While setting up Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 one might into an non obvious issue with user rights. The error observed would look the following:

The  TFS installation considered is a single machine installation with SQL Server Reporting and Analysis services and SharePoint Services installed during the TFS installation.

The full descriptions of the error is:

Error
TF30224: Failed to retrieve projects from the report server. Please check that the SQL Server Reporting Services Web and Windows services are running and you have sufficient privileges for creating a project.

Explanation
The Project Creation Wizard encountered a problem while creating reports on the SQL Server Reporting Services on http://coruscant/ReportServer/ReportService2005.asmx. The reason for the failure cannot be determined at this time. Because the operation failed, the wizard was not able to finish creating the SQL Server Reporting Services site.

User Action
Contact the administrator for the SQL Server Reporting Services on http://coruscant/ReportServer/ReportService2005.asmx to confirm that the SQL Server Reporting Services server is running and you have sufficient privileges to create a project . Your user account on SQL Server Reporting Services must have Content Manager permission to create a new project. Also, you might find additional helpful information in the project creation log. The log shows each action taken by the wizard at the time of the failure and may include additional details about the error.

A wild guess might be checking all rights for SQL Server, SharePoint sites, SQL Server Reporting Services etc. Pat Ramadass comes up with the right hint that origins from the previous TFS version.

First of all do not look for the Reporting Service Configuration Manager. Go straight to http://localhost/Reports/ (logged in on your TFS server machine with administrator rights). You will get the SQL Server Reporting Services site. Select the Properties page and click on New Role Assignment.

Now add exactly the user (or group) you tried creating the TFS Team Project with. Select at least Content Manager and confirm by pressing OK.

Go back to you local machine and try to create the TFS Team Project again. The users should now have sufficient rights to create the project.

Martin Calsyn recently unveiled the second project we are working on at the Computational Science Laboratory at Microsoft Research in Cambridge,  UK. The Microsoft Visualization Language codenamed Vedea is an experimental language for creating interactive infographics and data visualizations. The language initially targets non-programmers, however, Vedea also provides sophisticated features such as LINQ for experienced developers as Martin demonstrates in his post. 

Vedea was demoed the first time at PDC09 to the public. The demo shown there visualizes global IP traffic monitored during a 24h time span. The data is organized in a standard CSV file and contains source, destination, geographical coordinates, IP numbers and the time and some more statistical information. 

The data itself is rather unspectacular and the most useful for some statistical analysis. However, with Vedea is is relatively easy to visualize the data in a handsome manner. Before you go on, please be aware that the language is still under development and the given example just represents the state of development at the time of PDC09.

  1: img = LoadImage("world.png");
  2: Scene.Add(new Vedea.Image(img, 0, 0));
  3: 
  4: for (i=0; i<len; i=i+1) {
  5: 
  6:     b = Noise(i*255);
  7:     Stroke(20, 0, 0, b);
  8: 
  9:     x1 = csv.SourceLon[i];
 10:     y1 = cvs.SourceLat[i];
 11:     x2 = cvs.DestLon[i];
 12:     y2 = csv.DestLat[i];
 13: 
 14:     c = new Vedea.Curve(x1-10, y1-b, x1, y1, x2, y2, x2, y2-b);
 15:     Scene.Add(c);
 16: }

The fist two lines of code are used to load background image. after loading, the image is added to the current scene. The Scene object describes the standard canvas, the programmer draws on. This demonstrates the object oriented capabilities of Vedea. As Vedea is a  dynamic language which is based on the DLR, there is no need  to declare the type of the image object.

At the next lines we find a simple for-loop that iterates through all lines of the source data. The data file has been loaded similar to the image beforehand into an data file called csv and len is a value of roughly 100.000. So yes, we draw an manage about 100.000 primitives here. Most of the language features in Vedea can be used in a imperative or declarative way. Noise for example is a built-in language features that returns a random number (between 0.0 an 1.0) based on a one-dimensional Perlin noise function. This function is used to create a smooth color gradient with a alpha channel of 20 for our visualization.

Stroke is used in a declarative way to set the stroke color for all primitives drawn afterwards. The next four lines simply read the x- and y-coordinates Finally, a curve is drawn and added to the current scene. The fist and the last point specified are control points that determine the curve’s flexure while the second and third point describe the actual start and endpoint of the curve. Of course the Curve primitive can be used in an imperative or declarative style (or both) as well:

  1: Stroke(255, 0, 0);
  2: Scene.Add(new Vedea.Curve(5, 26, 5, 26, 73, 24, 73, 61));
  3: Stroke(0, 0, 0); 
  4: Curve(5, 26, 73, 24, 73, 61, 15, 65); 
  5: Stroke(255, 0, 0);
  6: Curve(73, 24, 73, 61, 15, 65, 15, 65);

In the original example we use the previously generated random value b also to vary the curves control points corresponding with the color. Once we run (remember, we are based on the DLR and thus we don’t compile) the example, we finally get our visualization.

