He’s Back!

Lot’s going on:

The Windows 7 Beta is coming in January and I know all the details.

I will be the keynote at the MCT Summits in Prague and Redmond.

More to come soon. Watch for updates!

 

Stephen

Viva! Barcelona

For those of you attending TecEd Barcelona here is my schedule. I would love the opportunity to meet with any MVP’s, MCT’s or Blogger’s.

TechEd Online Stage – Panel Discussion: “Bloggers Panel”

Date / Time: 5 Nov, 12:00-13:00 (12:00-1:00pm) / Barcelona Time

Panelists: Microsoft Internal Bloggers: Chris Jackson, Aaron Margosis, Jeremy Chapman, Ken Rosen, Steve Riley | Moderator: Stephen Rose, Former Microsoft MVP

Title: Springboard Series Presents: Straight Talk on Windows OS Adoption

Abstract: Join in a live, interactive discussion with Microsoft Bloggers as they tackle current challenges surrounding Windows OS adoption. Learn about workarounds, tips and tricks, and leveraging Springboard Series resources to assist with each phase of the adoption and deployment lifecycle.

 

Date/Time: 6 Nov, 14:00-15:00 (2pm-3pm) / Barcelona Time

Location: Centre Convencions Internacional (CCIB), Room M215

Title: Let’s talk Windows Client Perception and Adoption

Abstract: Do you feel connected enough with the Windows Client IT Pro team? How can we better partner to empower you in your role as an MVP? With Windows Client adoption hitting the news daily and the demand for peer best practices it can be challenging to keep up with the latest perspectives and updates from Microsoft. This is designed to be an interactive session, where we can plan and discuss upcoming milestones, share available resources and perspectives and brainstorm ongoing MVP engagement as part of the Springboard Program.

 

I will also be in the Springboard booth Mon-Thu so please swing by and introduce yourself!

 

Stephen

To Infinity and Beyond! The Mothership Calls….

I am very pleased to announce that the mothership has called and request my presence. As of Oct 27th, 2008, I will be the Marketing Manager for IT Professionals for Microsoft. My role will revolve around the worldwide adoption of Vista and Windows 7 with IT Pros. I will be working with the Springboard Team who I have had the great privilege to work with over the past year (Vista for IT Pros, TechEd Orlando, VRT Vista Roundtable, etc…). The springboard folks are an amazing bunch with great ideas and vision. I am excited to be part of that synergy. I have spend many years building relationships with people at Microsoft and now I get to work with them in help them and myself to reach a synergy in reaching our goals of supporting you, the IT Pro and End User.

I am also excited that I now get to work with, support and utilize the vast MVP and IT Pro community that I have been a part of and now be in a position to really help and support those users out there.

The position will be in based out of Redmond so I will be here, there and everywhere for quite awhile. My first trip, is Barcelona, Spain for TechEd EMEA in two weeks.

I want to thank all my friends, speaking event attendees, MVP’s, users and Microsoftee’s for all their help and support of me over the past few years.

I am looking forward to finding new ways to support the needs, goals and directions that you will be taking out there. I am always available for you and look forward to working with all of you on a whole new level.

To infinity and beyond        

Stephen

 

Lots Going On In So Cal- Get the Scoop!

PDC, TechDays, CodeCamp, BarCamp… lot’s going on. Want a breakdown, visit Lynn’s blog here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/socaldevgal/archive/2008/10/15/pdc-techdays-codecamp-barcamp-oct-nov-developer-events-in-socal.aspx

 

MSDN WEBCAST: GEEKSPEAK: VIRTUALIZATION FOR DEVELOPERS WITH STEPHEN ROSE (LEVEL 200)

I want to thank Lynn Langit, Michael, Danlio,Tracey,  and the rest of the folks at Microsoft and MSDN for the great opportunity to do the Geekspeak show last week.

Also, a special thanks for Joey Snow for finding me a quiet room to do the taping while up at Microsoft HQ.

if you missed it, the link is here and the slide desk is here:

Slide Deck

 

And the show  replay is here:

GeekSpeak Seminar

 

Let’s Get Virtual. Free events to help you “Get Virtual NOW”.

 

From October 10 through November 17, 2008, in the United States, there are eleven different events:

Date
City
Venue

October 10, 2008
Anaheim , CA
Hyatt Regency Orange County

October 13, 2008
Santa Clara , CA
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara

October 15, 2008
San Francisco , CA
San Francisco Marriott

October 21, 2008
Minneapolis , MN
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

October 24, 2008
Dallas , TX
Dallas Sheraton

October 27, 2008
Chicago , IL
InterContinental Chicago

October 31, 2008
Boston , MA
Boston Sheraton

November 3, 2008
New York , NY
Sheraton Hotel & Towers

November 10, 2008
Washington , DC
Omni Shoreham Hotel

November 13, 2008
Philadelphia , PA
Sheraton Center City

November 17, 2008
Atlanta , GA
Marriott Atlanta Marquis

Check out the event site for more details.  See you there!

—

“Will you be there, Stephen?”

I am attending the Anaheim event, Beyond that…we’ll see.

“Hey!  The event I want to go to is full!”

Yeah, some of them are.  Get on the waiting list.  It’s worth a shot!

Free Microsoft Swag

 Wanna win some cool Microsoft swag??

