Posted by Openness Team

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled Office for iPad – shiny touch-friendly apps that you can download for Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the App Store. The apps have the robust capabilities and familiar look and feel that is unmistakably Office, while offering a fantastic touch experience built from the ground up for iPad. 

Documents will look as good as they do on your PC or Mac, and better than ever on your iPad. With the free versions of the apps, you can read your Word documents, view your Excel data and present with PowerPoint. With an Office 365 subscription, you can edit and create new documents with the iPad.

“World of Tanks” Xbox 360 edition is free to everyone this weekend. That’s right. Everyone! Join your friends on Xbox Live in massive, 30-tank battles.

This weekend’s event coincides with the World of Tanks Map Madness Community Challenge, which means that every tank you reduce to a smoking pile of scrap will help the entire “World of Tanks” community unlock new battlefields.

Head over to Major Nelson for all of the heart-pounding action.

You might also be interested in:

· Video: Check out six teams that made it to this weekend’s “Call of Duty” championships
· World Cup fever comes to Windows Store with “FIFA 14”
· Be a Force to be reckoned with in “Star Wars: Assault Team” for Windows Phone, PCs and tablets

Aimee Riordan
Microsoft News Center Staff

Another set of weekly Red Stripe Deals in the Windows Store includes an RSS reader, a drawing game and an educational app that provides home-based science experiments for kids. They’re part of six apps and games that are at least 50 percent off.

Readiy Pro (originally $2.99, now $1.49) is a simple, fast, RSS reader with Feedly support. It’s been fully redesigned for Windows 8.1 with a beautiful, image-rich layout. Use the Share charm to share full articles to OneNote, EverNote, Pocket and Instapaper. Popular Xbox game “Rayman Jungle Run” (originally $2.99, now $1.49) gives you 70 gorgeous levels where you jump, punch, fly and run up walls. In “Draw a Stickman: EPIC” (originally $2.99, now $1.49) you do what the title says and then guide him through 14 levels of plot twists, hidden secrets and achievements.

“Spectral Souls” (originally $15.99, now $7.99) is a Japanese tactical role playing game that you can play using touch only, or hook up your Xbox 360 Controller to explore the strange and dangerous world of Neverland. With “Tiny Token Empires” (originally $5.99, now $2.49) you control one of five major ancient superpowers and expand your reach by developing cities, building armies and annexing new territories. Finally, Small Experiments (originally $4.99, now $1.99) turns your house into a science lab, with 25 kid-focused activities, such as extracting the DNA of a pear, or turning a tea bag into a rocket. Videos walk the young scientists through each step.

Find all these on sale on the Windows Store home page and read more about them on the Windows Experience Blog. You can also find more discounts through the Red Stripe Deals collection in the Windows Phone Store.

You might also be interested in:

• OneNote, Office Lens and “Avengers Alliance” among latest batch of favorite apps and games
• Get hectic with all-new “Hexic” experience on Windows Phone, PCs and tablets
• Be a Force to be reckoned with in “Star Wars: Assault Team” for Windows Phone, PCs and tablets

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Some content in this article was written by Marta Barillas, a SDET on the WSUS team.

Did you know that 80% of the content in Microsoft Update (MU) is drivers? Drivers represent a huge amount of content, so if your organization has standard devices, or you know what drivers are needed by your users, you can dramatically reduce the amount of metadata and content in your WSUS server by not syncing the "Drivers" category to WSUS.

Instead, you can selectively import drivers from the catalog by using a feature in the WSUS UI. Please note, this is only available through a WSUS Management Console of same version as the WSUS Service that is connected to in remote scenarios.

1. Launch WSUS console
2. Click on the “Updates” node (left panel)
3. Click on “Import Updates” (right panel)
4. Search and download the update from the opened IE page

Once you have downloaded the update using the Microsoft Update Catalog, the update will appear in "All updates." From there, you can approve the update, assign it to target groups, and set deadlines.

click the screenshot above to enlarge

In conjunction with the release of Office for iPad Thursday, faculty and students can edit documents using the new apps if they have Office 365 Education subscriptions.

