I know Windows users are new to this whole Community Technology Preview (CTP) thing, but we've been doing it with Visual Studio 2005 for almost a year now. Here's the thing... it's not CTP2. I know it's the second CTP, but you don't number them like you do Betas and Release Candidates. Numbering them works fine for now, but what happens after you release CTP4 and then Beta 2? Calling the post-Beta 2 build "CTP5" does not accurately reflect the build progression.

Just stick with the way Visual Studio does it, and call it the Windows Vista October CTP. It alleviates confusion between builds and between Microsoft divisions.

I jumped the gun last week, but as of right now, the Windows Vista October CTP is available to all beta testers on Microsoft Connect, and should also be up on MSDN and TechNet shortly. I've been playing with the build all weekend, and here's a taste of what's in there:

What's New:

• Internet Explorer - This is a build closer to Beta 2, with a bunch of new features:
  • Tabs - Now under the address bar... woo hoo!!!
  • Better Phishing Filter
  • ActiveX "Opt-In" - Practically all ActiveX controls are off by default. Users have to specifically enable the ones they want to use. As a result, the XMLHTTP object that is so heavily used in AJAX websites is now native code for the browser, and not an ActiveX control.
  • Parental Controls - Windows Parental Controls tied into the browser.
  • Favorites Center - FINALLY a better Favorites management experience.
  • QuickTabs - Microsoft one-ups Firefox with an overview screen of all open tabs.
  • Tab Groups (or Tab Favorites) - You can save a series of open tabs as a single group, and open that group as a favorite.
  • Advanced Printing - Multi-page print preview with a default option to print only the selected text. You can also manipulate the margins live and see the results in a "print designer".
  • Developer Toolbar - I'm presuming that this is the same as what was released for IE6.
  • Standards - Improvements to the way IE handles international domain names, and CSS 2.1 support.
• Networking
  • Network Center - Replaces "My Network Places" and "Network Neigfhborhood".
  • Improved TCP/IP stack - You now have more control over network bindings, and there appears to be more fit and polish to the unified IPv4/IPv6 stack.
• Diagnostics - Built-in memory, hard drive, and network diagnostics to help resolve common problems automatically.
• Windows Mobility Center - New control panel to access common settings, such as screen brightness, volume, and power management. It's reminiscent of a car dashboard.
• Windows Media Player 11 - It may still be branded WMP10, but it's definitely v11. The UI is nowhere near final, but it's still sweet. Definitely worth playing around with.

What's Hinted At:

• Windows AntiSpyware - It's in the Security Center, but it's just a visual cue... there's no code in there yet.

What's Broke:

• Windows Media Center - doesn't seem to work on my Tecra M4 if I use the Nvidia GeForce 6600 driver (to finally get Glass) instead of the Nvidia GeForce Go 6200/6600 drivers for XP.
• Tablet features - The TIP throws a Win32 exception when I shut down, and the neat pen-related visual cues (the "magic" halo when you hold the pen down, etc). The TIP still renders horribly under Glass.

What's Missing:

• Sidebar - Don't expect to see it in distributed builds until Beta 2. NOTE: The bootleg Sidebar that's been going around the net doesn't work on 5231.

I'm still experimenting (and running into issues on my machine... I think it's broke) and I'll have more feature feedback over the next few days. Go pick up your copy (2.3GB) and enjoy!

I spend much of my time creating or finding information.  I'm always motivated to publish the information I create for better findability.  I've got a bunch of random thoughts in my head about how this can be done...I need to get them down in a more sharable, digestable form over time.  Until then, here are a few random thoughts...

Transient Broadcast vs. URL Addressable Information

Many problems come about because information publishers have to know to create a bridge between broadcast technologies which are transient (email) and publish technologies which are URL addressable.

Users receiving email absorb as much information as they deem necessary at the time, but more importantly, they understand what type of information it was and where they can find it in the future if they need it.

Often times, users only remember who knows something, so the first thing they do is ask that person for the information.  Clearly, it is advantageous if a publisher of information can avoid most of these simple "where is" or "what is" requests.

Given that a user knows the owner or expert in an area, how can we make sure that the correct information is published and findable? 

Some guidelines

• When publishing information using transient broadcasts, users should refer to the long living URL addressable form of the information. 
• Publish a URL that allows people to find the things that you know and work on.

