Tuesday, May 31, 2011

You Will Know Jack?Square CEO Dorsey Added to D9 Speaker Lineup

We've added Jack Dorsey, one of Silicon Valley's hottest entrepreneurs, to the D: All Things Digital conference stage.

He's now busy disrupting the online payments space with his Square start-up, and before that invented a little service called Twitter.

Heard of it?

Sarah Polley Aisha Tyler K. D. Aubert Sara Spraker Alexis Bledel

Viral Poster: "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part One"

Move along, nothing to see here, Twi-hards.

No, really--nothing.

Eliza Dushku Bonnie Jill Laflin Joanna Krupa Ashley Olsen Danneel Harris

Social Marketing Is the New Black: Efficient Frontier's Karnstedt and Context Optional's Barenblat Discuss

Efficient Frontier, the online performance marketing firm, paid $50 million for social marketing start-up Context Optional.

Here are both company's leaders talking about why and what's next.

Rebecca Mader Eva Green Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré

Late Afternoon Reading

Quite a few things added to my Instapaper today — This is what I will be reading on the way home tonight: ? Not a Flashy Investor, Just Successful (NYT) ? House to reject debt limit increase without cuts (BusinessWeek/AP) ? Five Questions on Tuesday?s� Case-Shiller (WSJ) see also New Blog from S&P/Case Shiller (Housing [...]

Ali Campoverdi Giuliana DePandi Pamela Anderson Amber Arbucci Christina Aguilera

Bad Share Day: Yahoo Stock Limp After Investor Day (and Google's Swiping of Its Ad Title)

Apparently, reassurances about its relationship with Chinese partner Alibaba Group and some lively presentations by top execs at a six-hour investor day yesterday did almost nothing for Yahoo shares.

Neither did a report showing Google unseating Yahoo as the display ad market leader.

Elena Lyons Brooke Burns Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie

Making Email More Productive As A SMB

It?s okay, you can say it. You hate email. It?s a giant time suck, it?s ineffective, and its constant disruptions make you feel chained to your desk. It?s enough to make anyone scream or, at least, hide from their email forever. But you don?t have to feel bad for not hitting ?inbox zero? any more. You can turn it around and make your email work for you again, because that?s what your email was designed to do. Don?t? let itRead More

From Small Business Trends

Making Email More Productive As A SMB

Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne Malia Jones Jennifer ODell

Viral Video: "3-Way (The Golden Rule)"

The cycle is now complete, with this very funny final check-in on Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg, a Saturday Night Live Digital Short titled "3-Way (The Golden Rule)."

Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West

House Prices: Will the March Case-Shiller indexes be at new post bubble lows?

Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt

Michelle Girard: End of QE2 Unlikely to Have Major Economic Impact

Harlan Levy submits:

Michelle Girard is a managing director and senior economist at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). She appears often on NBC, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox News.

Harlan Levy: What do the broad-based decline in durable goods orders, weak housing numbers, and job, unemployment, and jobless claim data indicate about the U.S. economy through next year?

Michelle Girard: We definitely have seen some disappointing economic reports in recent weeks. This has led many, including ourselves, to lower their expectations for growth in the second quarter. However, we always believed that the second quarter growth rate of the economy would disappoint, in part due to temporary factors.

In particular, we worried that the run-up in gasoline prices in the spring would restrain consumer spending and also that supply disruptions associated with the earthquake in Japan would lead to weaker manufacturing activity. That said, we still expect growth in the second half of

Complete Story »

Brittany Daniel Kate Moss Zhang Ziyi Nikki Reed Natasha Bedingfield

Exclusive: Zynga About to File for IPO

Zynga is poised to file for its initial public offering, according to sources close to the situation, as early as this week, or next week at the latest.

The San Francisco-based online gaming company's valuation in its last round of funding was $10 billion, but it is likely to price itself higher in an offering, given the recent series of strong IPOs for Internet companies.

Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle Blu Cantrell Jaime King

Blog Post: New Book: Microsoft Project 2010 Inside Out

We?re excited to announce that Teresa Stover?s Microsoft Project 2010 Inside Out (ISBN 9780735626874; 1320 pages) is now available for purchase!