These include Office 365 Education A3, Office 365 Education A4 and Office 365 ProPlus for Students.

Office for iPhone and Android are also free now.

Download Office for iPad– which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint – from the App Store and read more about how Office 365 Education works with it on the Microsoft in Education blog.

You might also be interested in:

• See what others are saying about Microsoft’s March 27 mobile-first, cloud-first news
• Office arrives on the iPad
• Satya Nadella: The cloud and mobile can be first at the same time

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Josh Condie – In follow-up to Kathleen’s post earlier, the other half of yesterday’s Cloud announcement was focused on controlling and securing the mobile devices and platforms that Microsoft is now broadly building for.

EMS

Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) was detailed in the second half of Satya’s presentation.  EMS is a comprehensive cloud solution to address consumerization of IT, BYOD, and SaaS challenges for the SMB IT. The EMS will be the most complete platform for organizations to embrace these mobility and cloud trends.  The suite is the most cost effective way to acquire all of the included cloud services:

• Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium,
• Windows Intune,
• Microsoft Azure Rights Management, etc. 

The capabilities packaged in the EMS are a giant step beyond simple MDM. The EMS is a people-first approach to identity, devices, apps, and data – and it allows you to actively build upon what you already have in place while proactively empowering your workforce well into the future. The EMS has three key elements:

1. Identity and access management delivered by Azure Active Directory Premium
2. MDM and MAM delivered by Windows Intune, and
3. Data Protection delivered by Azure AD Rights Management Services

Identity and Access Management through Azure is a big one.  Currently we have over one thousand SAAS vendor solutions in our catalogue.  Trialing Azure now is a great way to learn more (www.windowsazure.com).  You can then peruse this catalogue to see how fast this powerful capability is growing:

Microsoft has also created an InfoPortal here:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/enterprise-mobility-suite/

Pricing has also been announced:

-Josh

The launch of the Microsoft Video Network in the United Kingdom gives advertisers the tools to buy user-initiated video ads on brand-safe sites across 350 publishers.

The network provides additional reach for advertisers’ campaigns outside of Microsoft’s owned and operated properties. This latest product announcement reaffirms a focus on developing industry-leading advertising options that zero in on content engagement and consumer-first experiences.

Read more about this from Owen Sagness, general manager of Microsoft Advertising & Online UK, on the Microsoft Advertising Blog and listen to him in the video above.

You might also be interested in:

• See what others are saying about Microsoft’s March 27 mobile-first, cloud-first news
• Microsoft presents can’t miss sessions at Advertising Week Europe
• Satya Nadella: The cloud and mobile can be first at the same time

Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff

Windows Azure was recently renamed to Microsoft Azure . This change reflects Microsoft’s strategy and focus on Azure as the public cloud platform for customers as well as for our own services Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Bing, OneDrive, Skype, and Xbox Live.

Our commitment to deliver an enterprise-grade cloud platform for the world’s applications is greater than ever. Today we support the broadest set of operating systems, languages, and services of any public cloud—from Windows, SQL and .NET to Python, Ruby, Node.js, Java, Hadoop, Linux, and Oracle. In today’s cloud-first, mobile-first, data-powered world, customers want a public cloud platform that supports their needs—whatever they may be—and that public cloud is Microsoft Azure.

DirectX 12 introduces the next version of Direct3D, the graphics API at the heart of DirectX.  Direct3D is one of the most critical pieces of a game or game engine, and we’ve redesigned it to be faster and more efficient than ever before. Get the details here.

Check out this link which has all sorts of tips and tricks to get the most out of your Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) offers online Microsoft training delivered by experts to help technologists continually learn, with hundreds of courses.

Upcoming Live Event: Microsoft Corporate BI and SAP BI Integration Jump Start– April 30, 2014, 9:00am-1:00pm PDT

Course of the Week: Small Business: Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 8.1 In this course, Microsoft Technical Lead Kyle Rosenthal walks you through the various challenges of the upgrade, ensuring you a seamless transition to the new Windows 8.1.