[Should that URL be human readable or machine consumable?  "Topic Maps" (just stumbled on this morning The Architecture Journal) may be an idea worth exploring]

I'm trying to explore my thoughts around information, links, and urls for my Url Manifesto

It took me a bit of trying to find the right page with all the slide and demo content from PDC2005.

http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/downloads.aspx is the quick link.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/ is the main PDC site.

 

I've added those links to http://robrelyea.com/events/pdc2005/ and I'm trying to have somebody make them a bit easier to find...

 

I stumbled on http://no-www.org this morning.

"Succinctly, use of the www subdomain is redundant and time consuming to communicate. The internet, media, and society are all better off without it."

This will be just one piece of my Url Manifesto.

 

I'm working on a short document currently titled:
   Url Manifesto: A set of guidelines for users, publishers, and software that deals with Urls.

I hope to have something ready to post in the next month or two.  Until then, what bugs you about urls and software that deals with them?

Examples:

1. urls that are too long
2. urls that don't describe what they take you to
3. urls that are short, but redirect you to a hideous url
4. software that makes it difficult to discover/capture/share urls
5. ...

Or is it just me...do you think urls matter?

This likely will grow into something covering several related topics.

I think hyperlinks and urls are critical and useful.  I think things could get so much better!

I really like the concept behind Microsoft "Max" - Microsoft's new Photo sharing program. Its built directly off Windows Vista WinFX technology - but why the heck does it not work in Windows Vista?

It only works on Windows XP SP2.

I certainly hope we'll be able to use in on Windows Vista when it hits Beta 2.

Tried to post a comment to another blog post, the server rejected it for some reason...so instead I'll blog it here:

I won't comment on Windows Vista.  I'll let customers who are using it argue the merits.

As a member of the "Avalon" team, though, I'd like to understand what was meant by "watered-down XAML/Avalon framework".

It is now called Windows Presentation Foundation.  The version that runs on Windows Vista will be the best version of WPF that we have.  So I'm not sure what watered-down means...watered down from what?

Thanks, Rob Relyea
Lead Program Manager
Windows Presentation Foundation, Microsoft
http://longhornblogs.com/rrelyea

OK, I was partially wrong......but I was mostly right, too. Build 5231 (aka Windows Vista October CTP), compiled on Oct 4, 2005, was posted to the Connect website a short while ago. Apparently, my source was referring to the build in the screenshots being the one that would be distributed, and was not referencing the build number itself. Oh, well. I was, however, right about the date. The PDC build was only distributed 12 days from the build date. This one had a 10-day difference.

Now it remains to be seen if there will be a November CTP before Beta 2. Time will tell. Maybe if this my experience with this build goes well, I'll attempt it on my Tecra M4 again, instead of from in Virtual PC.

UPDATE: Apparently, connect.microsoft.com's permissions are kinda weird. They don't filter permissions based on the program you're a part of (I'm enrolled in 3 different beta programs), so it appeared to be in the MVP and Regular groups when it showed up in the TAP group. My bad.

I'm logged into my corporate network on two machines that sit side by side.

Why can't these 2 machines work better together?

1) it should be easy to copy a file from one desktop to the other
2) it should be easy to copy contents of the clipboard from one machine to the other
3) it should be easy to drag and drop running applications from one monitor to the other

Shouldn't it?  Scenarios like this can certainly be improved.

Are there enough people with 2 computers to make it worthwhile for the Windows team to focus on this?

Or should I buy lots of stock in USB Drive manufacturers?

I've seen some more runors going around the web today, this time about developer-related stuff. Time to break out my sleuthing skills and get some answers.

Rumor: Visual Studio 2005 RTM bits will be live tomorrow.
Reality: FALSE. Brian Goldfarb, Product Manager, Web Platform and Tools, said “Bits for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 will be available as of the worldwide launch event on November 7th, 2005 in San Francisco." That means, don't expect them before that time. Dunno who posted otherwise, but it just isn't true.

Rumor: The .NET Framework 2.0 RTM is available now, and the build number is 2.0.50727.26.
Reality: FALSE. 2.0.50727.26 is the build number for the Visual Studio 2005 / .NET 2.0 Release Candidate, which is available for download right now from MSDN Subscriptions. By definition, an RC build is a build that is still being tested by partners and testers. If everyone signs off on it, that build, plus a few really last minute tweaks if necessary, becomes the final RTM version. According to my sources, there have been more than a handful of builds since then.