In today?s post, please enjoy the complete Chapter 5, ?Scheduling Tasks Manually or Automatically.? New in Microsoft Project 2010 is the ability to choose whether a task is scheduled manually or automatically. By default, all new tasks are set for manual scheduling, although this default setting can easily be changed. Manually scheduled tasks can be switched to automatic scheduling, and vice versa. You can have a mixture of manually and automatically scheduled tasks within a project plan. Whether you schedule manually or automatically or use a mixture of both can depend largely on your project planning style, the development stage of the plan, and the complexity of your project.

CHAPTER 5 Scheduling Tasks Manually or Automatically

Some project managers want or need more scheduling control over their projects. That is, they want to be able to manually enter durations, start dates, and finish dates without having those entries recalculate other aspects of the schedule.

Other project managers need a scheduling engine that automatically calculates dates as soon as they enter or change task information. When they enter a task duration, they want the tool to figure the task?s finish date, and when they make a change, they don?t want to have to manually compute all the ripple effects throughout the schedule.

New in Microsoft Project 2010 is the ability to choose whether a task is scheduled manually or automatically. By default, all new tasks are set for manual scheduling, although this default setting can easily be changed. Manually scheduled tasks can be switched to automatic scheduling, and vice versa. You can have a mixture of manually and automatically scheduled tasks within a project plan. Whether you schedule manually or automatically or use a mixture of both can depend largely on your project planning style, the development stage of the plan, and the complexity of your project.

Controlling the scheduling yourself or letting Project 2010 calculate the schedule for you gives you the flexibility you need as a project manager. But with this flexibility, more awareness and responsibility are needed. Like many other choices you make in Project 2010, your selection of manual or automatic scheduling for some or all of your tasks can significantly affect how you use other aspects of Project 2010. Such issues will be pointed out where relevant in this chapter and throughout the book.

Manually Scheduling Tasks

With manually scheduled tasks?also known as user-controlled scheduling?when you type a task name, no duration, start date, or finish date is assumed or calculated for you by Project 2010. In fact, the Duration, Start, and Finish fields are blank. You are free to leave them blank until you have more information. You can enter a duration without dates. You can enter a start date without a finish date. You can even enter text in the Duration, Start, and Finish fields. (See Figure 5-1.)

Gantt Chart. If you enter two out of three bits of scheduling information?such as the

Manually scheduled task duration and finish date or the start and finish date?the task is marked with a pushpin ^iconicon. If you enter no scheduling information, or maybe just one bit?such as just the duration or just the start date?the task is marked with a pushpin icon with a question mark.

The chart area of the Gantt Chart also provides visual cues about the information entered for a manually scheduled task. (See Figure 5-2.) information

Figure 5-2 The Gantt Chart shows any manually scheduled information in the chart area.

Even for manually scheduled tasks, Project 2010 does do a little calculation, but it?s the calculation that Project assumes you want. As you can see, the three bits of scheduling information Project 2010 is looking for are duration, start date, and finish date. If you have any two of these three, Project 2010 extrapolates the third. That is, if you enter duration and start date, Project 2010 fills in the finish date. If you enter duration and finish date, the start date is provided for you. If you enter start and finish dates, Project 2010 fills in the duration.

Automatically Scheduling Tasks

If you have used previous versions of Microsoft Project, you?re already familiar with automatically scheduled tasks. When you type the name of a task that?s identified for automatic scheduling, the default estimated duration of 1 day is entered, the default start date is the same as the project start date, and the finish date is calculated from the start date and duration. (See Figure 5-3.)

The finish date is calculated from the start date and duration

The start date is the same as the project start date

The default estimated duration is one day

Figure 5-3 Default scheduling information is filled in for automatically scheduled tasks.

As you refine the durations, link tasks, and possibly enter date constraints or assign resources, Project 2010 calculates your schedule to reflect those controls.