Josh Condie – All levels of the Microsoft Channel, from Distribution to LSP to VAR, have been asking for training and reference material to support the Office 365 presales process around proper plan selection.  How’s that for a lot of “P’s?”  Here is the 1st edition of the Office 365 Plan Selector.  It will evolve and grow, but it has great value right out of the gates.

What is the Office 365 Plan Selector Tool?

It is an Excel based tool, which recommends the appropriate Office 365 Plan, based on the answers to a few questions around a customer’s technology and productivity needs.

Why and who did we build this for?

Our wide choice of Office 365 Plans offers great solutions for customers across different segments and needs. This tool will enable our sellers at both Distis and LSPs, as well as our VAR partners, to quickly and easily recommend the right Office 365 plans for the most common customer scenarios. This is expected to significantly improve the demand generation for O365 from inbound customer calls and also sales velocity of outbound efforts.

How are we planning to land this with our sellers and partners?

In the coming weeks, you will see more on this tool:

• Blog posts, newsletters and Yammer groups for MPN partners and SMB Champions Club
• Blitz day trainings and evangelism through the technical and marketing account teams at Distis and LSPs
• Flight Plan calls, Regional Area calls, SMB Live events and webinars, to reach the managed as well as breadth VAR community

Here’s the training video/demo:

Resources

· Download the tool and watch the short demo video

· Reach out to your customers

· Give us your feedback on how we can improve the tool

Josh C.

Testing

Welcome to this week’s issue of the US Partner News Online! Each week, we’ll bring you the latest news and information for Microsoft partners. You can read previous weeks’ issues at http://aka.ms/uspnewsletter. If you’d like to see the next post in your email inbox, go to http://aka.ms/uspblog and enter your email address under “Subscribe and follow” on the right hand side.

To stay in touch with me and connect with other partners and Microsoft sales, marketing, and product experts, join our US Partner Community on Yammer and choose how you want to stay informed.

Top stories

 A Cloud for Everyone, on Every Device
Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, talks about the new “mobile-first cloud-first” world, and explains how Microsoft is enabling a world in which anyone can make things happen, on their terms.

More announcements and news in the Mobile First, Cloud First Press Briefing Newsroom

Enterprise Mobility for Every Business and Every Device
On his In the Cloud blog, Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President for Windows Server & System Center, talks about the release of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite, the upcoming general availability of Azure Active Directory Premium, and the latest updates to Windows Intune.

Competing and Winning in the Midmarket
There are over 60,000 midmarket firms (defined as companies that have 100 to 249 seats) in the United States, and on average, they spend $100,000 on infrastructure, productivity software and devices a year. Current Microsoft midmarket customers represent over $2 billion in software upgrade opportunity alone. Use the materials from Ready-to-Go Marketing to plan and implement your midmarket strategy.

Submissions for 2014 Partner of the Year Awards Close April 11
It's time to polish, finalize, and submit your 2014 Partner of the Year Award nomination in the Awards tool. Winning an award positions your company for new business opportunities, generates positive press coverage, and can lead to greater market recognition. Last year, US partners took home 19 awards. We'd love to cheer for you at WPC. Good luck!

New Study Shows Companies Are Moving with Cloud Deployments at a Rapid Rate
Microsoft just released the Hosting and Cloud Go Mainstream: 2014 study. This global survey includes answers from over 2,000 customers of various sizes, and offers insights into how customers buy, use, and manage their IT in different cloud scenarios. Read about three key insights from this study that you should consider for your business, and download the study.

Build a Profitable Cloud Business: Six-Week Online Course Starts April 1
Whether you are new to the cloud or have closed a few cloud deals already, Cloud 1-2-3 Academy will help you make decisions about your business model to help you maximize revenues in the long term. Register to attend the six-week online course that starts April 1.