Both these rumors started from Ryan Hoffman's misunderstanding of (frankly) bad marketing materials on the ASP.NET "Atlas" website. I was a little confused on this at first glance as well. Microsoft should have worded it "Beta 2 and RC versions" until VS2005 RTMed, and then changed it afterwards.

The reason that there are two different downloads for "Atlas" is due to changes in the Visual Studio Content Installer (an idea whose time was overdue, BTW) between Beta 2 and RC/RTM.

Hope that helps clear up any confusion. All in the days work of a non-journalist ;).

UPDATE: Brian's team updated http://atlas.asp.net to clear up any additional confusion.

I was excited to learn that John is working with Michael Hunter on a Visio Exporter to XAML.

When vector content is created in xaml, there are a few options.

Acrylic currently supports 3 modes, I believe:

• Exporting as a DrawingImage in a resource dictionary.
• Exporting as a DrawingBrush in a resource dictionary.
• Exporting as a Canvas with Shapes (in a resource dictionary?)

Mike Swansons Illustrator exporter, uses just the Canvas/Shapes approach.

What type of graphics exports would people like to see tools support?  Why?

I've just confirmed that I'll be presenting a talk about Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon") at Borland's Developer Conference in November.  I'm excited to do this for several reasons:

1. Talking to new audiences with different backgrounds always gives me a chance to step back and ask what should I be talking about, demoing, etc... 
2. Our team has worked hard to support a wide variety of languages/tools well in WPF.  This talk gives me extra reason to get Borland's languages/tools working on my machine and engage with them even more to have great WPF support.  I continually need to ask myself, have we told them everything they need to know to build great tools for WPF?
3. Gives me a chance to update my knowledge about the Borland Product Roadmap: (a) Diagram (b) Danny Thorpe's Blog Entry
4. I always love talking to developers.

Part of my new talk strategy is to create a Url for it beforehand, give visibility to what I'm going to do.  Afterwards, make sure everything of interest is available from that Url.

http://robrelyea.com/events/BorlandDevCon2005/

If you are planning on going to Borland's Developer Conference, or use their tools, I'd love to hear what you'd want to learn about WPF from my talk.  As my outline for my talk turns into slides and demos, I'll keep that Url up to date...

I spent at least 20 minutes reading interviews and watching videos on this interactive timeline on Microsoft's past, present, and future. I only scored 60% on the trivia questions, though.

My favorite part was the updated Windows Vista commercial (in the top right corner of the "realizing potential" section. Notice the return of the sidebar in the video.

Tonight I head up to Microsoft's Redmond campus to meet with Robert Scoble. I'm very excited for this trip and have been for the past two weeks. Robert has got to be one of the nicest dudes out there. I told him he's a great motivation for my blogging and I'd like to meet with him to talk about blogging and he had no problem scheduling me in. I asked him figuring he'd be too busy! I'll blog as much as I can about my experience but if I have to sign an NDA that holds me back from talking about certain things, that's the way it will be.

On a minor note, since we here at LonghornBlogs.com blog about all things Windows Vista - I began also blogging at MSTechToday.com again about other non-Vista technologies. Check it out! Of course Windows Vista is THE thing for me right now as well as blogging here so come here first.

... but I definitely mentioned a while back that there were a bunch of editions under consideration for Windows Vista. Paul Thurrott called it "wishful thinking". (Look at 3:33pm), The details:

I was also told about some bizarre speculation/opinion/wishful thinking (emplasis his, note the lack of a link) by some blogger that I essentially pulled this information out of my butt. That's hilarious. But I actually got this information from internal--and recent--Microsoft documentation that is real and up to date. There will be no more dedicated Tablet PC and Media Center Editions of Windows in the Vista time frame. That functionality is being rolled into other product editions. I'm sorry if you don't believe that, but I'm too busy to engage in fiction. Plans change, especially release dates, but I just deal with the facts, not speculation. And what I published over the weekend is real. It's been confirmed by many, many people from Microsoft at this show. Deal with it.

But, as the last few weeks have shown, Paul definitely re-entered the fiction business. I bet you'll see fewer exclusives from him in the future.

I've consulted my crystal ball once again, and here's my opinion on the current rumors:

• Rumor: Build 5231 is the October CTP. Reality: FALSE. Rob Chambers @ Microsoft publicly talked about Build 5235 being more recent. Besides, if you look at the screenshots, the build date was September 19th. There's no way they'd put out a build that old. Expect something around 5237, with a build date on or slightly after September 30th. That's not from any sources, but a very educated guess.
• Rumor: Beta 2 is in November. Reality: FALSE. Don't expect anything till after Thanksgiving. I'm expecting Microsoft to leave me a nice present under my tree. Given that, I'm predicting a November CTP as well. Again, the CTP is an educated guess, but the Beta 2 date comes from reliable information.
• Rumor: I pull information out of my butt. Reality: Anyone who knows me knows my butt is WAY too small to fit all the stuff that comes out of my mouth ;).