In his post Nick Eaton stated that

“Users of Vedea obviously need to have some background in coding.”

This is not necessarily true as the example above should show. Using the declarative style of the language it is relatively easy to create appealing visualizations with only little knowledge about programming structures and technologies such as DirectX, GDI+ or WPF. As seen in the example above its within the nature of Vedea to forgive various mistakes which makes it easy to use from the very beginning.

Vedea is a research project of the Computational Science Laboratory of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. The project and still under development. The example shown here represents the state of the project at the time of PDC09 as it was presented to the public. As this is an ongoing project the language might evolve, new features will be developed and others might become obsolete.

One disadvantage working for Microsoft Research is that you cannot talk about your current work all the time. For two years now we were working on two exiting projects. However, there was not a lot to talk about since now…

The very first time we have shown Microsoft Computational Science Studio was at TechFest 2008 at that time codenamed ‘Discovery’. There we showed it to the public the first time to visualize, simulate and predict future development of global forest growth based on a novel scientific model developed by scientist Drew Purves.

At the Advanced Developers Conference Keynote in Bonn, Germany I already talked about the unique collaboration within the Computational Science Laboratory within Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. A unique setup of brilliant scientists from various fields and a group of great software engineers work together creating next-generation software solutions to address future challenges in computational science. The team includes Martin Calsyn (Architect), Alexander Brändle (Head of Technology), Drew Purves (Scientist), Matthew Smith (Post-Doctoral Researcher), Stephen Emmott (Head of Computational Science Laboratory within Microsoft Research and Professor of Computational Science at Oxford University), Vassily Lyutsarev (Manager Scientific Computing), Benjamin Schröter (Software Engineer), Eric Hellmich (Systems Engineer), Shawn Barrett (Quality Assurance and Software Engineer) and myself.

As part of his College Tour, Craig Mundie presented our work, the Microsoft Computational Science Studio (MSCSS), to the public at University of Washington, University of Illinois, Harvard University and Cornell University. Among he said about MSCSS:

Now, the way that this is actually built is it's a bit like having Visual Studio, which is a toolkit for people writing programs -- these guys call this the Science Studio, because the goal is to allow people not to write programs in the traditional sense but to compose large scale models together for scientific purposes.

Indeed, he showed the large scale model we worked no the weeks before with our scientists:

The whole talk at University of Washington is available as webcast from UWTV. Further articles are available from CNET, TechFlash and The Seattle Times where later says

A guy who is a climate scientist or a tree biologist can make a direct contribution without having to understand everything else or becoming a computer wizard in the process," Mundie said. "I tell people this is sort of doing for scientists and policymakers what Excel did for the average business guy 20 years ago

Further posts on MSCSS and our second project called Vedea, being currently demoed at PDC09, will follow soon. Until then you might want to read an overview of MSCSS at Martin’s blog.

Another nice feature, unrevealed in Internet Explorer 7: Adding your own search providers is quite easy. When you select the drop down menu at your search box, you can select your currently installed search providers.

To add more, select Find More Providers… from the menu.

Now, go to your favorite search engine and perform a search for TEST. I did this for the Beolingus translation provider. Paste the URL from the previous source and specify a name for your new search provider.

That’s the XML used for the installation. Press install and can directly access this search provider using the search box in IE 7.

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
  <ShortName>Beolingus</ShortName> 
  <Description>Beolingus provider</Description> 
  <InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding> 
  <Url type="text/html" template="http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en&service=deen&opterrors=0&optpro=0&query={searchTerms}&iservice=&comment=" /> 
</OpenSearchDescription>

If you want to modify the settings later, you can do so using Tools / Internet Options / Change Search Defaults Settings.

It was the first time I played with these settings of Internet Explorer and I am quite surprised in a positive way about it.

Windows Live becomes more open to other Web-based platforms. Maybe this was there already before, however, I haven’t seen it, yet. Windows Live is able to consume further events from platforms. Among the supported ones you will find TripIt, Flickr, Twitter and others.

Adding the applications is quite easy. Sometimes (e.g. for TripIt) you have to sign in and to confirm.

Looking forward to find even more supported activities in the future. It looks definitely like a step towards the right direction.

The Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office 2007 allows you to embed Creative Commons licenses directly into PowerPoint, Word as well as Excel.

"This add-in enables you to embed a Creative Commons license into a document that you create using Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or Microsoft Office Excel. With a Creative Commons license, authors can express their intentions regarding how their works may be used by others.  The add-in downloads the Creative Commons license you designate from the Creative Commons Web site and inserts it directly into your creative work."