Prepare for the Microsoft Security Bulletin for April 2014
The next security bulletin release is on Tuesday, April 8. Get information about the security updates for March 2014 that cover Internet Explorer, Microsoft Silverlight, and Microsoft Windows. You can watch the March  webcast on demand, and register for the next webcast, on April 9.

Meet the Bing Ads Team in New York City, Austin, and Chicago
Bing Ads is hosting events in New York City, Austin, and Chicago. Register to connect with Bing Ads experts, get agency resources and see a drill down on insights from the local area. Earn your Bing Ads Accreditation in the afternoon, then join for a networking happy hour and a chance to win an Xbox One.

Implement a Marketing Program to Nurture Customers with the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Outsource Model
The Microsoft Dynamics Partner Outsource Model is a comprehensive suite of bundled services that can help you build and execute 6 to 12 months of marketing at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself. This marketing system is uniquely designed for the new economics of selling your Microsoft Dynamics products and service offerings to customers. This content is on PartnerSource.

Resources

Lead Qualification Service from Ready-to-Go Marketing
Closing sales can be a lengthy process, especially when valuable time is wasted engaging leads that aren't qualified. Let Microsoft manage the post-event follow-up conversations with your event registrants. The calls are made on your behalf with your messaging, saving you time and resources. It's a new way to receive targeted, qualified leads, and offered to MPN members at no cost.

New Customer Campaign Explains the Value of Working with Microsoft Partners
A new campaign from the Microsoft Partner Network reaches out to customers to tell them the benefits of working with a partner that has proven expertise with Microsoft technologies by attaining silver or gold competency status. A new MPN page shows customers how to search on Microsoft Pinpoint to find a qualified partner based on business need, competency, or industry vertical.

Register for the VAR Incentive Program to Earn Up to 22 Percent in Incentives
The VAR Incentive provides maximum payout when you help your customers recognize the benefits of emerging Microsoft products and technologies, including virtualization, security, and unified communications. Register before March 31 to earn this incentive retroactive to your eligible sales starting in January. You must register for the current incentive even if you have participated in previous versions of the VAR rebate. Terms and conditions.

Earn $500 for Your First Sale of Microsoft Office 365 to an SMB Customer
Register for the VAR Incentive, then make your first Microsoft Office 365 sale through Open or Advisor between March 1 and May 31, and you may be eligible for an extra $500 payment. Terms and conditions.

SMB Advantage: Earn Partner Subsidy Funds for Cloud Sales
Earn partner subsidy funds on eligible sales of Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online through Open or Advisor. Redeem the purchase within 15 days, and your customer will receive a check to be used within 90 days for additional purchases or services provided by you. Offer ends May 31. Terms and conditions.

Ready-to-Go Marketing: Help Customers Say Goodbye to Windows XP and Upgrade by April 8
The Get Modern with Windows 8.1 and Office campaign, from Ready-to-Go Marketing, provides you with resources that will help you prepare for conversations with your customers and explain the benefits of modernizing their businesses by moving to current versions of Windows, Office, and Exchange. You'll help customers increase productivity, access information anywhere, and stay secure while positioning yourself as their trusted advisor.

Resources to Help You Transition Your Cloud Internal Use Rights
As of February 24, all Microsoft Action Pack and competency partners now have access to Microsoft Internal Use Rights for Microsoft cloud solutions such as Office 365, Windows Azure, Dynamics CRM Online, and Windows Intune. You can now deploy your internal use rights benefit allotment the way you choose, to suit your business needs—online, on-premises, or both.

Test Product Migration and Application Compatibility with Previous Versions
Over 30 products from the collection of previously released trial software remaining under mainstream support have been re-released on the TechNet Evaluation Center to support your migration and application compatibility testing needs. Get the downloads and get started with migrating your customers to the most current Microsoft products. On Twitter, follow @MicrosoftTrials for regular updates about evaluation software.

Training and certification

Stay informed about training opportunities that align to your business, role, and Microsoft Partner Network membership.