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Rafael from Extended64.com has discovered something very interesting after running across an xml file in Windows Vista. He discovered 20 different SKU names for Windows Vista. He found the following SKU's:

• Windows Vista Starter
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Pro Standard/SB
• Longhorn Enterprise Server (ADS)
• Longhorn Enterprise Server - IA64
• Longhorn Standard Server
• Longhorn Datacenter Server
• Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VL Binding Service
• Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - VLGeneric
• Windows Vista Pro Std/SB/Ent - DMAK
• Windows Vista Starter Digital Boost - OEM
• Windows Vista Home Basic - OEM
• Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM
• Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM
• Longhorn Enterprise Server - OEM
• Windows Vista Home Basic N
• Windows Vista Pro Standard N

That's alot of SKU's. I thought having XP Home, Pro, Media Center, Tablet, N and Start Editions were alot. To be honest, I'm a bit put off if Microsoft intends on having so many SKU's. I don't want to have to spend over $500 just to get the Ultimate Edition so I can have all the features. And that's my biggest concern. Of course none of these SKU's have been confirmed by Microsoft has official so I'm not worried just yet.

I noticed a lot of good comments and questions on the Avalon newsgroup. The problem is that I couldn’t stand to stick around. I mean, the newsgroup technology is so 1980’s. I expect to see Zack Morris hanging out—maybe even Kelley Kapowski. ;)

Who is working on the future of that problem? I think it is widely understood that the promised goal of everyone having a voice on the internet is harder than originally thought. If everyone had a blog, it would just be chaos. So, instead, you make a chronological listing of threads by users (newsgroup).

Is this the best we have? I don’t see why we can’t have something in the middle? On the bright side, this is a huge potential of ClickOnce NoInstall apps. People don’t necessarily want to have listings within the Programs Files on Windows, but they sure as hell want better experiences. So instead, we have links to these ClickOnce apps and the problem is a lot more solvable. Do we need cross-platform for a Windows developer community site? No.

This also brings up a good point about Favorites and hyperlinks. In the new age, web addresses are being used for far more interesting things than web pages and so it makes sense to break the favorites bar away from IE. They tried adding it to the start menu in XP, but that was a joke. Does anyone have a better idea?

I was able to get some answers to my question on whether or not Windows Vista will have an RSS Aggregator. The answer is yes of course but its within Internet Explorer 7.0 itself. IE 7 users in Windows Vista will be able to subscribe and maintain their Favorite set of feeds within their Favorites and whenever a feed is updated, it will be bolded within that Favorites menu. Expect to hear more about this when the next CTP for Windows Vista is released to testers.

I think this is an exciting feature personally. I think being able to simply pull down your Favorites menu and see your updated feeds in bold is a simple and effective way of letting the user watch their favorite threads.

Pete Blois just posted some really awesome proof-of-concept demos using strings. They’re really easy on the eyes.

But, more interestingly, he brought up a point about Avalon lacking blend modes as those available in Photoshop. The point is well taken. Avalon can’t be everything in v1, but blending modes are the way that real visual designers mix compositions. This is for a couple of reasons, but most importantly:

Using blend modes is essentially a non-destructive effect. In the world of Photoshop, there are 2 schools of thought. The old, which is pixel art, and the new, which is the use of non-destructive effects. Pixel art is about using the pencil and various fills with edge blurring (feathering, etc). Obviously, this is destructive, and once the layer has been modified, the pixels are no longer changeable. On the other side of the fence, there are non-destructive effects, essentially with the ability to have a compositional rendering of the vector shape with various effects applied (Drop Shadow, Fill, Bevel & Emboss, etc). These are what BitmapEffects in Avalon will eventually deliver on.

You can probably understand, but the former group is going away in terms of the productivity gains--which leads to a second reason for using blend layers. The colors need not be changed once you have changed your background--you essentially let the colors bleed through and play with the Opacity and blend mode. This means you change one color when you want to experiment with different looks for your comp. Also, the colors tend to be more mathematically correct (given there is such a thing as perfect color compliments).