Watch the Vista Under the Hood Roundtable replay here: https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard/

1. Comment on the video. Give us some feedback. Like it? Love it? Learned something from it? Have a question?
2. I will review your comments in 14 days and pick 10 winners for some hand picked Microsoft swag straight from the Microsoft Company Store in Redmond.
3. I will send you your swag and you will rejoice in excitement!

So get cracking. Your swag awaits!

Look Ma…No Hands! Windows Vista Speech Recognition Software (as seen in my Fast Company blog)

Windows Vista Speech Recognition software may not have rendered the keyboard obsolete, but it certainly has made it unnecessary for many people. The voice-control software translates speech into text with impressive speed and accuracy. Users can not only dictate, but also open programs, browse the net and do most functions that presently require keyboard or mouse actions in Windows. A compatible microphone and a sound card are needed to run the Speech Recognition in Vista.

In theory, the Vista Speech Recognition software doesn’t need any training. You can install it one minute and begin dictating the next. In reality, it works much better if you spend thirty minutes reading pre-selected passages that teach Vista your verbal quirks. Once you’ve done that, the real fun begins.

You may think you speak coherently, but you don’t. You speak in run-on sentences. You make ridiculous leaps of logic. You pad every sentence with meaningless words. Heck, you don’t even get basic grammar right. It’s deflating to see just how illiterate you actually are, but there is hope. If you force yourself to use Vista several hours a day, you’ll improve quickly. Once that happens, Vista ceases to be a nuisance and starts to be a timesaver, particularly for e-mails and short documents. Anyone who writes a lot of memos should think about upgrading to Vista for this feature alone. This is doubly true for people who spend a lot of time transferring text from paper to computer.

So, after a few hours of playing with the Speech Recognition, I was ready to do a test.

When the program is started it generates a small UI containing a microphone.Once the computer is told to ‘Start listening’, the text feedback area will show if the computer understands what the person says. If it does not, it will ask the question ‘What was that?’ Errors in what the computer recognizes can be corrected, thereby helping it to better recognize one’s speech pattern. The computer can be corrected by saying ‘Correct’ followed by the incorrect words. It makes the program smarter.

A command that really helps is the ‘Show numbers’ command that can be used at times when, for example, one cannot recall the name of a toolbar button. This way, numbers appear over everything selectable on the screen and the person can say the number that relates to that option. Other actions supported include closing, maximizing, restoring or minimizing any active window. Programs can be opened by saying ‘Open’ followed by the program name. They can also be opened by using commands to navigate through the Start menu.

Here is an unedited test of the Vista software:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse and nothing but particular to intensely on shore, I thought I would say a lot of a little and see the watery part of the world. It’s a way I have a variety of this clean and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it scanned, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily passing before cloth and warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I need; and especially whenever the high pros get such an upper hand of me, but requires a strong moral principle to prevail me from deliberately stepping into the street, and the vitally knocking people sat off—then, the county high time to get to the CIA soon as I can. This is no substitute for just a long ball. With a philosophical lorsch Kato throws himself on his sword; a quietly taped to the ship there’s nothing surprising in this. If they knew that new it, almost all men in their degree, sometime or other, cherished very nearly the same feelings course the ocean with me.

And here is the original paragraph:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off — then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Not too bad. This was after only 30 minutes of testing the software in reading the tutorials that came with it. The key is, the software will also scan your documents to look for phrasing as well as keys to how you write to better enable it to learn and anticipate your speaking styles.

Speech recognition is available in all versions of Windows Vista. I recommend using a good quality USB based microphone and a quiet room when working. 1 GB of free RAM is also recommended.

For more information visit http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx

Watch “Under the hood on Windows Vista Performance”

I just returned from Redmond where I got to participate on Vista performance panel with Mark Russinovich and some amazing guests from both the real world and Microsoft.

I encourage you to take 60 minutes and watch this show which will dispel many of the Vista performance myths out there.
if you watch it, please comment below. I will choose 5 or 6 commentators and give you a cool piece of Microsoft Swag I purchased from the company store during my trip.

So, loved it! Hated it! Learned from it! Let me know!

The replay is available here: https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard/

Please sound off! 

 

 

Stephen

More on my Microsoft Roundtable next week…

On Wednesday, September 24^th, Mark Russinovich will host a virtual roundtable for IT pros worldwide to explore top of mind performance issues, common misconfigurations, and tips on how to fix them. From boot times and applets to disk performance and battery life, this is chance for IT pros to find out how to optimize Windows Vista and what they can do to improve overall system performance.

As part of the “virtual” experience, IT pros will be able to submit their questions about performance and optimization to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

 

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable: Under the Hood: Windows Vista Performance…Need Answers?
Join Mark Russinovich and a panel of industry experts (like me)for a LIVE virtual roundtable to explore your top of mind performance issues, common misconfigurations, and tips on how to fix them. From boot times and applets to disk performance and battery life, find out how to optimize Windows Vista and what you can do to improve overall system performance. 

Submit your performance questions live during the event or send them in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

Save the date!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
9:00am Pacific Standard Time

 

Find answers to your Windows Vista adoption questions with resources, tools, monthly straight-talk articles, and upfront guidance based on early adopter and community feedback. To learn more, visit www.microsoft.com/springboard,

Springboard Series: The resource for Windows desktop IT professionals