Robert McLaws: Windows Edition : .NET 3.0

Windows MultiPoint: Groundbreaking Platform for Education

Robert McLaws — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:00:00 GMT

UPDATE: You can also hear more from the MultiPoint team on Channel9.

Microsoft announced a technology today that is designed to make computers scale to students better in developing countries. It's called Windows MultiPoint, and it's a solution that allows specially-designed software programs to accept input from more than one mouse. So instead of classrooms buying more computers, they can purchase USB hubs and mice, and enable better group-learning experiences.

Students in India learning with MultiPoint

This year's Imagine Cup is going to have a separate award for the best MultiPoint app, which is the main reason Microsoft is making this announcement today, even though bits won't be available until later.

The official press release gives a great overview, but it doesn't tell the whole story. So I had a chance to sit down with Jed Rose, Product Manager on the Emerging Markets team, to get the low-down on this revolutionary new system.

RM: How does MultiPoint work?
JR: Well, there are two parts. The first part is the runtime, which was written in managed code. The second part is the SDK, which allows developers to leverage the runtime in their .NET 3.0 applications.

RM: So MultiPoint requires .NET 3.0?
JR: Yes, any app that wants to take advantage of MultiPoint must be written in .NET 3.0. We are building this on .NET 3.0 because it makes it much easier for developers to work with multiple input devices.

RM: So that means at launch it will only be available for new applications that are built especially for MultiPoint?
JR: That's correct.

RM: Are there any plans to extend MultiPoint to multi-input-enable existing applications as well?
JR: This is something that’s definitely feasible with the MultiPoint technology that we’re building. We are releasing the SDK in January to developers and are excited to see what they will do with it- This is a great example of something that could potentially be done with the SDK. We don’t have anything to announce at this time regarding developing this in-house.

RM: January?
JR: Yeah, we will be releasing the MultiPoint Alpha in January and then regularly update it until we RTM in May.

RM: Are there any software companies committing to launch products built with this SDK?
JR: We are in discussions with many interested developers, but there is nothing we are ready to announce at this time.

RM: Can developers expect that this SDK will be merged into the next version of the .NET Framework (3.5)?
JR: Developers can expect this to be a technology that will be available for all Genuine Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista users. Upon RTM, MultiPoint will be available on the Microsoft Download Center, but we don’t have anything to announce at this time regarding inclusion with the .NET framework.

RM: Your focus is on emerging markets, but clearly this technology is useful here in the US too. How do you see this affecting education in saturated markets like the US and Japan?
JR: There are many classrooms in mature markets that could also make use for this technology. I have heard from professors that there are schools even here in Seattle that would really benefit from extending the reach of their current PCs and create new collaborative learning methods using MultiPoint. This technology has many potential benefits, but its the classroom is where you’ll find it can make the biggest impact. We’re really excited about seeing what the education developer community will create with this MultiPoint SDK.

RM: But this isn't just for education, is it? Do you see other uses for this outside education?
JR: Definitely- Imagine power user scenarios where users could DJ and mix two tracks simultaneously or tweak a couple features of a photo at the same time. Also, the long-term plan for this technology is to enable additional input devices other than the mouse to be connected to the PC simultaneously- think joysticks, keyboards, or even touch-screen monitors. This technology has many potential benefits, but it’s the classroom is where you’ll find it can make the biggest impact.

RM: Can you briefly describe one of your most memorable experiences working on this projects in the emerging markets you’ve been to?
JR: MultiPoint was created by MSR India and they have already trialed it in their home country. We found instances there of more than 10 students crammed around a single classroom PC. Some couldn’t see the screen and others were frustrated about not being able to control the experience because of only one mouse. With MultiPoint, the students became instantly engaged and were learning from each other by using the PC at the same time. It’s very exciting to be working on a technology that was envisioned in an emerging market for emerging markets.

RM: Fantastic. Will you come back in the new year and let us know how the project is going?
JR: You bet! We have a pilot in Thailand schools coming up and I’m looking forward to keeping you posted.

'Indigo' Goes Mobile With WCF-CE

Robert McLaws — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:13:37 GMT

Microsoft (and by "Microsoft" I mean an employee who has posted to his blog three times in the last two years) announced today that it's taking Indigo on the road with "Windows Communication Foundation - Compact Edition." It's a subset of WCF that runs on top of the .NET Compact Framework and allows, among other things, disconnected "push" data scenarios using e-mail as a message channel.

Well, .NetCF team has been very busy since we shipped CF 2.0. A number of exciting things are happening here. Earlier Mike gave away some "hints" about what's coming: "the NET CF team is working on WCF subset for the next release, with some interesting support for transiently connected networks." I think it's time to elaborate on what that really means.

We are bringing a subset of WCF (Windows Communication Foundation, formerly known as Indigo) to devices. WCF provides a new unified programming model for building connected applications with managed code. The cool thing I like the most about WCF is its' extensible channel architecture. It allows building applications that can work on top of completely different transports and protocol channel stacks. Using WCF programming model, now I can send and receive data in my application equally easily using HTTP, TCP or e-mail. In many cases I can maintain identical or very similar communication logic code - sending and receiving the data works on top of various channels (only the initialization part will be different, as different channel stacks need to be constructed).

Using a human messaging system to pass data to a mobile device? Genius. Does that mean WCF-CE is like Blogmailr on crack? (Sorry, I've been meaning to plug this cool service for a while, and it seemed approproate here).

Can't wait to hear more about .NET CF 3.0...

[via Vibro.NET]

Vista's Antitrust Complaints Just Hit a Snag

Robert McLaws — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:16:52 GMT

Adobe's gonna have a lot harder time proving that XPS infringes on its territory, after the Justice Department announced today that Windows Vista and IE7 passed a thorough anti-trust review.

According to the report, Microsoft and the technical committee have been offering a downloadable program that is designed to help Microsoft's competitors in the fields of Web browsers, e-mail and instant-messaging clients, and media players to make their programs "Vista-ready" before the new operating system ships.

...

Since the last status report filing in May, government attorneys said they received 25 complaints alleging antitrust concerns about competing middleware but said they concluded that none of those gripes had merit.

I'd like to think that puts the Adobe matter to rest, but I doubt it. My take: if they didn't want Microsoft to make a PDF exporter for Office, they shouldn't have made it a royalty-free standard.

But something tells me that Adobe will press on anyways.

As a side note, the original name of "The Technical Committee" was "The Visually Appealing Committee", but the name was rejected after the lawyers failed to adequately define "appealing".

.NET Framework 3.0 (WinFX) RTM

Robert McLaws — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:47:00 GMT

As the final runup to Vista RTM continues, Microsoft has announced at the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX) has RTMed and is available on Microsoft Downloads. This is a significant milestone for the Developer Division, and delivers on some of the promise of Windows Vista programmability on earlier platforms.

Includes:

Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows CardSpace

Download the quick installer
Download the full x86 redistributable
Download the full x64 redistributable

IMPORTANT: If you have installed previous pre-release versions of the .NET Framework 3.0, such as Beta 2, RC1 or Community Technical Preview (CTP) builds, then you must uninstall these versions using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel before installing this final release version.

Related Resources

[via ActiveWin]