This past fall I decided to stop messing around with cheap MP3 players and buy a device from Apple or Microsoft.  I was looking for both audio and video and finally decided on the Zune rather than the Ipod for one main reason.  I already used Windows Media player and the Zune software was based on it so my transition would be easy.  That was the first of many bad assumptions.

The very first disappointment I must blame on my lack of research, but it was the fact that without hacking the device, there was no way to copy files directly to it.  The only way to move media back and forth was to use the Zune software.  I was still happy with my purchase however since I was still able to use my existing WMP playlists and such and this was the primary reason I chose it over the Ipod.

A couple months ago however, like everyone else that had a Zune, I anxiously awaited the big update that would update my Zune to match the new models on the way.  I thought this was a great move by Microsoft (and still do), however this was the first of my major frustrations.  Microsoft decided to change the way Zune used "tags" on media files.  Previously they were completely based on WMP and they changed the software to be based on "Vista" tags instead.  When I updated my software my well organized music library was a complete wreck.  I never used Vista tags before because I had no reason.  At least Microsoft could have converted them for me.  I should have wised up immediately, put the Zune on Ebay and bought something else.

I trudged forward however and spent several hours changing tags on my favorite files.  I finally got the device functional again... for a couple weeks anyway.  Getting ready for my trip to Japan I decided I better load up the device with more music, videos and podcasts.  While I was dragging and dropping songs into my collection (another dumb Zune idea) it suddenly stopped letting me.  Close Zune, reopen, still no drag and drop.  Reboot, same thing.  Ouch, why do I punish myself.  It was late and my plane left the next morning, so I just packed my little MP3 virus in my bag.

So last night, I had some time, and decided to try and fix the drag and drop problem.  I'm here in Japan now, so I have no access to my libraries so neatly organized on my home servers.  I started by trying to update the software to no avail.  I noticed there was a firmware update so I figure it couldn't hurt... but I was bitten by my Zune again.  The firmware update deleted 99% of my music, left my podcasts and one video.  Of course I'm not at home so I can't reload from my libraries.  AHHHHH.

Last resort to at least try and get the drag and drop back was a complete uninstall.  I followed this by removing anything Zune related.  I downloaded the latest software from Zune.net and I bet you'll be really surprised to hear it didn't fix a thing.  So hear I sit typing my frustrations in another blog entry. Yes it does make me feel better.

Good day,

Chris

I can say that when I decided to go to Mix this year, my main goal was to meet some of the folks involved with WPF and to learn more about what was called WPF/E. I suspected something was up however when Microsoft announced Silverlight a few weeks ago, knowing they were planning something much larger. So in the keynote they dropped the bomb that Silverlight will include the entire .NET runtime. It was actually ironic because I was talking to someone from Adobe (formally with Macromedia) before the keynote and I asked him what he thought about Silverlight as it related to Flash and he just commented that it didn't include any type of engine. I bet he as well as the rest of Adobe dropped their own bomb when they heard that news.

So what are the advantages of .NET in the browser? Listening to the keynote, the big things I can see are faster execution, better controls, better DOM and the fact that they are including LINQ! Yes, LINQ in the browser. Scott Guthrie even did a quick demo on a chess game he wrote that pits the .NET engine against the Javascript engine in Silverlight. It showed how many nodes per second were processed by each and it became obvious how much faster .NET will be that JS. Hey Brett, just think, drawing the freehand paths may actually be acceptable now!!!

Another cool announcement was the Silverlight Streaming Alpha, which is a web site you can upload videos to (up to 4GB total) and get a direct URL back for viewing on any web site, which can be easily used in Silverlight applications. Sounds like Microsoft's YouTube to me, but either way combining this with the great media abilities of Silverlight, web sites should be better than ever. Check out http://silverlight.live.com.

With keynotes taking up most of the morning, the afternoon was left to breakout sessions. The first one I attended was Silverlight and Javascript, but it was way too crowded and I got to sit between two guys bigger than myself. The three of us started producing way too much heat so I decided to call it early. I did get to see the presenter use the Javascript object model to access to access WPF entities built with Blend.

The next session I attended was something called Accessing Data Services in the Cloud. I didn't really understand what I was walking into but it was recommended to me. Ended up being a really cool breakout, as Microsoft announced something called "Astoria". I will not do any justice to this technology, so I'll just keep it brief Astoria exposes data as a service, allowing access via HTTP as the exchange. The coolest thing I saw it used for was with JSON, which allows the data to simply be exposed as objects inside of Javascript. There's also an online service available, but keep in mind "Astoria" is a new technology in just preview form. I have no idea of what type of product it will end up as. You can check out more information at http://astoria.mslivelabs.com.

I tried to go to more sessions, but both of the ones I went to were cramped and hot, and I just didn't feel like sitting through another 1 ½ of it. I'm heading to the Mashup tonight though, so the evening is still to come.

Chris

A couple weeks back, Ron Cameron was telling me that he really believed that the Daylight Savings Time (DST) issue would end up being worse than the year 2000 (Y2K) problem. He told me the thought it would be at its worse when the time used to change (first of April), rather than in early March, when a lot of folks simply just changed times manually. I smiled and went along as it seemed like a reasonable prediction, but from what I've seen, I think he may have been spot on. I really hope he's wrong because so far it has been a real pain in the rear and if it gets worse, there's going to be some serious productivity loss and IT downtime getting it all sorted out.

