Brownie Points : Mesh

Buzz In the Cloud December 4, 2008

Mike Brown — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:36:07 GMT

Sorry for the extended absence. I've been working on a crossover article series on refactoring between my WPF half and my Azure half. It's shaping up pretty nicely. But in the meanwhile, I've neglected my buzz duties. So without further ado, here are your buzz-worthy items for today.

Getting Webby With It

Next week (December 8th to be precise), the Live Framework team will be hosting a webcast. I think the topic will be about the future of the MacOS or something like that. I'm pretty stoked about the 1 and 15 minutes scheduled for Q&A on the agenda!

Steve Marx Says

"PDC Attendees Should Have Windows Azure Tokens" (that is if you registered for them). Also if you follow his blog, he has more Azure code samples (including the blog itself) than you can shake a stick at.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

The PDC ended a month ago and I am still finding great sessions like this one that gives an in depth view of how the B2B sample Azure application shown during the opening keynote was built. It's funny, I went into PDC without a shred of interest in Microsoft's cloud platform (outside of Mesh/Live Framework). And now I'm so enthralled by it, I haven't spent more than 3 hours with VS 2010 (and that's just for the "Oslo" stuff). Anyway, I'm told there are good sessions on WPF 4.0, WF 4.0, TFS 2010, and other new stuff, and I'm going to get to them...eventually.

The Real Reason to Get Excited About Live Mesh

I've seen a lot of chatter about how cool Live Mesh is because you can synchronize your files. What if I told you that the file synchronization is really just a proof-of-concept. The Live Mesh client that you see today, is little more than an example of what the Live Framework enables. Don't believe me? Look at this video by Jamie Thomson where he shows the masses what the lucky few with Live Framework CTP tokens get to play with. BTW, I managed to win a few invite cards from the Live Framework team in an arm wrestling match. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one.

Today's Episode Guest Stars David Burela

Long Zheng decided to let someone else take the reins for a day over at his blog. David Burela took the opportunity to post a review of Azure. Don't go looking at the sidebar or anything. There's nothing to see there. Nope, nothing at all about a HP Magic Giveaway including a Touchsmart that is Windows 7 multi-touch capable.

Farewell "Blue Badge" Hack But We Don't Need You Anymore

Well soon we won't that is. Windows 7 Beta 1 (feature complete) will be given to attendees of the MSDN Developer Conferences. Basically, it's the PDC distilled and distributed at a more reasonable price point. I will be attending the Chicago event and promptly installing my Beta 1 copy on site!

Windows 7 Gives You Wings

Over at Redmond Developer News, you can read the new issue's cover story online. It is a review of Windows 7 Build 6801 that pretty much reaffirms my experience with 7.

The Signs Were Always There

Way back on October 1st Computer World posted a teaser article for "Windows Cloud".

You've Got to Love Fanboys

Windows 7 hasn't even released yet and the self proclaimed "Cyber Cynic" has written three different posts proclaiming that Windows 7 sucks and that Microsoft had to resort to bribery to get a good review. Like I said in my review, the only "bribe" I received from Microsoft was a copy of Windows 7 on a WD Passport drive. And my employer paid 2400 for me to get that.

The Live Framework Afternoon Special

In a new white paper by Nishant Gupta and Dharma Shukla, the two answer the question we've all been dying to know "What is it and Why Should I Care?". Next week it will be "Coping with Peer Pressure: Should I Use Live Framework?".

Well that's it for today fellow cloud dwellers. There's more news to tell, but not enough time to type it all out.

The Synchronization Morass

Mike Brown — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:45:30 GMT

Microsoft loves them some synchronization like a fat kid loves cake.

Yet another synchronization platform from Microsoft has emerged. This one appears to be an evolution of the Synctoy which was a desktop application that seemed oddly similar to Live Mesh. Codename "Anchorage", or as Redmond Pie calls it, "A SyncToy for the Cloud" If you're totally lost at this point, it's with good reason:

Codename "Anchorage" represents our current thinking of where to take SyncToy in the future that not only provides value as a generic sync hub but also - an easy to use application capable of keeping content synchronized across PCs, services, and devices through a rich plug-in mechanism based on the Microsoft Sync Framework.

Come again? Isn't that what Live Mesh does?

With Live Mesh, you can synchronize files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy. Access your files from any device or from the web, easily share them with others, and get notified whenever someone changes a file.

Here's where it gets really loopy:

With this project, providers will be able to register and be discovered in a variety of sync groups including contacts, files, favorites, videos, as well as synchronization across services such as the Live Mesh, PhotoBucket.com, Smugmug.com, and more. Powered by the Microsoft Sync Framework - this E2E and hub for sync providers has value for both consumers AND developers.

So wait a minute..."Anchorage" is an extensible synchronization platform that integrates with Live Mesh which itself is an extensible synchronization platform. (And from all indicators is ALSO built on top of the Sync Framework). Well at least Live Sync is a purely end user synchronization platform...at least we hope.

Buzz In the Cloud November 21, 2008

Mike Brown — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:59:21 GMT

Well, my fellow cloud dwellers, there's only one thing standing between me and a weekend of what I like to call heaven on 7. So let's get this party started!

New Bits for Your Meshification Pleasure

The first post on the Live Framework Team's fresh new blog (other than "Hello") is an announcement of fresh bits for the LiveFX CTP. Get your mesh on!

Would You Blog Inside a Box? Would You Blog Next to a Fox?

There are a lot of tips coming out for using Live Mesh to synchronize everything from your homework to your Tweetdeck settings. I was going to write a tip for people who want to synchronize their Live Writer posts/drafts. But Sarah Perez beat me to it. Actually I sync my entire Documents folder like Sarah does. So I got Live Writer posts for free.

More On Table Services Programming

Oak Leaf continues their series on creating a test harness for the Azure Table Services API. I think LIMOG would be useful even if you weren't using table services

Azure Storage Services Test Harness: Table Services 5 – Generating Classes/Collection Initializers with LIMOG v2

Azure Storage Services Test Harness- Table Services 4 – Programming the Table Services API

Azure Storage Services Test Harness- Table Services 3 –Starting the Test Harness Project

The series is definitely turning into a good read for getting a grasp on programming for Table Services.

Is It Sync Or Is It Mesh?

There is a lot of confusion regarding foldershare's transition to Live Sync. I got it straight from the source. Says Angus Logan "Live Sync and Live Mesh clients are different for now." I'm not sure how much we should read into the for now. But they're two separate apps...for now.