use it). Here are some pictures…

I’m flying home early tomorrow so I should be offline most of Thursday. See you when I get back.

10/29/2008 2:15 PM – We just discovered they’re closing the press room at 3 today for some reason. I’m going to go see Raymond Chen after that, but here are a few random shots from the LACC today…

10/29/2008 12:16 PM – Just got back from a Windows Home Server meeting. Time for lunch…

10/29/2008 9:19 AM – And some pictures from the press room this morning…

10/29/2008 9:10 AM – OK, this keynote is (predictably) a yawn. So here are some pictures from last night’s press party at the Elevate lounge…

Ed Bott, Halloween style!

10/29/2008 8:37 AM – LiveBlog is happening and the keynote is under way…

10/29/2008 8:21 AM – We’re at the press room … keynote will be on the Liveblog shortly…

10/29/2008 7:09 AM – A bit of a later start today, but no surprise there.

Live from PDC 2008: Day 2

pthurrott — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:45:29 GMT

Latest updates are on the top….

10/28/2008 3:28 PM – In a session with Raf and Stephen..

10/28/2008 2:53 PM – Here we go.

10/28/2008 2:44 PM – I’ll try to get a better one later, but here’s a shot of the Windows 7 boot screen.

10/28/2008 2:07 PM – Stephen Chapman has published a Q&A with Steven Sinofsky.

I’m playing around with some of Windows 7’s virtualization features. More info soon, I hope…

10/28/2008 1:13 PM – Some pictures from today…

First, the All-Star Bloggers live-blogging from the press room.

Todd, Raf, Tom, Maarten, Bob

Mary Jo

And let’s not forget “the goods”…

10/28/2008 10:20 AM – Bob Stein is here from Activewin and he just pinged me about his massive Windows 7 M3 review. Check it out!

10/28/2008 10:08 AM – The Windows 7 part of the keynote is done and my content is up. I’ll have part 2 of my Windows 7 preview up later today. But check the front page. There’s a lot there already. :)

10/28/2008 8:29 AM – OK, here we go. Get excited. Get very excited. Live coverage on the live blog throughout the keynote.

10/28/2008 8:01 AM – Our Liveblog is now available for today’s keynote. Check it out on the PDC 2008 page.

10/28/2008 8:01 AM – OK, we’re in the press room. Time for breakfast. And time to prep today’s big site update. :)

10/28/2008 7:03 AM – What’s shiny and new, and going to make a lot of people really happy today?

10/28/2008 6:48 AM – And because I never get tired of humiliating myself (and those silly enough to get caught in my blast radius), here are some pictures from the press and analyst party at The Standard Hotel last night.

10/28/2008 6:43 AM – Good morning from a still-dark Los Angeles. Keynote starts at 8:30, I think, but there should be a deluge of info then or soon thereafter…

PDC 2008: Windows 7 (M3) pre-beta features leak

pthurrott — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:15:45 GMT

Long has a nice scoop about Windows 7 M3 features being leaked … by Microsoft. You gotta love legal.

BitLocker™ Drive Encryption

What this feature does
BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) is available on computers running Windows 7 Enterprise Edition and Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. Should your computer be lost or stolen, BitLocker protects your data by helping to prevent offline software attacks. Turning on BitLocker encrypts the hard drive where Windows is installed, including all information that is stored on that drive.

Device Stage

You can turn this feature off by going to Devices and Printers in Control Panel. Right-click your computer icon, and then click Device Installation Settings. Select “No, let me choose what to do” and click to clear the “Display enhanced device icons…” check box.

Driver Protection

Driver Protection helps prevent the operating system from starting drivers that are known to cause stability problems.

Gadgets

Gadgets are programs that run on the desktop and provide at-a-glance information, and easy access to frequently used tools.

HomeGroup

A HomeGroup allows you to easily link Windows 7 computers on your home network so that you can share pictures, music, videos, documents and devices. It also makes them ready to stream media to devices on your home network such as a media extender. You can help protect your HomeGroup with a password, and you can choose what you want to share.

PDC 2008: Microsoft Unveils the Windows Azure Cloud OS

pthurrott — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:35:20 GMT

This will be in WinInfo tomorrow, but in the interest of expediency…

PDC 2008: Microsoft Unveils the Windows Azure Cloud OS

During the opening keynote address for its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008 in Los Angeles on Monday morning, Microsoft revealed that its cloud computing platform, which will be called Windows Azure. According to the software giant, Windows Azure will help developers build-next generation applications that span the Internet cloud and datacenter, the PC, the Web, and the smart phone.

"Today marks a turning point for Microsoft and the development community," Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie said. "The Azure Services Platform, built from the ground up to be consistent with Microsoft’s commitment to openness and interoperability, promises to transform the way businesses operate and how consumers access their information and experience the Web. Most important, it gives our customers the power of choice to deploy applications in cloud-based Internet services or through on-premises servers, or to combine them in any way that makes the most sense for the needs of their business."

For the forward-leaning nature of cloud computing, Windows Azure sounds an awful lot like any traditional Microsoft platform. In fact, it seems that developers can simply approach Azure like a modern version of Windows Server: It exposes technologies like the .NET Framework ASP .NET, and applications are created in Visual Studio. This is all by design, of course.

