Will Microsoft never learn?

Arghh! I've been trying to install the Windows Live packages for the past hour with no luck! I've tried uninstalling and cleaning up temp files, but still no luck.

The problem is always the same: why don't we get an assertive message informing us why we cannot install?

Microsoft IT Numbers

Microsoft internal IT:

• 600k connected devices
• 10,000 Servers
• 3 Datacenters 1 operations center
• 11% is virtualized in Microsoft Datacenters
• 330 of 385 servers run Windows Server 2008 (RC0) plus all 85 Microsoft.com servers
• 11 clustered systems
• 30,000 users in redmond domain (50,000 with vendors)
• NAP reporting 140K clients, 90 clients deferred mode

The Redmond Active Directory domain is running in Windows Server 2008 mode since last thursday (Nov 1st)

Microsoft Email:

• 6 million internal emails per day
• 20 Million emails from Internet
• 97% rejected as spam
• 99,999 uptime

Worldwide:

• 140,000 end users
• 550 buildings
• 98 countries
• 1/3 of the sites are connected over Internet only
• 2300 Line of business applications
• 1 single SAP instance (5 Terrabyte database)
  Dynamics/MSCRM

Windows Live Services:

• 130,000 servers online
• 435 Million unique users
• 280 Billion pageviews daily
• 12 Billion emails daily
• 6 billion Instant Messages daily

Remote connect

• 1 million VPN sessions per month
• 80,000 unique OWA users
• Remote app portal
• TS gateway 20,000 users
• Direct Connect pilot

Microsoft.com figures

• 55,7 million unique users, #4 overall site in US
• 280,5 Unique users wordwide #6 site worldwide
• 15,000 request a sec

The Redmond Active Directory domain is running in Windows Server 2008 mode since last thursday (Nov 1st)

Hate to be the guy that has to administer this monster.

Source: bink.nu

VM consolidation savings

Microsoft internal IT uses Virtual Server for over 18 months now, some 1250 VMs.

Savings:

• Consolidation Ratio 8 to 1
• 2 million USD saved by consolidation
• From 30 racks to two racks
• Power form 525 Amps to 8 Amps!
• Storage from 19 TB to 11 TB

So why do people insist on not using VM by default?

source: bink.nu

Quote of the day

Software and cathedrals are much the same - first we build them, then we pray.

Thanks for the quotes, Pita. And thanks for these great quote links: QuotationsPage.com and Programming Quotes.

Visual Studio 2008 out in November

Somasegar just announced that Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 will be out this November. After just few weeks we will be all able to use the latest version of Visual Studio. Cool!!!

HD Photo to become JPEG XR

Cool.

Something is rotten in the state of IE

I use 3 browsers: IE, Firefox and Opera. And ok, I'm giving Safari a test drive - great search feature, man!

Why 3? Because:

1. monoculture sucks;
2. Opera works better that IE and Firefox on old hardware, and mouse gestures rule;
   
3. each of the 3 have great features;
4. i use separate browsers to do different things - like using multiple desktops;
5. finally, I can use different IDs (ex: myself at work, myself at home, my company access identification at MSDN).

The problem is: Firefox is getting a great share of my usage; so today I tend to do most of development on Firefox; so today I better test my code and postings on Firefox.

This is the opposite from what used to be true to me only 3 to 4 years ago. Something is rotten in the state of IE.

Is it legal?

A friend of mine as just noticed the following trend: on most projects we have a business object called 'Sex'. Is this legal in your countries/states?

Thanks for sharing your devious mind with the rest of us, Diogo :)

Microsoft Sync Framework CTP

Maybe not the best of the acronyms (MSF), but here it is:

Introducing the Microsoft Sync Framework CTP1 SDK – a comprehensive synchronization platform enabling collaboration and offline for applications, services and devices with support for any data type, any data store, any transfer protocol, and network topology.

Introduction to the Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform that enables collaboration and offline access for applications, services and devices. Using Microsoft Sync Framework runtime, developers can build sync ecosystems that integrate any application, with any data from any store using any protocol over any network. This document will help you understand how the Microsoft Sync Framework enables synchronization to build a synchronization topology.

Introducing Microsoft Sync Framework: Sync Services for File Systems

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform that enables collaboration and offline access for applications, services and devices. Sync Services for File Systems is one of the providers included out-of-the-box that enables synchronization of files between devices. This document will explain the File Systems provider and provide a basis of understanding to learn how to build new providers to synchronize new data stores.

Introduction to Occasionally Connected Applications using Sync Services for ADO.NET

The ability to support mobile and remote workers is becoming more and more important for organizations every day. It is critical that organizations ensure users have access to the same information they have when they are in the office. This document explains how Sync Services for ADO.NET which is a part of the Microsoft Sync Framework (MSF) enables synchronization of information between database systems and how Sync Services for ADO.NET helps developers avoid many of the common issues associated with taking data offline.

Hi. My name's Mário and I would like to write more crappy code

Unfortunately the greater part of my day is waisted on meetings and building use cases. My main development tool is Visio - look mom, I'm a visionary!

But whenever I have a chance, I do write lot's of shitty code. There you have it Marc, Ted, Udi and André.

Besides the tools & practices that can help us reducing the crappiablility our code, I think we should above all be humble about it, and read a lot. And here's the rest of the list according to Hanselman.

Bypass Fat OSs With Fast-Boot Technology

Phoenix HyperSpace's secure embedded platform promises to let your basic applications fire up instantly.

As Windows gets more and more complex, we've seen startup times get longer and longer. If I go to the airport and try to connect to a Wi-Fi network, I'm waiting for five minutes just to connect. That's ridiculous -- people usually just give up and use their cell phones or PDAs.

Hobbs continues:

The Lenovos, Dells and Acers of the world can start tailoring computers with HyperSpace functionality to very specific demographics. A student-aimed laptop, for instance, could come with apps like word processing, e-mail and IM preloaded into HyperSpace. Companies could even start releasing HyperSpace versions of applications specifically for the embedded platform.

Seems like other virtualization models are coming in.

.NET 3.5 poster

Back in the days that development products came in boxes loaded with manuals and diskettes the posters were a must-have on our walls. Not the present times, I'm afraid, but here's the poster for those who think it's still useful.