April Hot Sheet: Find and Register for Upcoming Training and Partner Calls
The Hot Sheet is a frequently updated schedule of live virtual and in-person training and informational calls that are coming in the next few weeks. Subscribe to the US Partner Learning blog to receive the Hot Sheet as soon as it's published each month.

SQL Server 2014 Technical Ignite Boot Camps
SQL Server 2014 will be generally available April 1. In this four-day technical training you will learn about the in-memory and cloud capabilities of the new release. You will walk away with an understanding of how to simplify cloud adoption for your SQL databases, as well as unlock new hybrid scenarios.

• April 8–11 in Sunnyvale, California
• April 21–24 in Chicago, Illinois
• April 29–May 2 in Reston, Virginia

Windows Intune Webcast Series
Join the Windows Intune team for a webcast series that covers product, sales, and technical information about the unified PC and mobile device management solution for businesses. Windows Intune lets you manage PCs and mobile devices from the cloud, enabling people to use the devices they choose to access applications and data while following corporate policies.

Be Rewarded and Save with Training and Certification Offers
Whether you’re preparing for a Microsoft Certification exam, gathering best practices to help improve your company’s time to market for deployments, or just interested in deepening your technical knowledge about Microsoft products and technologies, take advantage of these offers. 

8 Weeks of Windows 8 – Enter to Win a Cool Device
Pass a Windows assessment and be entered to win a Dell Venue 8 Pro, a Toshiba Encore, or a Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon Multimode Table PC. Weekly and grand prize drawings. Contest ends April 13. Open to US resident employees of OEM Reseller partners who are 18 or older. Weekly entry periods are Monday through Sunday. Download the official rules.

Featured video

Watch this video about how Practice Accelerators can increase your customer wins and retention. Practice Accelerators are ideal for IT pros and provide a detailed framework of resources, spanning from pre-engagement to post-delivery. The complete documentation set includes project guides, templates, architecture guidance, and planning and design guides.

Calendar through April 11

This list is a sampling of upcoming partner calls, training, and events. Refer to the April Hot Sheet for a comprehensive list for the next several weeks that's frequently updated.

• March 31–April 2 – Microsoft Exchange Conference
• March 31 – Cloud OS Training Sweepstakes ends
• March 31 – Accelerate Your Learning Sweepstakes ends
• March 31 – Practice Accelerator for Windows 8 Flexible Workstyle
• March 31 – Practice Accelerator for Office 365
• March 31 in Chicago, Illinois – Cloud 1-2-3 Academy: Cloud Transformation Workshop
• March 31 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – SMB Live: Expand Your Portfolio
• March 31 – Last day to enroll in the VAR Incentive for payment on eligible sales from January 1
• March 31 – Sweepstakes ending include Cloud OS Immersion Training, Accelerate Your Learning
• April 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio – SMB Live: Expand Your Portfolio
• April 1 – Cloud 1-2-3 Academy: Cloud Financial Model Overview
• April 1 – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud
• April 1–2 in Boston, Massachusetts – Ahead of the Game Technical Series
• April 2 – Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)Wednesday
• April 2 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud
• April 2 in New Orleans, Louisiana – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud: Expand Your Portfolio
• April 2 in New York, New York – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud
• April 3 in New York, New York – Cloud 1-2-3 Academy: Cloud Transformation Workshop
• April 4 in Kansas City, Kansas – SMB Live: Expand Your Portfolio
• April 4 – Windows Intune: Open for business
• April 4 in New York, New York – Bing Ads Connect
• April 7–8 in Minneapolis, Minnesota: Ahead of the Game Technical Series
• April 8 – Security Bulletin Release
• April 8 in Indianapolis, Indiana – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud
• April 8 – Cloud 1-2-3 Academy: Changing Buyer Behavior and Expectations 
• April 8–11 in Sunnyvale, California: SQL Server 2014 Technical Ignite boot camp
• April 8 – Partner Practice Enablement for Windows Azure (Part 5 of 8): Cloud Services, Web Sites, and Infrastructure Services
• April 9 – Security Bulletin Webcast
• April 9 in Minneapolis, Minnesota – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud 
• April 9 – Practice Accelerator for SharePoint 2013: Search, Social, Portals and Collaboration
• April 9 – Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Wednesday
• April 10 – Practice Accelerator for Office 365 
• April 10 in Cleveland, Ohio – SMB Live: Get in the Cloud 
• April 10 in Minneapolis, Minnesota – Cloud 1-2-3 Academy: Cloud Transformation Workshop
• April 11 – SMB Partner Call for East Region
• April 11 – Submissions close for 2014 Partner of the Year Awards