I'm just going to spend a couple minutes talking about the things I've been exposed to so far. First, it was the Microsoft patch that was supposed to fix the problem on Windows 2003 Servers. Because we had to update servers around here, we figured it was a great time to go ahead catch up on hot fixes for the last couple months. So on we went running Windows Update, and WHAM things started breaking and the worst part was we didn't know exactly what was breaking things because we had applied multiple patches.

The first thing we had happen was on our software activation server, where a security patch decided to disable Basic Authentication and enable Windows Authentication without asking, of course this caused a stoppage to the nice people trying to activate our software. Upon some research Microsoft claimed they did it because Basic Authentication should only be used over SSL, but guess what, that sever is using SSL. Like we'd really pass our keys around without encryption. It was hard to find the problem, but at least it was an easy fix.

Second, was one of our development domains. For some crazy reason the DST patch broke one of the COM+ services on the domain controller, causing the server to quit functioning properly and putting a halt to some stress testing we had been performing. I don't know the details here, as I wasn't hands on, but the only resolution we found was to rebuild the machine. What a pain!

Next thing was all my appointments getting messed up on my Windows Mobile device. The device changed its time correctly on the new DST, so you would have figured things would have worked. But some type of confusion between this and the patch to fix Exchange had confused everything. Not a big deal, as I realized quickly (along with everyone else) what had happened and our administrator had already sent a patch over so it wasn't too bad at all, except showing up and hour late to my first couple meetings.

Finally, Darrin Bishop started telling me about a completely bizarre SharePoint 2007 issue he'd run across. Check out it out on Darrin's Workbench.

I really do enjoy the extra daylight, but I'm really starting to dread the first weekend in April.

Chris

Doing some research for a project this morning, I got completely side tracked and started down the path of the history of Document Imaging inside the Windows platform. This topic is of obvious interest to me because I really feel KnowledgeLake is the new "Imaging for Windows", but in the form of "Document Imaging for SharePoint".

The Beginning

Sigma Imaging Systems was founded in 1988 and developed a Document Imaging and Workflow solution for MS-DOS. Sigma formed a partnership with Unisys in late 1989 that allowed Unisys to OEM the technology into a product called InfoImage. Unisys continued selling its UNIX based InfoImage, based off pieces of both internally developed code and FileNet code. Sigma maintained a separate code base for their product and InfoImage, which continued up until 1999.

Windows 95 and Wang

In April of 1995, Wang Laboratories formed an agreement with Microsoft to supply workflow and imaging capabilities to for Windows NT and Windows 95. Wang purchased Sigma Imaging Systems in July of 1995 for $20 million in order to fulfill this agreement. Sigma's product was renamed Imaging for Windows when released with the new operating systems. In exchange for being allowed to package the software Microsoft purchased $90 million in stock from Wang (or invested depending on how you look at it), as well as allowed Wang to advertise and sell upgrades to Imaging for Windows. Included with Windows 95 was the ability to scan using TWAIN devices, view, annotate and print TIFF, BMP, AWD (Microsoft Fax) documents. The viewer would also show and print JPEG and PCX/DCX images. Microsoft still maintains a web page on Imaging for Windows at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140980.

Kodak Purchases Wang

In 1997, Wang sold its Imaging division to Kodak for $260 million (no clue on how much Microsoft still owned of Wang) and formed the Eastman Software subsidiary.

Windows 98/2000

The Imaging for Windows software was basically repackaged for as a Kodak product for Windows 98, with no change in functionality. The product did get upgraded to 2.0 at some point, but it was basically the same product.

Unisys Agreement Ends

Depending on who you talk to you'll hear different stories here, but Eastman Software and Unisys terminated their agreement in early 1999. Eastman claimed it needed to stop supporting the InfoImage code in order enhance its workflow product, while Unisys said they did it to obtain the rights to source code and allow them to independently market their product.

Kodak spins off Eastman Software

Kodak spun off Eastman Software in August of 2000 and was renamed eiStream soon afterwards. Sometime during this transaction the agreement was broken with Microsoft to allow the Imaging for Windows software to continue being packaged with the Windows OS. In 2005 eiStream changed their name to Global360 and competes globally in the ECM space. Global360 still sells Imaging for Windows today worldwide with just minor upgrades from the product that was shipped with Windows 2000.

Microsoft releases Office 2003 with MODI

Microsoft contracted with Nuance, then known as ScanSoft, to create Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) for release with Office 2003. Not taking this market serious at all, I believe Microsoft really missed with this product. Although it still has most of the features of Imaging for Windows, it does not support the old Wang format for annotations within TIFF files, which makes it incompatible with the older files. It also uses a new format called MDI by default instead of TIFF. TIFF is still supported, but the annotations are a new format. The MODI software is part of the Office 2007 product with virtually no changes except for a version 12 stamp.

I think that's enough for now without diving into our product. Have a good weekend,

Chris