Desktops / Laptops / Tablets / Smartphones
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April 10, 2012
January 27, 2012
Web Storage in HTML5
Web Storage allows writing information at client side. Using Web Storage data can be written at client side as key value pair. There is no supported query language of Web Storage. Web Storage size varies from 2 MB to 10 MB. Usual size is often 5 MB. Web Storage is different from cookies in term of capacity. Web Storage offers much more capacity than cookies. Unlikely cookies, Web Storage data are absolute client side data. Web Storage data does not go to server with each request hence improves performance of the site.
December 13, 2011
Facial Recognition Paper
July 15, 2011
Collaboration and Microsoft's Business Productivity Offerings
Microsoft provides Business Productivity framework and tools related to it for enterprises. Let's see in this blog what does it provides and what offering are available from Microsoft in this field.
Business Productivity
Productivity is efficiency of a person or system or application to convert inputs into useful outputs which can be commercially viable. Business Productivity is the efficiency of a business to utilize its people and resources to provide maximum output in terms of goods and services. Improved business productivity leads to increase in revenue and profits.
There were many industries which were using IT infrastructure and software products to improve and optimally utilize their resources, but most of the them were heterogenius in nature. Workflows were different for each product, timelines were different and they were not in synch with each other. So, business productivity was not at its best.
As the IT infrastructure and productivity from software products and applications improved in the later years, there was more computing powere available to enterprises at low cost. Thus more homogenius applications and process began to be used. Seeing the increased deployment of IT infrastructure and having a stack of tools / products from low level to high level (Infrastructure to Application), Microsoft came with BPIO Model (Business Prodcutivity Infrastructure Optimization model) and other models.
BPIO Model (Business Prodcutivity Infrastructure Optimization model)
The BPIO model is related to Business Productivity. For getting on to BPIO model, we need to have base infrastructure in place. Microsoft has also models and product / tools around this base infrastructure called Core IO Model (Infrastructure Optimization model). I will not go into the details of Core IO model, but below image tells more about this stack.
(Courtesy: Microsoft Corporation)
Figure 1: Core IO Model
The Core IO model focuses around:
- IT Process and Compliance.
- Identity and Security Services.
- Client Services (Desktop client, Thin client etc.).
- Datacenter Services.
The BPIO model sits on top of this Core IO model and leverages optimal utilization of basic IT infrastructure.
(Courtesy: Microsoft Corporation)
Figure 2: BPIO
The BPIO model shows enterprises how to plan and strategise for the future IT implementation in the organization. This also provides a strategic role to IT units in an organization. The BPIO model has four optimization levels:
- Basic
- Standardized
- Rationalized
- Dynamic.
A organization as it progresses and grows in IT infrastructure, moves from Basic towards Dynamic organization. Important part of BPIO at the application level is Collaboration. Effective collaboration between employees within an organization and within teams is important. For that, Microsoft has offering for functionalities like, Workspaces, Portals, Social Computing and Project Management.
One important product that provides it all is: SharePoint Server. Specifically with the coming of SharePoint Server 2010, Social Computing incollaboration stack has increased.
BPOS (Business Productivity Online Services suite)
After the success of BPIO model and Microsoft came with BPOS (Business Productivity Online Services suite). This is a set of collaboration and messaging suite provided by Microsoft as subscription and SaaS. It includes Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Office Comunication Online and Live Meeting online. This offering has got discontinued now.
Office 365
As more and more organizations are adopting Cloud based services, Microsoft along with its cloud offering Azure, introduced, cloud productivity service microsoft Office 365. In Office 365, Microsoft provides, Office Professional Plus, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Office Web Apps.
Summary
Figure 3: Microsoft Collaboration Business Productivity Tools / Applications
Microsoft has consolidated all these offering in the form of "Microsoft Business Productivity Platform" and has a pie for every type of professional to Enterprise. The Business Productivity Platform by Microsoft solves the collaboration challenges faced by enterprises, teams and individuals by providing solutions for:
- Infrastructure Optimization.
- Multi-generational workforce.
- Distribute workforce.
- Mobile Information workers.
By including IT and Collaboration in their Enterprise model and growing from one level to another level of Collaboration optimization, today's organizations can reduce overhead costs and improve their Business Productivity.
May 30, 2011
Finally, I am also on Kinect
Everything works like a charm. The only minor issue is the readability of text on my 32" 16:9 LCD TV. I will need to recheck the configuration and am also waiting for the HDMI cable. Hopefully it will make it a much better experience. It will be good to see support for directly plugging in my mobile broadband dongle into XBOX and connect to network, as that is what is gaining popularity these days.