Once installed, you'll find a new tab at your ribbon called Creative Commons. The License button allows you to create a new license for the document.

For me it was always a pain to browse through the CC licenses to find the appropriate one. The add-in allows you to step through all options:

Finally, you select the license and assign it to the document. Visuals will be added automatically by the add-in and the license is then downloaded fro the CC web site.

Quite nice add-in that gives you some boost in productivity, especially when you deal often with Word and PowerPoint documents you hand out to the public.

Download: Microsoft Download Center

Since Photosynth was announced the very first time, I was keen to try out this technology. Finally, Photosynth became public and you can create your own synths.

After installing the Browser plug-in you select "Create your Synth" on the Photosynth Web site.

To sign in you'll need a Windows Live account - probably you have a messenger account. You'll start a synth by selecting a set of photos.

The dialog is quite self-evident. Don't forget to select the license you want to use for the synth. That's quite important as each and every synth is public available.

Select "Synth" and then just wait... 

You'll probably get a good "synthy" rate.

And that's what you finally get:

Source: http://www.photosynth.net/

Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, both senior managers for the upcoming Windows 7, are hosting a blog called Engineering Windows 7, inviting everybody to comment about the future development of the new Windows platform. Actually, they only request to follow a few guidelines that however should be self-evident following a certain netiquette.

"We’re excited about this blog. As active bloggers on Microsoft’s intranet we are both looking forward to turning our attention and blogging energies towards the community outside Microsoft. We know the ins and outs of blogging and expect to have fun, provide great information, and also make a few mistakes. We know we’ll misspeak or what we say will be heard differently than we intended. We’re not worried. All we ask is that we have a dialog based on mutual respect and the shared goal of making a great release of Windows 7."

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/

Being tired of typing http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de into my browser's address bar when looking for an English expression, I created a Beolingus De-En translation button for the Windows Live Toolbar.

I've submitted the button to the Windows Live Gallery, however the submission is still pending approval...

[Update 6/5/2008]

This morning, the submission was approved and can now be downloaded from here.

Or whatever other language you prefer. Windows Live Translator went online and allows you to translate what other people are talking about you.

Windows Live Translator Button a chance. First you need to install the Windows Live Toolbar and add the button that, by the way looks like the following:

Especially for my mum, I am also going to add a translator button directly to my blog. The code can be found here. Simply adding the code to the dasBlog home template and here we go.

"The Visual Linq query builder is a Visual Studio 2008 addin. It's a designer that helps you create Linq to Sql queries in your application. Both C# and VB projects are supported."

It was developed during an internship at Microsoft by Simon Ferquel and Johanna Piou.

Read more on here and get the bits from there.

duck-techfest originally uploaded by Franck Lassagne

I found this photo of our duck (on it's burrow model) at TechFest 2008 on Flickr. The model is of a manx shearwater burrow from Skomer Island, UK showing our deployment of a wireless sensor network.

I recently got accepted a paper at the REALWSN'08 workshop that is in conjunction with ACM EuroSys 2008 in Glasgow, Scotland. The paper deals with a project performed by Microsoft Research Cambridge using a wireless sensor network deployed on Skomer island in the UK, monitoring the Manx Shearwater seabird.

Last week I spend at Microsoft's TechFest presenting the work done at Microsoft Research Cambridge over the lat 12 months. Rob Knies gives a overall insight into our research at the community sites of Microsoft Research. I just surfed onto another article written by Briony Smith for itWorldCanada telling about what we showed there, well as the official press statement about our research.

Bill Gates recently mentioned the the ESI group [1] at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, talking to computing [2]. Very honorable.

[1] http://research.microsoft.com/ero/
[2] http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2208895/revolution-beginning-3794902

One reason I recently don't blog too much is the fact that I am a bit restricted in what I can tell. Being involved in some exciting projects, the confidentiality of these projects does not allow much publicity.

Finally, one of the projects was revealed to public. Today I was pointed to a BBC news article on the web. Last season, Robin Freeman, post-doc in the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science group at Microsoft Research Cambridge did a great project in monitoring vulnerable habitats of the manx shearwater species at Skomer Island, UK.

Being affiliated to the European Science Initiative at MSR Cambridge, I was part of the team developing several pieces of software deployed on the island together with an wireless sensor network. The project was in close collaboration with Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and Oxford University, UK. Some more information on the project can be found on its website.