Automatically scheduled tasks are marked with the Gantt bar icon in the Task Mode field of the Gantt Chart. You can also add this field to other sheet views when you need to distinguish Automatically between manually and automatically scheduled tasks.

scheduled task icon

The chart area of the Gantt Chart shows traditional Gantt bars in their default medium blue. This is in contrast with the various visual cues associated with a manually scheduled task, which might show a start date marker, a finish date marker, a duration, or some combination of the three in a variegated light blue (by default). (See Figure 5-4.)

Figure 5-4 By default, the Gantt bars of automatically scheduled tasks are medium blue without start or end markers.

Switching Task Scheduling Modes

By default, any new tasks added in Project 2010 are manually scheduled. You can easily convert a task to automatic scheduling. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the manually scheduled task you want to convert to automatic scheduling. A manually scheduled task is marked with the pushpin icon in the Task Mode column.

2. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Auto Schedule.

The task is converted to an automatically scheduled task. Any start or finish dates already entered are discarded. However, any durations are retained and used as part of the automatic scheduling calculation.

Auto Schedule

When you open a project file that was created in Microsoft Project 2007 or earlier, all tasks come in as automatically scheduled tasks, even if your default for new tasks is set to manually scheduled tasks. This occurs because Project 2007 and earlier versions have no option for manually scheduled tasks; all tasks are automatically scheduled. But just as in any project plan, you can convert an automatically scheduled task to a manually scheduled task, and vice versa.

To convert an automatically scheduled task to manual scheduling, follow these steps:

1. Select the automatically scheduled task you want to convert to manual scheduling.

An automatically scheduled task is marked with the Gantt bar icon in the Task Mode column.

2. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Manually Schedule.

The task is converted to a manually scheduled task. Any previously entered duration Schedule is retained, and any start or finish constraint dates are retained in the Start and Finish fields.

If you?re working in the Entry table of a task sheet (or any task table to which the Task Mode column has been added), you can also quickly switch a task between manual and automatic scheduling by clicking in the Task Mode field for the task. Click the arrow that appears, and then click Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled.

You can change multiple tasks to automatically or manually scheduled tasks at once. To select multiple adjacent tasks, click the first task, hold down the Shift key, and then click the last task. All tasks from the first to the last are selected. To select multiple nonadjacent tasks, click the first task, hold down the Ctrl key, and then click the other tasks. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Manually Schedule or Auto Schedule.

If you?re changing several attributes of one or more tasks, you can use the Task Information dialog box to also specify whether a task is manually or automatically scheduled. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Select the task(s) you want to change.

2. On the Task tab, in the Properties group, click Information.

The Task Information (or Multiple Task Information) dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-6.

Information

You can also simply double-click a single task to open the Task Information dialog box.

Figure 5-6Use the Task Information dialog box to change various properties of a task.

3. On the General tab, next to Schedule Mode, select Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled. Make any other changes you want, and then click OK. If you?re working with multiple tasks, not all fields are available for multiple update.

Changing Scheduling Defaults

Consider your scheduling style and your habits, and determine whether your default task mode should be manually scheduled or automatically scheduled tasks. If you?re fairly new to Microsoft Project, or if you have previously used Microsoft Excel to manage your projects, you might want to retain the manually scheduled task default.

However, if you?re an experienced Microsoft Project user, and if you like the way the scheduling engine automatically calculates and updates your schedule as you make changes, it would be most efficient for you to change the default task mode to automatic scheduling. You can change the default for new tasks added to an existing project plan, for new tasks in a newly created project plan, or for all new project plans.

Switching the Task Mode Default for New Tasks in a Plan

Suppose you?ve been working on a project plan, and you find that you keep changing the task mode from manual to automatic (or automatic to manual) scheduling. You can change the default for new tasks to your preferred task mode. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Mode.
2. A drop-down menu appears, showing the choice of Auto Schedule or Manually Schedule for new tasks. The current default is highlighted.
Click the task mode you want new tasks to adopt.

The button in the lower-left corner of the Project 2010 status bar shows the new default mode for this project plan. All new tasks are created in the task mode you select.