April 7, 2011
MIX 2011
December 21, 2010
A decade gone by, welcoming the new one!!!
As it start approaching calendar year end and incidentally it is a completion of first decade in this century. Last weekend, i sat down and mulled through some of the technology metamorphosis that i got to witness during the current decade and what can possibly unfold in next couple of years. With my little wisdom, could compile some observations in this write up.
Continue reading "A decade gone by, welcoming the new one!!!" »
December 1, 2010
More on Kinect
Following up on my blog post last week on Weekend with Kinect Adventures
Some more exploration
1. Speech interface doesn't work for Indian Locale.
2. When the hand in front of the Kinect is small (like my sons hand) the responsivness is bit slow and recognition some times not that precise.
3. All the games in Kinect Adventure are fantastic. Very immersive and experience is fantastic. Kinect Joy Ride game is fun but not as smooth as that of Kinect Adventures.
4. Upload of photos to facebook and twitter is intuitive and easy.
5. MS has released Kinect SDK only to few gamers. MS may release SDK to developers after some time but there's no specific commitment from MS on this.
Came across DepthJS ( Kinect + Computer Vision + Javascript) by Fluid interface and Evoluce has released a software to control Windows 7 apps from kinect interfaces using gestures. Yet to try these softwares. So cannot comment on it. But with MS not banning third party drivers for Kinect it may open lot many possibilities than MS had originally envisaged.
November 22, 2010
Weekend with Kinect Adventures...
Over the weekend received preordered XBOX Kinect at home. It was very easy to install. Within few minutes of opening box, my son and i were jumping in front of it playing river rafting games bundled in Kinect Adventures game pack.
I am not a serious gamer myself, hence this post to be seen in that light.
1. Overall expereince has been excellent. Manual gives easy steps to connect it. Hardware is sleek. Instructions on the screen are easy to follow. It took about 15 to 20 mins to get started from the time I opened the box. Spent few mins searching for correct power socket. More on it below.
2. Took few mins to figure out how to control the avatars. Once got used to it, it worked like charm.Had tough time controlling my son initiailly. Was rolling over with laughter. He was amazed to see TV responds to him. Had a whale of time trying "does avatar responds to this move" kind of stuff. Responsiveness was good. Need to check responsiveness after few weeks of playing.
3. Some games are so involved like river rafting and popping out space bubbles. Dodging obstacles, jumping and moving around was intense. Was sweating within 30 mins. Lost bit of time sense in our excitement.
4. During games pictures were taken and can be viewed post games. Had a great fun seeing us jumping off the floor. Photos can be uploaded to XBOX live site.
Few things to note.
1. Download from XBOX Live to update the XBOX took more than 45 mins as I dont have a very fast broadband at home. BSNL( broadband carrier) local exchange in our locality doesnt offer 4 MB/sec speeds yet. As my son wanted to play the game first, So opted for update after we played few games. This may not be XBOX or Kinect issue as such.
2. Kinect requires 15 AMP power socket. Luckily for me my home UPS power socket was available right behind entertainment center. So disconnected UPS and connected Kinect power plug to get started. Fixed up an appoinment with electrician to get a permanent and separate 15 AMP connection. Hope it doesn't require major cabling or cable hanging around spoling my living room look. I seriously doubt many houses having 15 AMP power socket near their entertainment centers.
3. Took a while to figure out how to exit from the games.
Success of this platform lies with compelling games at affordable prices. I am sure MS and eco system would come up with some great games in coming months.
Not explored the speech interface much. Overall, excited with this technology where "You are the controller". As always the consumer market is at forefront of adoption of new technologies and it is only matter of time, such new technologies find their uses in the enterprises. There are reports about Kinect's ability to connect to PCs. Combined with Augmented Reality and Mobility I see many possibilities emerging. More of it later.
February 10, 2010
VS 2010 RC and Office 2010 RC
Both VS 2010 RC and Office 2010 RC are now available. If you have access to MSDN Subscriber download site, you can get VS 2010 RC from it. For general public these bits will be available today (Feb 10). Like Beta 2 bits, these bits also come with "go live" license. If you had earlier bits, you will need to uninstall those before installing RC. I was trying to figure out if RC to RTM will be an upgrade path, but haven't found specific information on this as yet. If you know, do write back.