Microsoft offers free copies of the following books at [1]:

Introducing Microsoft LINQ by Paolo Pialorsi
Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX by Dino Esposito
Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 by Laurence Moroney


[1] http://csna01.libredigital.com/

It looks like there is some confusion [1] about the licensing model of the Microsoft Robotics Studio and the CCR. To make things a bit more visible you must be aware of the two different licenses available for the MSRS. on the one hand there is a Microsoft Robotics Studio Non-Commercial License [2] providing you free usage of the runtime for non-commercial purposes as well as a  Microsoft Robotics Studio Commercial License [3] if you are going to make money out of it. If you going to ship your robots including the runtime, you must purchase [4] the license to distribute the runtime with it. There is a fee of $2 for each unit you sell. So if you are going to buy three dev licenses they already include 600 units to be sold and distributed. Of course you can see this the other way around: For each 200 units you sell (and therefore purchase a commercial license) you'll get one developer seat for free.

The first question is if it is possible to use the CCR for something else than robotics, and the answer is clearly given by the MSRS Architect George Chrysanthakopoulos in the MSRS Team blog [5]. Furthermore, the CCR can be used independently of the MSRS as you can read in the forums [6].

But what is if the developer wants to make use of CCR within his/her product and the CCR runtime is NOT part of the distribution. Has the end-user to agree the non-commercial license of the MSRS. What’s about the developer then?

In the following let's have a look at several scenarios which should clarify the new licensing model. These examples are a result of a discussion with George Chrysanthakopoulos, architect of the Microsoft Robotics Studio, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen as well as Tandy Trower who is leading the Microsoft Robotics Initiative. However, this is no legal text, not approved by anybody and might be simply wrong. This should only give you an overview of the licensing model and represents my very personal current view of the licensing model. Read the licenses carefully, in any case of doubt contact Microsoft directly. Anyway let's have a look at several scenarios about using the Microsoft Robotics Studio licensing model. There is going to be a official FAQ soon covering the scenarios below.

1. Company ‘A’ is building an application based on the MSRS/CCR/DSS. The company is going to sell is product but he does not include the MSRS/CCR/DSS runtimes in the package: They need one commercial license per developing seat. In the case of 3 developers in the team they need 3 licenses. This includes 600 runtime licenses they could use in their own company. 
   
   
2. Company ‘B’ is building an application based on the MSRS/CCR/DSS, They are going to sell and distribute this product including the MSRS/CCR/DSS runtimes. They need to purchase a commercial license per developing seat respectively one for each 200 units he is shipping. The commercial license covers 200 units of runtime distribution. The number of licenses depends on the number of developer seats or runtime units (which ever is greater). In other words, if they have 3 developer seats, they must purchase 3 commercial licenses regardless of how many runtimes they distribute. But if they do, they have 600 units of runtime to distribute (3 x 200). Similarly if they have one developer, but needs 500 units of runtime, he would have to purchase 3 licenses.
   
   
3. Customer ‘C’ is using the product of company ‘A’ for some non-commercial purposes. He downloads the MSRS and agrees the non-commercial license. This customer is also limited on deployment of the runtime on up to 10 personal devices (PCs, robots, etc.) and is not permitted to use the software in a “live” operating environment.
   
   
4. Customer ‘D’ is using the product of ‘B’ for non-commercial use. He is not downloading the MSRS since the MSRS/CCR/DSS runtime is shipped with the product. He agrees to the TOC/EULA of company ‘B’. Nothing else is necessary.
   
   
5. Customer ‘E’ is using product of ‘A’ in his company on 5 computers for operative business. He does not make direct money out of it since the customers don't have access to these computers, but the software is used within his business (e.g. back office). He purchased the product from ‘A’. He downloaded the MSRS. It does not matter that he does not sell. He is using it for commercial purpose and thus, since he downloaded MSRS and the runtime, he must pay for at least 1 commercial license (to cover the 5 runtimes). The distinction between #3 and #5 is that 'E' is using MSRS for commercial purposes. If he did not get the runtime from the vendor 'A' (as 'D' did) he will need it, so he must purchase a commercial license.
   
   
6. Customer ‘F’ is using product of ‘A’ in his company by providing MSRS services to his customers. He purchased the product from ‘A’. He downloaded the MSRS. He has to purchase additional commercial MSRS licenses. If 'F' is developing MSRS services for his customers, regardless of whether he charges for them or not, he needs a license (see #2). However, if he is simply a distributor of 'A' (and adds no additional services), then he does not need a commercial license, provided that 'A' did have a commercial license. Downloading MSRS is not the key here. It is whether he creates his own services around MSRS that does. For example, if you are a consultant, and you simply reference sell 'A’s' products, but add no services or otherwise use MSRS , you would not need a commercial license.
   
