Toluu

UX Evangelist

...all Microsoft, all the time.

UX Evangelist's PDC 2008 "The Goods" Contest!November 3

What's cooler than stuff? Free stuff! Yaaaay, free stuff, yaaaay... well, kind of free.

I've decided to have a little contest here where the winner of my choosing will receive my copy of "The Goods" from PDC 2008! That's right, the 160GB hard drive with all of those luscious, succulent bits, and the 3 Windows 7 installation DVD's (32-bit, 64-bit, and 7 Server). Since I haven't activated my 6801 install (and I won't be) with the key that came with the install DVD's, that means you will also have your very own legit Windows 7 product key. You'll be all set up!

So, what's the grab? Offer me something. The choice is yours! Offer whatever you want. Whatever comes to mind that you think I would like, go for it. Whoever offers the coolest and most valuable (it doesn't have to necessarily be anything of monetary value, just something I personally find valuable) whatever will get the goods. Simple as that! You could offer to promote my site or offer a service. You could offer ideas and/or knowledge that I would be interested in, unleaked Windows Longhorn or Windows 7 stuff (hehehe), your mom's famous bread pudding recipe, or that mysterious box in the attic your parents always told you to stay away from as a kid. Just offer something! Now, there are 2 VERY IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW:

1 - Yo

Windows 7 GoodiesOctober 28

For those interested in the specifics:

Windows 7 32-bit: 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CFRE_EN_DVD.iso
Windows 7 64-bit: 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CXFRE_EN_DVD.iso
Windows 7 Server 64-bit: 6801.0.080913-2030_amd64fre_Server_en-us-GB1SXFRE_EN_DVD.iso
Windows 7 32-bit Symbols: Windows_Winmain.6801.0.080913-2030.X86FRE.Symbols.msi
Windows 7 64-bit Symbols: Windows_Winmain.6801.0.080913-2030.AMD64FRE.Symbols.msi
Windows 7 32-bit SDK: 7.0.6801.0.3634.WindowsSDK_Windows7_idw.WindowsSDK.DVD.Release.iso
Windows 7 MCE SDK: WindowsMediaCenterSDK6.msi

-Stephen

PDC 2008: All About "The Goods"October 28

Long story short, they did indeed give us a large amount of content! In alphabetical order, here are all the things we received:

.NET Micro Framework SDK v3.0
.NET Micro Framework SDK for embedded development, includes device emulator

.NET Services SDK
The .NET Services SDK includes APIs, libraries, samples, and documentation for building applications with the three .NET Services: the Access Control Service, the Service Bus and the Workflow Service.
Download

Azure Services Training Kit
Azure Services Training Kit includes hands-on labs, presentations, and samples to help you understand how to utilize Azure Services. Please note: The content in this kit requires you to have registered developer accounts for the Azure Services.
Download

Microsoft Blueprints
Microsoft Blueprints are collections of process and resources to help you produce a specific type of deliverable such as a library, framework or application; you can think them as task-specific SDKs which will be provided by Microsoft as well as you can build your own.

Highly Productive Computing: Developing for the Windows HPC Server 2008 Platform
Whitepaper on developer technologies for the Windows HPC Server 2008 platform.

Live Framework Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio and the Live Framework SDK
The Live Framework SDK provides developers with documentation, samples, to

Q&A with Steven SinofskyOctober 28

Arranged seemingly last minute was an "Open Space" Q&A session with Steven Sinofsky. I had to ditch the session I wanted to attend the most (Welcome to the Windows 7 Desktop), but I felt it would be worth it. Sinofsky was very talkative but also very clever with his choice of words and what he did/didn't expose. He was gone as quickly as he arrived and since this was such a seeminly sporadic thing, I took out my digital voice recorder to record the whole thing. The quality isn't bad at all; it gets the job done. I think Channel 9 was recording it as well, so if/when they pop the video up, I'll included it here. Until then, I've uploaded what I recorded so that you all can listen to it.

He extends just a bit on some points noted in the keynote, talks a bit about UAC, touches on the initial lack of support for Vista and how SP1 "works," and much more. Oh, and I managed to get a question in. =) I asked what general users and Windows enthusiasts should look to play around with specifically in 6801. He didn't really give any specific answers but I suppose people will find their way. lol. If nothing else, it's an entertaining listen. Enjoy!

Download: Q&A with Steven Sinofsky

-Stephen

It's Official: Windows 7 M3 Pre-Beta Build 6801October 25

The Windows 7 build that PDC attendees will be given is M3 Pre-Beta build 6801. The exact build string is yet to be determined, but after doing some digging around, I think I've found it: Build 6801.winmain_win7m3.081020-1655

Now, just where in the world did I pull that build string from? The back of a milk carton? My butt? The Windows dev building in Redmond (I wish, lol)? Nawwwww. Microsoft threw some security updates on their site for Windows 7 a few days ago, so I downloaded them and checked out the build version of the DLL the updates replace (netutils.dll). This is the version as it exists in the DLL: 6.1.6801.4107 (winmain_win7m3.081020-1655)

For those of you who aren't familiar with Microsoft's build string terminology, the string reads as follows: Windows 7 M3 (Milestone 3) Build 6801 compiled in the WinMain lab on October 20, 2008 at 4:55 PM (081020-1655)

Even more interesting is that they provided a security update for three versions of the Windows 7 Pre-Beta (click each one to be taken to the download pages):

Windows 7 Pre-Beta (x86)
Windows 7 Pre-Beta x64 Edition