However Office 2010 RC isn't available via MSDN download as yet, but is available on connect site for specific users. If haven't got a specific invite to access Office 2010 RC, then both on connect site or msdn download site you will still find Office 2010 Beta bits.
February 4, 2010
Touch Typing
This topic has got nothing to do with Win 7 and Touch that I have been discussing in some of my earlier blogs, but is more about typing style. Check details here. I came across this interesting blog today, that talks about various typing styles and how the fingers move across the keyboard. Personally I have been using the touch typing style for many years now. Having the ability to type at a speed matching your thoughts can make a person highly productive and efficient.
If you ask me, I feel that everyone working with computers should learn typing.
January 13, 2010
Win 7 - Difference between Touch and Gesture
In my earlier blogs (here and here), I have talked about Win 7 and the new touch experience it brings.
When talking about touch, there are essentially two aspects - touch and gestures and during a recent internal discussion, I felt that these aren't that well understood by people. What's really the difference between the two and what it means to be supporting either of these?
Continue reading "Win 7 - Difference between Touch and Gesture" »
November 3, 2009
Presentation - which tool to use?
September 4, 2009
Part 3: Handling Virtual Sessions
August 28, 2009
Part 2: Why uploading PPTs is a good idea for live meetings?
In the first part, I talked about art of presentation. Moving on in this part I want to focus a bit on another important aspect for presentation.
Doing sessions over live meeting is becoming more and more common these days, but a very basic need of uploading the presentation to live meeting server and then running the presentation from it isn't followed by most speakers and thus impacting the user experience of the session.
Continue reading "Part 2: Why uploading PPTs is a good idea for live meetings?" »
August 24, 2009
Part 1: Art of Presentation
In part 1 of the blogs on presentation skills, I will focus a bit on art of presentation, essentially factors that I believe play a significant role in making or breaking it.
When I think back a few years, I can’t fail to remember the time when I would be dead scared going in front of audience, words would fail me and I would go weak in knees. Knowing the job requirements where I would have to do many presentations internal facing (trainings, knowledge sharing etc) and external (client facing), I consciously decided to improve on the presentation skills and that I personally believe is the first step in doing good presentations.
Presentation Skills
The other day over a cup of tea with a few colleagues we were discussing presentation skills. I got good comments about fluency in presentations, time management and overall how I was able to do a good job at it.
I have decided to take a deviation from the usual technical blogs that I have been writing these past years to write on presentation skills. There are many sites already out there that provide good material on this topic and I am not trying to be a presentation skills teacher here. Over the next few blogs, I will share things that I have found working for me.
July 10, 2009
Surface, iPhones, Wii …. and Birth of the Cool
Continue reading "Surface, iPhones, Wii …. and Birth of the Cool" »
April 25, 2008
Web Accessibility: Overview of Laws and Guidelines
These days IT companies all over the world, Microsoft included, are putting in a lot of efforts to ensure that their products conform to necessary Accessibility standards. This blog article aims to touch upon the context and the business case for IT companies to be educated about Accessibility.
Continue reading "Web Accessibility: Overview of Laws and Guidelines" »
April 22, 2008
Understanding Web Accessibility
Starting this week, I will be addressing the area of Web Accessibility - organized in four separate blog entries. This week we will look at the big picture, the meaning of Web Accessibility and its relevance for promoting Equal Opportunity.
In the weeks to come, we will look at follow-up topics like the legal framework that dictates the implementation of Web Accessibility (Overview), the interdependent systems and components of Web Accessibility and harmful myths about Web Accessibility.
April 8, 2008
Object-Relational Mapping(Part-II)
In this part we will try to identify the differences these two models present that brings into fore the impedance-mismatch. I have created a data model and an object model and to keep the things simple for now, all of the objects map one to one with the data entities (tables). In addition, I will be using terms Table, Row, Column etc. rather than relation, tuple or attribute as these are easy to understand. Looking carefully at the two diagrams I am sure you can identify some of the most basic differences in the approaches the two methodologies take while defining entities.
March 3, 2008
Microsoft and Dependency Injection
January 25, 2008
Object-Relational Mapping(Part-I)
There has always been a debate on how to represent data in an application and how it should be persisted in a backend RDBMS. Why can't there be a uniform methodology for both? It has been an eternal debate but we have to live with the fact that data is represented using object-oriented methodology within an application where as it is stored in the RDBMS in accordance with the relational theory. The inherent differences between these two approaches can be attributed to the fact that the underlying methodologies, i.e. Object-Oriented and Relational theories are based on sofware-engineering and mathematical principles respectively. And the difference in the way data is represented in relational and object-oriented world is termed as object-relational impedance mismatch.