   
7. Customer ‘G’ is using product of ‘B’. He is using the product in his company, not making direct money out of it. But the product is used as business-relevant component in his back-office on 5 servers. That cost was paid already by Company 'B' and thus he has not to purchase any additional commercial licenses. Customer 'G' does not need to pay anything extra. However, 'B' better make certain he considers the 5 servers that 'G' runs as 5 copies of our runtime as far as his license goes. 'B' can’t license only 200 copies, but give his customers unlimited rights to copy. Every copy 'B' licenses to his customers are part of his copies. So if he give G rights to put it on 5 servers, 'B' has used up 5 of his copies.
   
   
8. Customer ‘H’ is using product of ‘B’. He is using this product to sell consulting services to his customers. The CCR runtime was included in the package he got from ‘B’. As long as he does not distribute any more of Company's 'B' products and he is not developing own MSRS/CCR/DSS products he does not have to purchase any additional licenses.

There are simple rules to follow: Whenever you are going to make money out of the MSRS you have to purchase a commercial license. It does not matter whether you are selling MSRS services our just developing or running them. Luckily the commercial license includes both: the right to distribute and run as well as to develop MSRS services.

Also, the above described scenarios cover all the runtime files mentioned in the runtime.txt in the MSRS folder, which are in detail:

• ccr.core.dll
• ccr.adapters.winforms.dll
• dssbase.dll
• dsscmdargs.dll
• dssruntime.transform.dll
• dssruntime.proxy.dll
• dssruntime.dll
• dsshost.exe
• dsshost.exe.config
• microsoft.cci.dll

[1] http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com/
[2] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/bb332140
[3] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/bb332139
[4] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/bb521232.aspx
[5] http://blogs.msdn.com/msroboticsstudio/
[6] http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/

Share this post :

It looks like Microsoft heads to submit its Shared Source Licence to the OSI. If the Shared Source License satisfies the of the Open Source definition Microsoft will become a effective member of the Open Source community. After CodePlex, this seems to be the right step to satisfy the needs of the the community. Therefore, Microsoft release a new Open Source related webpage including a feed [rss].

Rich Williams, leading the Computational Ecology group out of our team at Microsoft Research Cambridge gave an interview for Channel9. So go for it and watch the video. Rich is a bright person and he brings up tons of cool projects we develop new tools for. 

Source: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=325909#325909

In case you missed it:

"eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help."

Source: Download

Beyond this truly epic acronym stands a video [1] done by the Microsoft UK DPE team about WPF and corporation between designers and developers in practice. Since I am dealing with WPF for a while I also looked at Microsoft Expression Blend which is coming soon [2].

"The UK MCS User Experience team and a number of UK partners have been working on WPF for over 12 months and this Real World WPF series is intended to show some of their work and capture/share some of their learnings. Nick Page talks to Martin Grayson and Paul Tallett from the UK MCS User Experience team about their experiences working on real world WPF applications and specifically how Designers and Developers have worked together on these projects."

[1] http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=299897
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/overview.aspx?key=blend

Currently I have started a new project and I am looking into some geo-related projects. NASA World Wind 1.4 [1] is now available. World wind makes massive usage of .NET and DirectX and runs quite smooth under windows Vista. The data is also provided by Microsoft Research TerraServer-USA [2], hosting aerial photography and topographic maps.

Unfortunately, TerraServer provides only United States Geologically Survey (USGGS) data. Better images for local European location can be accessed using the Virtual Earth plug-in [3], available from [4]. A video of Virtual Earth in World wind can be found at [5].  Unfortunately, the plug-in does not seem to work with the latest World Wind version.

[Update 24/02/2007]

With the updated plug-in for version 1.4 available at [3] also the Virtual Earth data can be displayed.

[1] http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
[2] http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
[3] http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Add-on:Virtual_Earth
[4] http://www.brains-n-brawn.com/default.aspx?vDir=veworldwind 
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oidt5SgfwJw

Some of of the advancements in Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 [1] which is available for download [2]:

• "New processor support (e.g., Core Duo) for code generation and profiling"
• "Performance and scale improvements in Team Foundation Server"
• "Team Foundation Server integration with Excel 2007 and Project 2007"
• "Tool support for occasionally connected devices and SQL Server Compact Edition"
• "Additional support for project file based Web applications"
• "Windows Embedded 6.0 platform and tools support"

Especially the Core Duo support sound quite nifty to me. However, running Vista you have to wait some more weeks for some additional features.

"For developers using Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista, Microsoft is in current development on an update to Service Pack 1 called the ‘Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Vista Refresh Beta’. This update builds on the improvements made in SP1 and delivers a first class experience for developers wanting to take advantages of the new features in Windows Vista. The Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista is expected to ship after the consumer availability of Windows Vista in Q1 of 2007 and is now available in bet"

Just in case you are wondering why the two service packs are separated you can find more over here [3].

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/vs2005sp1/default.aspx 
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...
[3] http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2006/09/26/772250.aspx

Some hints on Visual Studio on Windows Vista at [1].