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell to change the Internet Start page on his Microsoft Surface .

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. It is no secret that I love my Microsoft Surface. Just before our trip to Europe, I bought a nice Microsoft Surface Pro 2 with extra memory and disk space. The thing is fast and light. With my real-touch keyboard (left over from my Surface RT), it is a great laptop replacement. I love the fact that it has Windows PowerShell 4.0, and even the Windows PowerShell 4.0 ISE.

To me it is great. I stuff it in my camera backpack, and am ready for a day of exploration and discovery. We stop for a cup of coffee, and I whip out my Surface. With its nearly instant On feature, and I can check email, write a blog post, take pictures and share them on Twitter and Facebook. And with Office Live, I can work on my novel, update our Excel spreadsheet itinerary, and even work on my PowerPoint slides for the Windows PowerShell Summit. In short, the device is nearly perfect.

FCC disclaimer: Whereas I work for the Microsoft Corporation, they did not buy my Microsoft Surface Pro 2. I paid full price for it at the Microsoft Store in Charlotte. Microsoft did not buy the Surface Pro that the Scripting Wife uses either. We bought the devices simply because we think they are useful and extremely cool.

Here is the Scripting Wife reading on her Surface:

Changing the Start page

Where do I change the Start page? I looked and looked, and I was unable to find a Tools type of menu. Nothing appearing in the image here seemed to help:

I was finally able to find out how to use the graphical user interface to change the Start page on my Surface RT (and also on my Surface Pro 2). I am not sure if this was added with Windows 8.1, or if it was always available in Windows 8 (on the Surface), and it took me a year to find it. Anyway, one day it dawned on me, “I can use Windows PowerShell to do this!”

And because there are literally five Surface-types of devices in our Scripting Household (not to mention three non-domain joined laptops also running Windows 8.1), it seemed to me that using Windows PowerShell to set a useful Start page was much easier than trying to type complex URLs by using a virtual keyboard.

Don’t get me wrong. I like touch screens as much as the next person. But to me, a virtual keyboard is just that—virtual and not real. Call me old fashioned, but I like a real keyboard that has give and tactile feedback. There is a very short cross-over period for me where the annoyance of dragging out a Bluetooth keyboard or finding my touch keyboard and attaching it is worth the effort of not having to spend five minutes playing hunt-and-peck on a virtual keyboard.

Dude, it is a one-liner

This is super simple. It is a one-liner. But because I am going to use it at least eight times, it is worth the effort to write a script. I can put this in a function, a module, or a whatever. Right now, I broke the lines out a bit to make it easier to read, but it is one logical line of script.

The first thing I like to do is to see if I can read the registry value that contains the start page for Internet Explorer. I found the value stored in the hive here:

'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\'

To read the value, I use the Windows PowerShell Registry provider. The command is shown here:

$path = 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\'

$name = 'start page'

(Get-Itemproperty -Path $path -Name $name).$name

Does the script work? Sure it does! Here are the results:

So, I know that I can get to the Start page in Internet Explorer. How about also setting it? All I need to do is change Get-ItemProperty to Set-ItemProperty and pass a new value. Here are the changes:

$path = 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\'

$name = 'start page'

$value = 'http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/'

Set-Itemproperty -Path $path -Name $name -Value $value

When I run the script this time, there is no output, which is fine. I can use the Get-IEStartPage script to verify if I want to, but the best way to check is to simply open Internet Explorer. Here is the output—as you can see, there is nothing returned:

When I open Internet Explorer, I see that it worked as intended.

