Tech for Lunch!

After going to the Heroes Happen {here} event in Montreal, I thought I’d go through all the new features included in Windows Server 2008 to explain what they are and give my thoughts about them. I was pretty impressed with the feature set already, but seeing some of these in live presentations was the extra little push I needed to be convinced. The next step will be to see the OS operate in a real-world environment instead of Microsoft’s Utopian “Contoso” domain.

One of the biggest change that was brought in this version and that is not really a feature, is the fact that the emphasis is placed on “components”. What this means is that every role and every feature gets setup almost as a standalone portion. The components approach allows a very modular installation as I will discuss in the ServerCore feature and removes many dependencies to other components. Gone should be the days when you need to install 3 other components to get the one you want running.

Here is my list of new features and functionalities that I find are the most significant:

Server Manager

Until now, every little function that needed to be managed had its own tool or console to do so. The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) was a first step to try to bring all these tools together, but most admins just went for the one snap-in that they needed and there was no central tool to do it all. Server Manager aims to change all that and offers a single interface to manage your entire Server 2008 installation.

The Server Manager is still based on the MMC approach but gives you all the tools in on place instead of having to add the snap-ins yourself. On great new thing is that everything that can be configured through the Server Manager has a dedicated web page to give you up-to-the-minute information on the role your are configuring such as Active Directory Domain Services, Application Server, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Terminal Services, Web Server, and many others. It also includes diagnostics and troubleshooting tools as you would expect, just like in previous versions.

Server Core

One of my favorite features for Windows Server 2008 is called Server Core. This new installation mode allows you to install Windows Server 2008 for some specific roles and removes all the GUI and shell elements. What you end up with is a server that boots up very fast and only displays a boring blue background and a command prompt.. that’s it. Everyone who knows me is aware that I’m a command-line type of guy and Linux has always been appealing to me because of that. This time around, Windows Server 2008 offers the very same type of machine installation.

The purpose of removing the GUI and only running some specific services becomes very obvious if you have ever had to manage a server in your life. The attack surface is instantly diminished because only the services that you need are running and no useless software is installed just waiting to get hacked. There is no Windows Media Player, no Internet Explorer and no Windows Mail, for example, so this type of installation removes many of the wide-open doors that are on servers today. Also, because there is so much less software running on a Server Core installation, there should be a lot less patches to deploy. This makes your server maintenance that much easier.

Server Core is a Windows Server 2008 installation, but it does not have all the roles and services that the complete version does. It supports just nine roles, including AD, AD LDS, DHCP, DNS, File, Print, Virtualization (Hyper-V), Web Server, and WMS, compared to 18 roles in the full server. I can already see quite a few different scenarios where I could apply this type of server. Applications that require a full GUI or the .NET Framework, for example will not work on Server Core.

For the Command-Line impaired out there, fear not! Microsoft has made sure that the regular admin tools, like the new Server Manager, will work just fine to remotely manage Server Core installations. You will only need to use the command-line to setup the network connectivity and maybe join your domain, but you should be able to manage the rest remotely afterwards.

In a recent public appearance, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, announced that the next version of Windows, dubbed Windows 7, might be ready for next year. Windows 7 is the successor for Windows Vista and the original schedule was for about 3 years after the release of Vista. A 2009 release would mean almost a year in advance from the proposed schedule and Microsoft has a track record of being late rather than early.

Naturally, not much information is available about the inner workings of Windows 7, but Microsoft maybe trying to speed up the next version in order to correct many of the problems encountered by users of Vista.

In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates, speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank here, said: “Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version.” Referring to Windows 7, the code name for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: “I’m super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways.”

Perhaps Bill Gates was refering to the fact that they would have a TEST version available or a first public beta instead of a widespread public release. I think it would be pretty surprising to see another major release in such a short timeframe, but then again, the public reception of Vista certainly requires a little bit of damage control.