[1] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa964140.aspx

Due to some issues with the NVidia GeForce Fx Go 5200 graphics card of the Toshiba m200 Tablet PC, I got some modified shader files for this card, with permision to put them on the Channel9 sandbox [1].

"Together with the Redmond group we did some experiments using several different shader files with the Robotics Studio Simulation Environment and a NVidia GeForce Fx Go 5200 graphics chips with 32MB memory as it is found on the Toshiba m200 Tablet PC.

The archive contains two shader files. Unpack and copy the files into the folder \store\media\ within your MSRS directory.

I have tested these files with the chipset mentioned above and the November CTP of the Robotics Studio.

As it works with the mobile version of the chipset, the shaders may also work with the NVidia GeForce Fx 5200 as well as with other chipsets. Please contribute in testing your graphics card (as it does not work with the November CTP) and let the team know if your graphics card does run the simulation with these shader files."

The files can be downloaded directly from there [2].

[1] http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=255456
[2] http://channel9.msdn.com/Photos/ZippedFiles/255456_SimpleVisualizer.zip

DSL-Tools v1 for Visual Studio 2005 are available.

"... Version 1 of Domain-Specific Language Tools lets you create a custom graphical designer that uses your own domain-specific diagrammatic notation. You can then create custom text templates that use models created in your designer to generate source code and other files. Domain-Specific Language Tools requires Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition or above.  ..."

Thanks to Damir for his post [2]. Otherwise I would have missed it. Actually I was looking for exactly such a tool for my research.

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...
[2] http://tomicic.de/DevelopmentDomainSpecificLanguage...

Niels Lohmann [1] did a video of the closing session [2], given by Sir Tony Hoare [3] at a Summer School in 2006. Even if I passed his way several times over here in Cambridge, it's great to see this video. Good job Niels.

"At the International Summer School Marktoberdorf 2006, Tony Hoare was asked to give the talk at the closing session. He gave a lot of advices for Ph.D. students, and I am glad I made a video of it to share these advices"

[1] http://niels.ebytehost.com/ 
[2] http://niels.ebytehost.com/videos/advice-for-phd-students-from-tony-hoare
[3] http://research.microsoft.com/users/thoare/

Invisible computing [1]. Not brand new but quite interesting to read:

"This site has the source code and documentation for Microsoft Invisible Computing. It is a research prototype for making small devices part of the seamless computing world. This site contains the source code and is available free of charge for research and educational use under the Microsoft Shared Source License."

And even better, the code is Shared Source [2].

[1] http://research.microsoft.com/invisible/default.asp
[2] http://research.microsoft.com/invisible/EULA.htm

Giving a talk [1] to the Cambridge SPA group on the 8th November about programming robots, Microsoft Robotics Studio and the CCR.

[1] http://www.bcs-spa.org/cgi-bin/view/SPA/Programmin...

The latest CTP of the Robotics Studio [1] is available for download [2]. Finally the part Ulbi is working on is integrated for testing. Updates in the CTP can be found at [3]. Using dssnewservice.exe offers a new feature but there are some changes necessary to be done in the created code also described at [3].

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/getstarted/ctp3...
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...
[3] http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel...

The Microsoft Studio August 2006 CTP is available for download [1] now. The most important change is the renaming of the WSAP protocol to DSSP [2]. The specification of DSSP can be found at [3]. API changes are listed at [4].

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...
[2] http://blogs.msdn.com/msroboticsstudio/archive/200...
[3] http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/8/2/...
[4] http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel...

Windows Principles [1].

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/windowsprinciples.mspx

Microsoft's community development portal [1] and the Shared Source portal [2].

[1] http://www.codeplex.com/ 
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/default.mspx

Several times I got the question waht the vshost.exe is in Visual Studio Express Editions [1]. If you are familiar with Visual Studio the answer is easy: It is called hosting process . And is decribed in [2]:

"The hosting process is a feature in Visual Studio 2005 that improves debugging performance, enables partial trust debugging, and enables design time expression evaluation. The hosting process files contain vshost in the file name and are placed in the output folder of your project."

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
[2] http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185331.aspx

Finally I can say it, Tandy Trower and his team have announced the Microsoft Robotic Studio [1]. Last time I have seen it in early spring, some parts of the tool have been already very impressing. Finally, I am looking forward for the final release.

Beside this the Robot magazine gives a first impression of the Robotics Studio [2] and some first screenshots of the upcoming Simulator [3]. Furthermore the Carnegie Mellon University starts a new program [4] supported by the Robotics Group from Redmond. Meanwhile, there is also a Channel 9 video of almost one hour [5] available.