Join me tomorrow when I have guest blogger who will talk about working with streams. It is a cool topic, and you do not want to miss out.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy 

Hvad er teknologi? Og hvad kan vi egentlig udrette med teknologi? Teknologi kan i dag bringe os tættere sammen og gøre verden mindre. Teknologi kan give helt nye muligheder for mennesker med en sygdom, som ellers havde mistet håbet. Teknologi kan give stemme til folk uden stemme,  kommunikation til mennesker uden hørelse og bevægelse til mennesker, der ikke kan bevæge sig.

Microsoft fejrer de mirakler, som teknologien er med til at skabe i denne video. 

JAZUGのイベント「Global Windows Azure Boot Camp」に参加してきました。

このイベントは、全世界の Windows Azure コミュニティで 実施され、今回は世界規模のコミュニティとして組織されていて世界130箇所以上で同じ日に行われたとのことです。

Azureというグローバルなプラットフォームであることと、また熱心なユーザーコミュニティのみなさんがあってのイベントだと思います。

イベントの開催概要はこちら。

togetterはこちら。.

さて、私はクラウド業界自体はそこそこ長くなってきたので、JAZUGのことは当然知っていたのですが、そのイベントに参加するのは初めてです。

もともとAzureユーザーということでもなく、コミュニティに参加しているうちにマイクロソフトに入社したという経緯ではないため、そのプロセスのないまま中の人になってしまったという感じです。

とは言え、IT業界、とくにクラウド業界はコミュニティの盛り上がりなくしてはスケールしないため、JAZUGの存在と活動は気になっていました。

今回、初めてJAZUGに顔を出したのですが、通常のオーディエンスとしての参加ではなく、なんといきなりスピーカとしての登壇という形でした・・・！

コミュニティなので、むしろ中の人はそれをサポートするのが役割ではあると思うのですが、ひょんなことからJAZUG部長の @k1hash さんから依頼があり、今回の機会に至ったのでした。

詳細は下記資料をご覧ください（※注 ネタスライド、際どい内容などは割愛していますのであしからず）。

@k1hash さんの挨拶からイベントは始まっています。 

午前中は @harutama さんの「Windows Azure の現状と歴史！」、スウェーデンから来日したMVPのMagnusさんの「Global Windows Azure Charity の説明, 世界で面白い Azure の利用方法（仮）」でした（ @normalian さんの通訳が大活躍！）。

歴史と現状の内容は、2013年以降のサマリーの内容で、Azureに特に馴染みのない方には良いまとめでキャッチアップが進んだことと思います。

Magnus氏は、提供されたモジュールを参加者がDLしてAzureにデプロイすると、その数だけチャリティーになるという企画をリードして、その場で参加者たちがチャリティ参加するというセッションでした。

企画の詳細はこちら。

タイムテーブルを見ていただければわかりますが、ランチセッション、そして午後は私のセッションにつづいて他の方々のセッション、そしてLT、懇親会という流れでした。

他の方のセッションも、資料が手に入り次第、随時アップしてゆきたいと思いますので、まずは写真のみ掲載しておきます。

Azureが好きで、リアルにAzureを使っている方々と直接触れ合えたのは、大変良い刺激でしたし、私の普段の仕事にもやりがいが出るというものです。

今回誘ってくださった @k1hash さんを初めコアメンバーの皆様、スポンサーの企業様、そして参加してくださった方々に心からお礼を申し上げたい気分です、ありがとうございました！

まあそんな堅い表現はやめておくならば、コミュニティってやっぱり良いものですよね！ということだけお伝えしたいです。

By Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer

For more than a decade, Microsoft has invested in a comprehensive privacy program that sets the foundation for our efforts to responsibly manage our customers’ data. An important part of our privacy commitment is that we evolve our policies and practices to address the changes in technology and customer expectations. Earlier today, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith announced a change to Microsoft’s privacy practices to further enhance our privacy commitments.  Read more >>