Switching the Task Mode Default for a New Project Plan

When you begin a new project plan, it?s a good time to decide whether your predominant task mode will be manual or automatic scheduling. To change the default task mode when you create a new project, follow these steps:

On the File tab, click New.
1. In the Available Templates window that appears, double-click Blank Project. The new blank project appears, along with a pop-up notification near the status bar
2. at the lower left of the screen. The notification indicates the default task mode; for example, ?New tasks are created in Manually Scheduled mode.?

If you want to keep the task mode shown in the notification, you don?t need to do anything. (The notification disappears after a few seconds.) If you want the other task mode, click the button on the status bar labeled New Tasks: Manually Scheduled or New Tasks: Auto Scheduled. In the menu that appears, click the task mode you want to use for new tasks in your new project.

Switching the Task Mode Default for All New Project Plans

You can change the task mode default for all new project plans. To do this, follow these steps:

On the File tab, click Options, and then click Schedule in the left pane.
In the box next to the section title labeled Scheduling Options For This Project, click All New Projects.
In the New Tasks Created box, choose how you want new tasks to be scheduled: Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled. (See Figure 5-7.)

Figure 5-7Change the project plan?s scheduling options if you want to switch the task mode default for all new project plans.

Click OK.
Be sure to click Save on the File tab to save the settings you just changed for all new projects. All tasks in any new project will be created in the selected task mode.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Whether a task is scheduled manually or automatically affects various aspects of scheduling; for example, setting durations, linking task dependencies, identifying start and finish dates, setting baselines, tracking progress, and more. The relevant chapters that cover these topics discuss the differences and how they can affect your task scheduling and overall project plan.

Brody Dalle Taryn Manning Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann

Monday, May 30, 2011

You Will Know Jack?Square CEO Dorsey Added to D9 Speaker Lineup

Lisa Marie Keira Knightley Monica Keena Anne Marie Kortright Paige Butcher

Blog Post: An�ncio - Implementa��o de mecanismo anti-fraude para compra de ofertas do Windows Azure por novos clientes.

Boa tarde a todos !

No dia 18/05/2011, o time do Windows Azure da Corp implementou um mecanismo anti-fraude para novos clientes (aqueles que se cadastram a partir do dia 18/05/2011) das ofertas do Windows Azure. Este mecanismo � global, sendo assim quaisquer novos clientes que foram adquirir uma oferta (Trial Offer, Consumption e Aceleradores) do Windows Azure passar� por este novo mecanismo. Clientes que j� usam Windows Azure n�o sofrem nenhuma a��o.

Para esclarecer para todos, seguem abaixo o fluxo do funcionamento e um FAQ que montei explicando o motivo/suporte/Brasil. Se voc� teve ou tem algum problema na aquisi��o de alguma oferta do Windows Azure, por favor, deixe um coment�rio no meu blog que responderei. Ou se preferir abra um suporte pelo site http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/support/contact/ e deixe um coment�rio com o n�mero do suporte.

Link oficial: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/05/23/fraud-prevention-measure-for-new-windows-azure-platform-accounts.aspx

Processo

1 ? Cliente seleciona a oferta adequada para ele (v�lido para todas as ofertas: Trial Offer, Consumption e aceleradores).

2 ? Realiza a compra atrav�s do portal MOCP (Microsoft Customer Portal)

3 ? Ao final da compra, o MOCP direcionar� para o portal do Windows Azureo

4 ? Sendo um novo cliente, ele dever� preencher o campo telefone com um n�mero de celular (Padr�o: (xx) XXXX-XXXX)

5 ? Ao preencher o n�mero, o usu�rio recebe um SMS com o seguinte formato

?C�digo de verifica��o do Windows Live: XXX
Visite sms.live.com para concluir a verifica��o.?

6 ? Preencha o campo o ?C�digo de verifica��o? com o n�mero apresentado no SMS.

7 ? Clique no bot�o ?Concluir?.

Ap�s esta etapa, quaisquer compras realizadas pelo mesmo cliente n�o precisar� passar pelo mecanismo anti-fraude.

FAQ

Por que implementaram este mecanismo?