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/
[2] http://www.botmag.com/issue3/microsoft_technical_preview_1.shtml
[3] http://www.botmag.com/issue3/microsoft_technical_preview_2.shtml
[4] http://www.cir.ri.cmu.edu/
[5] http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=206574

Today I finished my first fischertechnik [1] article for the Coding4Fun website [2]. I guess it will take some days until the text is read, processed and published. I also think already about a follow up article of some more sophisticated models.

[1] http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/index.aspx
[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/

I have just added the MSDN TV [1] and MSDN Webcast [2] feeds to my blogroll.

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/
[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/default.aspx

We are still working with the VRDK at Microsoft Reseach, Cambridge. During the last few months I did several talks, introducing the VRDK to a wider range of audience. Finally, a lot of people asked ms/us if and when we will release it. Unfortunately it is not a product, just a research plarform, yet.

However I checked the web and found some articles and weblog entries about the VRDK, predominantly written when it was presented to the public the first time.

Official Sites

• Microsoft Research Academic Days, Oslo 2004
• Microsoft Academic Days for Central and Eastern Europe
• Microsoft Scientists Offer Glimpse of the Future at European Innovation Fair

Weblogs

• S. Srinivasa: Cooooooooool: Visual Robot Development Kit
• robots that jump: Hey PC guys - Microsoft is getting into robotics
• unmediated: Microsoft Promotes Easy Robot Programming Kit
• Jean Michel Billaut: Tous aux abris, les Robosapiens débarquent… (French)
• gamedev.net entry (related to a talk given by me in March 2006)

Misc

• AI2005 workshop (held by Alexander Brändle and me in December 2005)
• generation5 posting (I should answer this...)

The last three weeks have been packed with traveling a lot. Birmingham, London and Harrogate. So I was able to present a part of our work at the Launch tour of Visual Studio et al. We present all the stuff together with MSDN Coding4Fun [1]. So for everybody who asked: The Phidgets are available at the Phidgets Website [2] and the fischertechnik models are sold in UK at [3]. Beside this there is a video at Channel9 where Daniel Fernandez and Brian Keller [4] show some of the nifty projects. Next station of the launch events: Edinburgh. And yes, for all who asked: It works great with the Visual Studio Express Version [5], which is available for free. 

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/
[2] http://www.phidgetsusa.com
[3] http://www.fischertechnik.co.uk
[4] http://blogs.msdn.com/briankel/archive/2005/11/17/494204.aspx
[5] http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Yesterday from 6 pm to 9 pm the second run started. In the whole exhibition area you were able to find all kind of excellent food and drinks. Really a lot of people were interested in the Coding4Fun projects. Actually I lost my void because I had to talk so much. Before the exhibition opened I was able to wander around a little bit. So there is a lot of interesting stuff from Microsoft and  its partners coming. Unfortunately you do not have as much time as staff to have a chat with everybody providing a booth there, even if it would be really interesting. As far as we realized, there is no explicit break for lunch. So people are coming to the lounge from the morning until the afternoon to the lounge on their way to their lunch. It is nice, because there are not so many attendees their at once and you can take a few minutes for each person interested in the stuff.

 
click to enlarge (74,84 KB)          click to enlarge (28,73 KB)

 
click to enlarge (68,94 KB)          click to enlarge (75,67 KB)

So, the first run is over. From 11:30 am to 3 pm a lot of attendees were interested in the fichertechnik robots shown at the Coding4Fun Lounge. A lot of people asked for the library we show here: the library will be available with the final version of the Visual Studio. You can find the bits then at the Coding4fun website. It's really nice if people realize that they have played with fischertechnik when they were little. When they see the stuff now, with the interface and all the computing stuff, they say: "I have to get this for my son...". Why do I not believe that it is for their children?

click to enlarge (47,84 KB)

The Coding4Foun Lounge is located in next in the Big Hall, next to the Partners Scenarios. So, have a break at take a look at the demos over here.

click to enlarge (75,89 KB)

We had to set up the demos already yesterday, and finally we got the sign you can see on the picture. Opening times of the Exhibiton Hall are

Tuesday, 9/13: 11:30 – 3pm; 6pm – 9pm
Wednesday, 9/14: 10:30am – 3:30pm
Thursday 9/15, 9:30am – 2:30pm

Rolf already got his chance to play with the robots over here yesterday. And he already asked when the stuff will be available for download. We are working on a library, based on the Visual Studio 2005 beta 2. So a finall version will be available of course with the final version of the .NET Framework 2.0.

click to enlarge (40,97 KB)

Google Earth [1], is a nice application, using DirectX and Google Maps [2]. So I was looking for Microsoft Research in Cambridge [3], UK.

You can really waste a lot of time, scrolling around and looking all the nice places. Beside this I found the German headquarter of Microsoft Deutschland GmbH [4], too.