I would expect Windows 7 to be somewhat like XP was to 2000: same functionalities but with most of the kinks worked out and a more refined interface.

There was a post on Mozilla Lab’s blog to announce that they have partnered with Last.FM to offer a prize package for the “Extend Firefox 3″ contest. They are looking for “the best new music-related Firefox Add-on that demonstrates excellence in user experience, innovativeness, and use of open standards“.

The prize package includes a very cool trip to London and VIP tickets to attend one event presented by Last.FM and, for the gadget lover in all of us, a Logitech Squeezebox network music player.

Of course you need to know a little bit about what you’re doing and code something nice for Firefox 3, but since I’m a confirmed geek and love the technology/music mix, I feel that the more people know about this contest, the better the chances I’ll get a really cool extension for my Firefox!

The panel of judges will include Toby Padilla, Last.FM’s Vice-President of Client and Desktop Software.

Official rules and details on this new addition to Extend Firefox are available at www.extendfirefox.com

Well, unless you are using a blogging software or looking to start using one, this article may not be very useful to you, but it is still interesting to hear about a great piece of software when it comes along. Techforlunch uses Wordpress, so everything you see is managed and/or generated by wordpress. Wordpress 2.5 was released on March 29th and if you are waiting to upgrade, you shouldn’t…

I ran the upgrade procedure on techforlunch.com following the documentation and it was flawless. The steps are pretty straight-forward and basic:

1. Backup your database and current site files
2. Disable all your plugins
3. Upload the new files to your site (making sure not to overwrite the plugins and themes folders.)
4. Update the database schema (http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php)
5. Enable all your plugins one by one
6. Enjoy!

The improvements are not as visible on the user’s side so that is why practically no one will notice the version upgrade on the frontend. For the administrators though, it’s a different story. The interface is much cleaner, faster and less cluttered than before and adds many new features.

I strongly recommend this upgrade and can vouch for its ease of installation. The one click plugin upgrade feature is worth the upgrade by itself!

Recently the company SlySoft, based in Antigua, claims to have succeeded in breaking all barriers of protection of the new Blu-ray which, originally designers deemed as unbreakable for the next 10 years. SlySoft has issued a press release to this effect. If a new technology promises to be impenetrable; someone, somewhere will take on the challenge of trying to prove otherwise. This is simply history repeating itself.

SlySoft is recognized as being part of rebellious programmers or hackers. The company has put on the market many programs, such as “cloneCD” and “cloneDVD” programs capable of copying protected programs. The latest copy software of the company is called “Any HD DVD”.

In its press release, the company says: “Any HD DVD 6.4.0.0 is now able to circumvent the protection BD+ of the latest Blu-ray marketed, thus paving the way for many possibilities: Backup marketed movies on hard drives, making private copies. A practice that should terrify major studios. “

SlySoft stresses however that its victory is not complete: “However, we must also admit that the Blu-ray titles released up to now have not fully exploited the possibilities of BD+. Future releases will undoubtedly have a modified and more polished BD+ protection, but we are well prepared for this and await the coming developments rather relaxed” , said one of the directors of the company, Peer van Heuen.

Some will probably be offended of such daring and such contempt for copyrighted works. The sale of these copying programs is banned in several countries.

Others will see a victory for the consumer. Many argue that once a film is purchased, it is normal to want to make a protection copy or a copy to view on a mobile device.

When it comes to browsers, I’m sort of split between the two sides: Internet Explorer or Firefox. I think Internet Explorer 6 was a pretty decent browser because it’s fast and doesn’t use too much system resources, but it’s certainly not the most compliant out there. This is probably the reason why so many people have stuck to it and decided not to upgrade to the dreaded Internet Explorer 7. That IE7 is a real mess of a browser and, although it may do the job for regular home browsing, it’s definitely not compliant and has the highest crash and bug causing record of them all. So the best browser, if I stick only to the major players, would have to be Firefox 2. FF2 is a stable, robust and 100% compliant browser and has the “plugins” capability which allows it to add any of the features that competitors can come up with in a matter of days.