Resp: Pelo pr�prio nome diz, � um mecanismo de anti-fraude para evitar que rob�s ou a��es n�o humanas possam tentar influenciar um processo de aquisi��o de uma oferta do Windows Azure. Garantindo assim a autenticidade do comprador e por fim garantir a sa�de do sistema de billing do MOCP.

Quando entrou em vigor este mecanismo?

Resp: O mecanismo entrou em vigor no dia 18/05/2011, para algumas regi�es atrasou um pouco mais ou menos para que mecanismo funcionasse de fato.

Quais os clientes afetados por este mecanismo ?

Resp: Somente novos clientes de Windows Azure que compraram alguma oferta do Windows Azure ap�s o dia 18/05/2011.

O mecanismo tem algum problema no Brasil?

Resp: At� o momento n�o foi registrado nenhum problema de funcionamento no mercado brasileiro. Lembrando que quem adquirir uma assinatura do Windows Azure deve usar um endere�o local e um telefone celular com c�digo de �rea v�lido em territ�rio nacional. Em caso de algum problema, veja a resposta para a pergunta ?Se um cliente tem algum problema, onde devemos recorrer??

Os clientes que j� vem usando ou compraram antes do dia 18/05/2011 ser�o afetados?

Resp: N�o, o mecanismo s� funciona para novos clientes que se cadastraram em alguma das ofertas dispon�veis. Clientes que j� vem usando Windows Azure ou adquiriram antes do dia 18/05/2011 n�o ser�o afetados.

Este mecanismo anti-fraude afeta que est� usando o Windows Azure Pass de 30 dias?

Resp: N�o. O mecanismo de anti-fraude funciona somente para um cliente que est� assinando uma oferta do Windows Azure (Trial Offer, Consumption e Aceleradores). O Windows Azure Pass de 30 dias n�o � uma oferta do Windows Azure, e sim um mecanismo de acelera��o para ado��o e convers�o de clientes para ofertas dispon�veis do Windows Azure.

Se um cliente tem algum problema, onde devemos recorrer?

Resp: Pe�a para o cliente abrir um suporte pelo site (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/support/contact/). Em m�dia o time de suporte de Windows Azure tem at� 2 dias �teis paa responder.

abs e T+
Cond�

vers�o 1.0

Michelle Branch Melissa Howard Samantha Mumba Busy Philipps Thora Birch

Blog Post: Logon request for CRM 2011 IFD is not redirected to CRM from the external Endpoint ADFS

Recently we were confronted with the following situation:

?Logon request for CRM 2011 IFD is not redirected to CRM from the external Endpoint ADFS.?

No further useful error messages.

This is because you are using an "-" or an "number" in the auth endpoint.

We could address this behavior, by creating a new DNS record named auth.yourcloud.de (and updating all host files):

Run through the IFD wizard in Deployment Manager and change the auth URL to auth.yourcloud.de
In ADFS, open the properties on the relying party for the external (IFD) CRM endpoint, then update the URL from auth-2.yourcloud.de (or auth2.yourcloud.de) to auth.yourcloud.de
Close the properties and right-click on the relying party and choose update federation metadata.

This information is also included in the new version of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Claims-based Authentication.doc, that is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9886ab96-3571-420f-83ad-246899482fb4

Note: Please always download the latest version of this document to be sure that you have all current know information.

More additional info:

AD FS 2.0 Content Map Wiki Page (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2735.aspx).

Hilary Swank Whitney Port Minka Kelly Carol Grow Erika Christensen

NASE Succeed Scholarship Helps Self Employed Further Their Education

In this economy, whatever you can do to get a leg up makes all the difference. For the self employed, it’s hard to compete on price or offerings, so sometimes it’s just being a little smarter than the competition that wins the business.

The National Association for the Self Employed (NASE) recognizes the importance that continuing education plays for small business owners, and to that effect, the organization is offering its Succeed Scholarship to members.