[1] http://earth.google.com/products.html
[2] http://maps.google.com/
[3] http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/labs/cambridge/default.aspx
[4] http://www.microsoft.de/

"Der Startschuss für den Microsoft Imagine Cup 2005 ist gefallen. Mit dem Wettbewerb möchte Microsoft weltweit Studierenden die Chance geben, "ihre innovativen Lösungen und damit ihre Kreativität und Leistungsfähigkeit unter Beweis zu stellen, sich über Landesgrenzen hinweg auszutauschen und internationale Netzwerke zu bilden". In der kommenden Runde sollen Kandidaten in den neun Kategorien Software-Design, Visual Gaming, Technology Business-Plan, Algorithmus, Rendering, Short-Film, IT, Web-Design und Office-Design gegeneinander antreten.

In Deutschland werden die Finalisten der Kategorie Software-Design in einem lokalen Wettbewerb gekürt. Die fünf besten deutschen Teams nehmen zusätzlich an einem Workshop teil und erstellen einen eigenen Business-Plan für ihr Projekt. Das jeweils beste Team der teilnehmenden Nationen wird zum internationalen Finale in Yokohama, Japan, eingeladen. Dort haben die Studenten dann die Chance, Preise bis zu 25.000 US-Dollar zu gewinnen.

An der diesjährigen Runde des Imagine Cup nahmen mehr als 10.000 Studenten aus 90 Ländern teil. 150 Finalisten aus fast 40 Ländern lud Microsoft zum Finale nach Sao Paulo, Brasilien, ein. Wer im kommenden Jahr dabei sein will, muss sich bis zum 31. Januar 2005 anmelden."

Quelle: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/53258

Zeit zur Selbstbeweihräucherung! Mit den beiden Kollegen Saternus und Kindzorra haben wir den Besuchern des Wissenschaftstages im September unsere Technologien und das Zusammenspiel mit Fischertechnik näher gebracht! Ein voller Erfolg, und jetzt der Lohn:

06:42 Uhr ICE startet Richtung Berlin. Dabei bin ich gerade erst schlafen gegangen, das war eine harte Nacht, mehrere hundert LOCs sind mir aus den Fingern gefallen. Da Programmieren durchaus eine Kunst ist, sollte man die Muse, hat sie einen denn endlich geküsst, nicht mit einem Plattschuss erlegen, sondern sich direkt Ihrer Fügung hingeben.

Irgendwann gegen Mittag kommt der Zug an. Verspätung. Ach ja, die Queen ist heute in Berlin, da muss halt ein Zug schon einmal 30 Minuten 500 Meter vor dem Bahnhof warten. Zu spät zum Termin angekommen, haben sich die Kollegen der TU Berlin als extrem freundliche Zeitgenossen herausgestellt. Kollege Saternus, auch mit von der Partie, hat sich schon dem Kaffee gefrönt. 

An dieser Stelle muss man das wirklich lobenswert erwähnen: noch nie habe ich jemanden getroffen, der mit einer solchen Hingabe aber auch Geduld, die von ihm verfasste API erklärt hat. Leider hatte ich OneNote nicht auf dem Laptop installiert, also musste der vi des Windows herhalten und mit notepad.exe wurden spontan 3 Seiten mitgetippt.

Nachdem die Accounts für eine hier nicht näher genannte Sourcecode-Verwaltung angelegt waren, wurde auch gleich das Aus- und Einchecken an der Datenbank geübt. Mit neuem Sourcecode auf der Platte wird die Rückreise wieder angetreten. Während Kollege Saternus sich durch den Feierabendverkehr bis zum Flughafen durchschlagen muss, habe ich Glück: der Bahnhof ist nur ein paar Fußminuten um die Ecke: "Ahhhh, Berlin..." das war definitiv ein kurzer Besuch aber ein lohnenswerter. Während der ICE Sprinter mit nahezu der Take-Off-Geschwindigkeit einer Boing 757-200 entgegen des nächsten Sonnenaufgangs gondelt, werden noch liegen gebliebene Aufgaben erledigt. Das Outlook Postfach wurde schlielich noch mal schnell auf den aktuellen Stand gebracht und die 70 noch nicht gelesenen Mails haben sich enorm reduziert. Nichts desto trotz liegen noch 917 zwar gelesene aber nicht abgearbeitet Mails im Postfach nichts kritisches aber einfach Mails mit Links, Texten oder Informationen, die noch nicht verarbeitet sind. Im Akt dieser Arbeitswut sind natrlich auch einige Antwort-Mails der digitalen Feder entsprungen müssen später nur noch weggeschickt werden!

Wieder einmal neigt sich ein 19 Stunden Arbeitstag dem Ende entgegen mit dem Gefühl .NET ist doch eine feine Sache.