Windows Azure is part of a wider Azure Services Platform, which also includes a number of other familiar-sounding components, including SQL Services, .NET Services, Live Services, SharePoint Services, and Dynamics CRM Services. Presumably, companies will be able to mix and match between traditional, on-premises servers and cloud-hosted services going forward.

Live from PDC 2008: Day 1

pthurrott — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:24:35 GMT

Latest updates are on the top….

10/27/2008 5:48 PM – OK, they’re kicking us out of the press room soon. I’ve been working all day, so check back at 9:00 am PT tomorrow for some serious updates. Should be pretty decent. Up tonight: Another party on the rooftop of the Standard Hotel and then dinner with friends.

10/27/2008 2:46 PM – I just had a grueling Windows Azure briefing. I have to say, I’m having a hard time groking this. Part of the problem si that the announcement is only half-done: There will be more tomorrow around the Live Services. Part of the reason is that its just APIs they’re talking about now. More specifics later, I guess.

10/27/2008 12:46 PM – OK, I’ve actually been reasonably productive. Next up: A Cloud Computing Reviewers Briefing (90 minutes!!!) and then a meeting with the Oslo/Office folks.

10/27/2008 11:12 AM – Working on some articles that will post tomorrow. There’s a lot I can’t say yet.

10/27/2008 10:17 AM – So the keynote is over and … blech. Really unimpressive. Not the technology or the platform, but the presentation of it. Seriously, guys. I can’t say this enough: Pay attention to how Apple introduces things. Even their platform announcements are interesting. Bob Muglia and David Thompson were the most engaging. But most of it was pretty sad. And the Bluehoo thing. Cripes.

10/27/2008 10:03 AM – Random press room shot…

And yes, that’s Raf violating my privacy. :)

10/27/2008 9:15 AM – Make sure you’re following the keynote live blog!

10/27/2008 8:09 AM – Oh, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter. I’ve been posting the occasional photo there as well.

10/27/2008 8:09 AM - Here’s a very short QIK video Tom shot yesterday at the, uh, event.

10/27/2008 7:38:24 AM – We're in the press room. I think Rafael, Tom, and I and a few others will be live blogging from here instead of going into the main hall. (Update: Tom couldn’t resist. He’s heading over to keynote hall.)

10/27/2008 6:16:44 AM – And PDC is finally upon us. I'm eager to talk about what we did yesterday, but that will have to wait a day or so for confidentiality reasons. In the meantime, here's a quickie WinInfo news story about the show starting.

PDC 2008: Here Comes Windows 7 ... And Windows Server 2008 R2 ... And Windows Cloud OS ...

We are heading into the LACC for the morning keynote in a just a bit. Note that the PDC 2008 live blog—with Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Rafael Rivera, Tom Warren, Long Zheng, and yours truly--should be up and running for the keynote (8:30 am to 11:00 am). Today’s keynote, disappointingly, deals not with Windows 7, but with Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Cloud OS.

More when we get to the convention center….

Live from PDC 2008: Day 0

pthurrott — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:03:58 GMT

10/26/2008 7:57 AM – Well, so much for an early start. :) We’re off soon to get our PDC passes, but first up is some photos from last night’s party at the Standard Hotel.

Rafael and Long.

Rafael and Gary.

Live from PDC 2008 (well, sort of): Day –1

pthurrott — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:33:01 GMT

10/25/2008 11:02 AM - I'm somewhere over the middle of the country as I write this, heading to LA on AA Flight 25. 4:45 am came painfully quickly, but that was expected. A few words about the technology I'm bringing along this time. Two laptops (a mid-2008 Apple MacBook and a 15-inch HP Pavillion something-something-something, both running Vista). Multiple portable media players because they take up almost no space in my bag at all and, what the heck, I do have a bunch of them: 3 iPod touches, 1 Zune 80, 1 Zune 16. My iPhone 3G, which is hopefully not losing battery life because I just thought about it. The Kindle with today's newspapers. Two USB-based WD Passport drives (320 GB, 250 GB) with various backups, documents, movies, and other files. Bose noise-cancelling headphones because planes are dangerously loud and I already have more tinnitus than I care for. A digital camera. In packed luggage ($15 for the first bag; thanks American Airlines) I have various power cords, charging cables, and that Microsoft Lifecam Show Web cam, which I'm really liking.

Oddly, today is the least busy day of the trip. I'm going to try and finish an article I've been working on but can't publish until early next week (sorry, can't discuss it yet) thanks to the lucky acquisition of an exit row seat (with the only empty seat on the plane next to me too). But I'm most looking forward to seeing some friends today, including Raf, Bryant, and a bunch of Microsoft folks; Ward, Lucas and we'll see who else. There's a little get-together happening tonight. Should be interesting. I don't get out of the house much, it seems, but when I do it's usually to travel across the country. Weird.

Back to work...

10/25/2008 2:19 PM - OK, all checked in now and signing on at the hotel for the first time. Long, Rafael, and Bryant are here as well; we just had lunch over at the Bonaventure. LA is hotter than usual and it looks like it's going to be like that all week.

Time for a nap. And then tonight's party. More later...

10/25/2008 2:30 PM – A few iPhone photos of LA…

10/26/2008 10:09 PM – We’re back from the Standard, which was cool. I’ll post some pics tomorrow, but Long Zheng sent along this picture of me enjoying an oyster at the event…

Good stuff. :) See you tomorrow…