From Small Business Trends

NASE Succeed Scholarship Helps Self Employed Further Their Education

Rachel Blanchard Sienna Guillory Tricia Vessey Aki Ross Ashley Tappin

10 Kamikaze Tech Mergers of the 21st Century

For a time it seemed as if tech companies were the geese that not only laid golden eggs but also made those eggs into delicious omelets that could give people superpowers. Combining tech companies to breed even more successful geese can seem like... Read more

Kate Mara Izabella Scorupco Carla Campbell Penélope Cruz Kristen Bell

CafeMom Nabs Top Yahoo Sales Exec in New York

Ann Lundberg, a top sales exec at Yahoo's New York office, is joining CafeMom as head of sales. The five-year Yahoo veteran will focus on building the marketplace profile of the social-networking and community site aimed at mothers, which has recently expanded its offerings to daily deals, as well as announcing an anticipated launch of a site aimed at Hispanic moms.

Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan Brittny Gastineau

Top 5 Graphs of the Week: Japan, U.S., Monetary Policy in EM

Econ Grapher submits:

This week we look at some of the latest economic data coming out of Japan; noting a rare occurrence of positive inflation, and observing a further trade deficit in April. Then we look at some U.S. data, first checking in on the U.S. consumer sentiment index, and then a proxy for investor sentiment - long term mutual fund flows. Finally, the latest monetary policy interest rate decisions are covered-off.

1. Japan Inflation
As noted Japan recorded a rare positive inflation figure in April as consumer prices rose 0.3% on an annual basis, having sat at 0% for most of this year, while April 2010 saw deflation of -1.2%. A certain degree of the positive inflation figure can be attributed to temporary shortages brought about by the earthquake, but inflation had been in a mild upward trajectory anyway. Like the rest of the world, Japan had seen some impact from rising

Complete Story »

Lauren Bush Natalie Zea Brody Dalle Taryn Manning Nikki Cox

Sunday, May 29, 2011

My New Setup

cloud, productivity applications, mobile

Eva Longoria Susan Ward Emmy Rossum Kim Yoon jin Melania Trump

An Easy Options Trade to Capture Gains From Cisco's Tech Revitalization

Investment Underground submits:

Cisco Systems (CSCO) shares have stepped down a flight of stairs, with drops of 5% or more on August 11, November 10, 2010 and February 9, 2011, respectively. In the last few months, Cisco has maintained its characteristic M&A binge, buying NewScale, Inlet Technologies, and Pari Networks. The company has been one of a few tech giants to initiate a dividend. After a pop following the dividend announcement, shares have ebbed lower towards the 52-week low at $16.11. Concerns surround Cisco's ability to revitalize growth and shed lower-margin businesses in which the company has involved itself.

While hot social media company names are dominating the headlines, we think Cisco offers a compelling value play. We think CEO John Chambers has a good shot at turning around the company and getting Cisco's growth engine revving again. Shares have been weak as of late, but a return to its core focus should

Complete Story »

Amber Valletta Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil

VC Firm Jobs Page

VC firms typically don't hire very many people. But our portfolio companies sure do. So what you typically see when you go to a VC firm's website is a jobs page that showcases jobs from their portfolio companies. USV's jobs...

Luján Fernández Charli Baltimore Denise Richards Jennifer Sky Samantha Mathis

LinkedIn Will Price at $45 a Share (Yes, That Would Be a $4.5B Valuation)

According to a press release about to post, LinkedIn will price its shares at $45 each in its IPO tomorrow.

The price, at the top of its range, will give the Silicon Valley business networking company a $4.5 billion valuation.

Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne Malia Jones Jennifer ODell

Video: Omniture Founder Josh James Talks About $10M Funding of Hot Start-Up?and Hotter Legal Cat Fight With Adobe

Earlier this week, I headed over to a fancy hotel dining room in San Francisco to meet with Josh James, the founder of the Web analytics powerhouse Omniture, to hear about his latest still-unnamed venture and its big, new $10 million seed round announced tonight.

And also, the entrepreneur's even bigger legal fight with Adobe, which bought Omniture for $1.8 billion a year ago.