July 10, 2007
Hello People!!!
This is my first post on this blog and I am elated to have been given the opportunity to write on this blog, where I think the best of technical experts at Infosys on various Microsoft products and technologies express their views and opinions. Let me first introduce myself. I am E.Krishna Kumar, working as a Technical Specialist with the Microsoft Technology Center at Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore. I have been with Infosys for more than 3 years now and have been primarily working on the Microsoft .Net platform. I have had the experience of developing applications on .Net Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0. My current area of interest is .Net 3.0 and especially the Workflow Foundation part which I am presently trying to build up some expertise on.
May 30, 2007
Hello World!
A warm welcome to Infosys blogs on Microsoft technologies.
I am Sriram Balaji, a Senior Technical Specialist working at Microsoft Technology Center at Infosys. I have been in the IT industry for around 9 years now. I have worked on VB, ASP, ASP.NET 1.x/2.0, .NET Framework 1.x/2.0, SQL Server. My current areas of focus are Software Factories, software frameworks and .NET 3.0.
Do watch out this space for reviews about upcoming MS products and do feel free to share your views on upcoming technologies from MS.
September 16, 2006
Database Migration
Database Migration Solutions team of SI consists of folks with rich experience in database industry working geographically across various locations providing end-to-end Migration, Upgrade and Consolidation solutions for various databases . This is done with reduced downtime, well-managed change of environment using industry best practices, knowledge base, Predictability and Global Delivery Model to our Clients.
We have been working on heterogeneous/homogeneous database migrations across different platforms and have certified professionals having specialized skillset on SQL Server migrations .
Some of our key-value differentiators in providing solutions are:
In-house tools and methodologies developed for database migration
Database Migration Centre Of Excellence
Certified Database Administrators with migration expertise
Support from Alliance partners like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc
September 14, 2006
Blog Ahoy!
What do you get when you make an Obsessive Compulsive Blogger bloke sit up and blog over his second major passion? – You’ll find him tooting his way all around here!
Here’s welcoming you into the esoteric world of the genuine geek. Well, I’m a Senior Technical Specialist at Microsoft Technology Center here at Infosys. And when I’m not dabbling with .NET 3.0 (the erstwhile WinFx) or playing around with Software Factories or coding queer algorithms or developing mystical frameworks that relieve you of your otherwise mundane programming, you’ll find me blogging as though there was no tomorrow.
In my spaces you'll read all about what's hot and what's not in the .NET world, analysis of technical tit-bits, reviews of new Microsot products and technologies and much more... Keep checking out these spaces for an exciting blogpourri of Microsoft Technologies.
Handle 100 million users on website
September 12, 2006
Introduction to VSTS Blog
Today morning, when I posted the VSTS introduction blog... Forgot to introduce my self. Ooops.. Let me introduce ...
I am Prashanth Govindaiah, a Technical Architect working in Microsoft Technology Center in Infosys. I have got around 8 years of experience in IT industry, most of it in Microsoft based technologies though have some working knowledge of Java 
. For the past 4 years I have been working .NET technology. Currently, i am focusing on VSTS.
Keep a watch on this Blog of some cool stuff on VSTS and other Microsoft technologies and do let us know your views on these technologies.
September 11, 2006
.NET Fwk and Vista technologies,,,
Welcome to Infosys blogs on MS technologies.
I am Ganesan Krishnamurthy, working in Microsoft Technology Center in Infosys. I have got around 12 years of experience in IT industry and have been working in .NET technology since its beta stage. Currently, i am focussing on .NET Framework 3.0 technologies. I will blog about quite a lot of interesting things that do happen in .NET Framework, Vista and Longhorn world.
Stay tuned to these blogs and let me know about your views on these technologies.
BizTalk Blog
As part of our blogs on Microsoft products and technologies, as mentioned by Balaji, I will be focusing on BizTalk Server 2006.
My name is Atul Gupta and I am Senior Technical Architect working with the Microsoft group in Infosys. I have been working on Microsoft based technologies for more than 11 years now. Have had exposure to C, C++, MFC, COM, DCOM, .Net 1.1, ASP.NET 1.1, .Net 2.0, ASP.NET 2.0, Winforms, SmartClient etc. On the server side, I have worked with BizTalk, Commerce Server and SQL server. I am also Microsoft MVP.
Looking forward to having interesting discussions on this blog!
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