Firefox 3 has been in the works for a while now and the company openly discouraged regular users from trying it stating that it was a beta that should be tested only by developers. This week however, that speech has changed and you can now give this version a try if you can’t wait for the final build which should become publicly available sometime later this year. Mozilla said that their website should be updated very soon to reflect this information and perhaps give some more details about the release dates.

Firefox 3 is now in it’s 4th round of beta testing and the fifth (and possibly final) round is due to begin in the coming weeks. This round is mostly for aesthetics, visuals and minor bugs, but all the features should remain as they are now. The most interesting improvement to this version for me will definitely be the memory management. Firefox 3 is supposed to use less memory than the previous version - a much needed improvement.

I will certainly give Firefox 3 a go and let you know what I find very soon. I can never wait for final versions before I try something!

For those of you who have made the switch to Windows Vista, the long awaited Service Pack 1 is now available for download from Microsoft. It seems that, although SP1 is meant to fix bugs and make Vista a more stable environment, it also causes a few problems as well. This is to be expected whenever a huge patch like this gets released because it addresses many security related problems and when you close such holes, you may end up stopping some programs from running. Here are some of the programs that are known to be broken by SP1:

• BitDefender AV
• Fujitsu Shock Sensor
• Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10
• Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008
• Trend Micro Internet Security
• Zone Alarm Security Suite
• Iron Speed Designer
• Xheo Licensing
• Free Allegiance
• NYT Reader
• Rising Personal Firewall
• Novell ZCM Agent

Most of the programs are Antivirus or firewalls and it’s no surprise that a Service Pack will cause them to require a new version to be installed. Some drivers from Symantec, Intel, Realtek and AC are also known to cause problems and need to be updated to get a fully functional system.

You can get the complete information on this update from the Windows Vista SP1 page on the Microsoft website. You can get a complete list all the updates and fixes that are included as well as some more information on new functionalities and known bugs as they start showing up.

SP1 is available as a manual download for now and will become available in Windows Updates(and automatically download/install for those with automatic updates enabled) sometime in mid-April. The update ranges from 65mb from Windows Updates to 434mb for the full download for administrative installs.

We had an article not very long ago that discussed the importance of introducing your kids to technology at a young age. Parents know very well the importance of their kids’ safety on the internet and products aimed at this task have existed for quite some time. The inherent problem with many of these products, is simply the way that they approach the subject. Usually, a program gets installed on the computer and filters content and destinations using a blacklist which is updated by the product maker. But the internet and its “kid-unfriendly” content grow much faster for these filters to keep up appropriately.

This is where the newly launched Kidzui.com comes in:

“Built just for kids, the revolutionary new KidZui browser makes surfing the Internet fun and engaging for kids from ages 3-12. KidZui has all the sites and games your kids love and tons more. With the KidZui browser, your have access to over 500,000 websites, pictures and videos.” The idea behind this software, and the reason why it presents itself as being different and much more efficient than the others, is that instead of blacklisting the bad websites, it blocks everything and whitelists the good content. Everything gets reviewed by parents and teachers who are on the staff and they are constantly reviewing more based on requests, browser searches and current subjects. Everything is also categorized by age and by topic so kids can just browse through what’s available easily. Parents have the option of allowing sites which are not normally allowed by Kidzui and can also blacklist some sites which are approved by Kidzui if they need to. This could be useful if your kid is using a specific site too much, for example.

Here is a look at the interface which is very nicely done and colorful for kids to enjoy and keep coming back to. They should feel right at home and the browser gives them the opportunity to socialize with other kids who are using kidzui as well. Everything gets ranked and voted on by the kids so the relevant and most popular content will end up on the start page, making them easier to find and get to. Kids can set their own avatars and get points for being online and doing different things so they can show their personality to the world in a safe environment. They can share content with other kids, but no chat is enabled to keep things clean.