Michelle Malkin Charlies Angels Rose Byrne Willa Ford Desiree Dymond

Hedging the ETF Volume Leaders

David Pinsen submits:

The table below shows the costs, as of Friday's close, of hedging 19 of the 20 ETFs with the highest trading volume, against greater-than-20% declines over the next several months. The model uses the optimal puts for that. First, a reminder about why I've used 20% as a decline threshold, and what optimal puts mean in this context, plus an explanation of why there were no optimal puts for one of these ETFs.

Decline Thresholds

The idea for a 20% threshold, as I've mentioned before, comes from a comment fund manager John Hussman made in a market commentary in October 2008:

An intolerable loss, in my view, is one that requires a heroic recovery simply to break even ? a short-term loss of 20%, particularly after the market has become severely depressed, should not be at all intolerable to long-term investors because such losses are generally reversed in the first

Complete Story »

Adrianne Curry Jennifer Gimenez Katie Cassidy Estella Warren Cinthia Moura

Blog Post: Case Study: Travelocity moves to the Windows Azure Platform

Windows Azure is the PaaS offering from Microsoft and adoption has been on the rise in markets where it is offered. I am pleased to share with you the details in the form of the Travelocity case study and video which have been published by the Cloud and Server Team. This is simply one out of many case studies published. Please visit www.windowsazure.com/evidence to see what other customers and partners are doing with Windows Azure.

Here is a quick snippet of the Travelocity move:

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Travel Services

Customer Profile

Founded in 1996, Travelocity provides online end-to-end travel offerings—including reservations for flights, hotels, and cars, plus destination information—to customers around the world.

Business Situation

The company’s Product Management Team requested that Travelocity collect website metrics on customer shopping patterns. It decided to deploy the application in the cloud to avoid burdening its own data center.

Solution

Travelocity chose the Windows Azure platform to host its business intelligence and analysis system. Within two months, it has moved its Java application to the cloud.

Benefits

Reduces costs
Improves customer experience
Scales to meet demand
Speeds time-to-market
Enables flexible development

Products

Windows Azure
Windows Server 2008 R2

Kristin Kreuk Molly Sims Monika Kramlik Lacey Chabert Amber Brkich

10 Celebrities Who Got Burned By Identity Thieves

The scariest thing about identity theft is how easy it can be for someone to be impersonated. A quick root through the weekly garbage can sometimes be all that a con artist needs to take on the identity of an innocent victim and rack up debt in... Read more

Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale Shiri Appleby Kelly Hu

Blog Post: ASP.NET Session modes explained

Check out my latest post on ASP.NET Session modes explained on my new blog on Programming Interviews Series.

Tricia Vessey Aki Ross Ashley Tappin Carmen Electra Amanda Marcum

Saturday, May 28, 2011

10 Kamikaze Tech Mergers of the 21st Century

Melania Trump Summer Glau Mía Maestro Virginie Ledoyen Lindsay Lohan

Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 997 Institutions

Carol Grow Erika Christensen Emilie de Ravin Tara Reed Avril Lavigne

PowerShares Adds Convertible Securities ETF to Lineup

Ron Rowland submits:

The PowerShares Convertible Securities Portfolio (CVRT) was listed for trading yesterday (5/26/11), becoming the second ETF targeting convertibles. Convertible securities are bonds that the holder can convert into shares of common stock of the issuer. This feature tends to make them more correlated than non-convertible bonds to stock market movements.

CVRT will try to mimic the performance of the BofA Merrill Lynch All U.S. Convertibles Index, which is designed to track the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated investment grade and non-investment grade convertible securities sold into the U.S. market and publicly traded in the United States.

Unfortunately, the PowerShares website does not provide any sector or country allocation data for either the fund or the underlying index. Convertible bond funds have historically been overweight the technology sector. This is something that potential investors should be aware of, and it is a major reason why this missing information is not just desirable,

Complete Story »

Veronica Kay Mýa Natalie Imbruglia Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison

15 Controversial Pulled Ads

Share Ads are often meant to provoke the viewer (think baby-faced Brooke Shields with nothing between her and her Calvins) but sometimes viewers feel a little too provoked. Here is a list of fifteen controversial advertisements that... Read more

Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Blog Post: Como desabilitar o SSLv2 e o PCT v1 no IIS6 e IIS7.x

J� faz algum tempo que se sabe que o protocolo SSL v2 � suscet�vel a ataques do tipo ?man-in-the-middle?. Mas a menos tempo as empresas especializadas em testes de intrus�o come�aram a fazer testes e colocar este protocolo na ?lista negra? das vulnerabilidades pelo qual o seu web site pode ser atacado.