The introductory price is $4.95/month, but even at the regular price of $9.95/month, it’s a pretty good deal if you don’t want to have to check your kid’s every move on the internet. This is the only system that I know of which properly enables a safe environment for kids online. Kidzui comes in a PC and a Mac version.  Keep in mind that a lot of the competition is free so you may want to take a look at some other products if a monthly price is not your thing.

There has been a bit of a gap between the connected PC browsing experience and the Mobile user experience in terms of web applications. Most applications which are available in a “mobile” version make use of standard web technologies, html, css, etc.. to be usable by mobile users on cell phones or other mobile devices. The gap that remains is for flash applications which are not very well supported on mobile browsers on Windows Mobile.

Microsoft will be licensing Adobe Flash Lite for the Windows Mobile platform. This means that we should be able to view flash applications on mobile browsers equipped with this technology. Adobe Flash Lite is capable of rendering almost the same things as the standard Flash player that’s on your computer, but there are some differences. One of them, is the inability to run Applications created in Flex, but I hope that’s just for the current version.

There are already 300 million flash-enabled mobile devices in the world, so this has nothing revolutionary about it, except the fact that from now on, Microsoft Windows Mobile users should be able to enjoy flash enabled websites as well. Web developers may have to create mobile-specific versions for users to get the most out of their experience because screen sizes and heavy animation are sometimes a problem for mobile browsers, but at least, they will be able to develop using the same technology.

Apparently, this is a very smart move by Microsoft because they have Silverlight on the way, but it’s nowhere near ready to be deployed on Windows Mobile yet.  So this way, they add support for flash and prevent possible antitrust lawsuits for pushing only on Silverlight technology on Windows Mobile.  Time will tell which of these two platforms will be the best choice for mobile users, but Adobe will have to make sure that Flash Lite keeps receiving updates and supports the newer versions of flash applications.

Yesterday, I looked at the new Internet Explorer 8, Beta 1 and mostly discussed the internal behavior and rendering capabilities. Today, I wanted to show you what some of the new features are in more detail. There are quite a few improvements, but many of them are “Features” that should have been there a long time ago or were already implemented in other browsers such as firefox. Let’s start with the two most important ones: Webslices and Activities.

Activities add a contextual (usually a right-click) access to an external service, based on what page you are on or the selected text. Typically, these services will allow you to LOOK-UP information, such as a map, news on that subject or a dictionary definition, or SEND information to a blog, email or facebook profile etc. take a look at the screenshot I made in which I highlighted a postal code and got the map for it. You can move around in that pop-up map just like any other map. Notice the domain name(netfix.ca) is in bold in the address bar. That is also a new security feature to allow users to quickly identify which domain they are on to protect against phishing, typos and misguiding URLs.

Webslices are done by website developers who will make a portion (or a slice) of a page available to users. Users can subscribe to that slice and get updates regularly from wherever they are on the internet. When you subscribe to a slice, it gets added at the top of your IE8 window and turns bold when an update is available. You could use webslices to get weather, ebay auctions, news feeds, facebook friends statuses, stumbleupon buzz etc.. Basically anything that gets updated so you don’t have to navigate to that page everytime you want to see what’s going on. I think webslices will be like sidebar gadgets for Windows Vista and we will see slices for just about anything eventually. That’s probably one of the reasons why IE8 beta 1 is for “developers” ;-) Notice in this screenshot that the domain is also in bold in the address bar.

So this covers the two main new features of IE8, but another one that is worth mentioning for those of us who had to wait for it, is the developer tools. You can now debug HTML, JScript and CSS directly in the browser. Tools like these have been a part of firefox for quite some time, but hey.. better late than never! Most of the other improvements are for stability and speed. Rendering of HTML and CSS as well as JScript should now be a bit faster with IE8 and more improvements are set to be released with the next betas. We’ll just have to wait and see what the community’s feedback will be and what Microsoft will do about it.