Recentemente montei um pequeno laborat�rio para desabilitar estes protocolos no Windows 2003, Windows 2008 e Windows 2008 R2, a pedido de um cliente. A melhor forma de fazer isso nestas vers�es do Windows � atrav�s do Schannel. O Schannel � um Security Support Provider utilizado no Windows por aplica��es de Internet (como o IIS) que necessitam comunica��es seguras via HTTP. O Schannel oferece autentica��o e comunica��es seguras e privadas atrav�s do uso de criptografia.

O procedimento consiste em remover da lista de protocolos permitidos pelo Schannel aqueles que s�o considerados fatores de risco, ou que apresentem vulnerabilidades conhecidas. Dessa forma, o SSL v2.0, o PCT 1.0 e as cifras de 40bits e 56bits devem ser desabilitadas. Os passos est�o descritos a seguir:

Windows 2003:

No Windows 2003/IIS6, o protocolo SSLv2 est� habilitado, juntamente com o PCT 1.0.
Neste caso, o procedimento recomendado para desabilitar estes procotolos e tamb�m as cifras de 40 e 56bits � o seguinte:

Crie um arquivo .REG com o seguinte conte�do:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Protocols\Multi-Protocol Unified Hello\Server]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Protocols\PCT 1.0\Server]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 3.0\Server]
"Enabled"=dword:ffffffff
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server]
"Enabled"=dword:ffffffff
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\DES 56/56]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\NULL]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC2 128/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC2 40/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC2 56/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 128/128]
"Enabled"=dword:ffffffff
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 40/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 56/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 64/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\
SCHANNEL\Ciphers\Triple DES 168/168]
"Enabled"=dword:ffffffff

Aplique ent�o este arquivo nos servidores IIS6 e em seguida reinicie os mesmos. Para testar se o protocolo foi desabilitado pode ser utilizado o utilit�rio WFETCH, que � parte do IIS6 Resource Kit.

Windows 2008 e Windows 2008 R2:

No Windows 2008 e Windows 2008 R2 o protocolo SSL v2.0 est� habilitado, mas o protocolo PCT 1.0 j� est� desabilitado por padr�o. Tamb�m n�o h� cifras com 40 ou 56 bits habilitadas. De qualquer forma a mesma configura��o utilizada no Windows 2003 pode ser aplicada no Windows 2008.

Assim, basta criar um arquivo .REG com o seguinte conte�do:

Uma outra forma de desabilitar o uso do protocolo SSL v2 no Windows 2008 e Windows 2008 R2 � explicitamente desabilitar as seguints cifras:

SSL_CK_RC4_128_WITH_MD5,
SSL_CK_DES_192_EDE3_CBC_WITH_MD5

Para isso basta seguir os procedimentos sugeridos no artigo:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/amol/archive/2010/04/27/how-to-disable-ssl-2-0-in-internet-information-services-7.aspx

substituindo os valores padr�o a seguir:

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256,TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256,TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA,TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA_P384,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA_P256,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA_P384,
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256,
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA,
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256,
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA,
TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5,
SSL_CK_RC4_128_WITH_MD5,SSL_CK_DES_192_EDE3_CBC_WITH_MD5,
TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA256,TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA

Por este novo conjunto de cifras:

Adicionalmente, � recomendado que os websites configurados nos servidores IIS7.x sejam configurados para n�o permitir o uso de cifras fracas (40bits e 56bits). Para isso, utilizando o Internet Information Services Manager, selecione o website a ser configurado, e no painel de navega��o selecione "SSL Settings". Em seguida, configure o site para requerer o uso de cifras de 128bits (marque o checkbox "Require 128-bit SSL"). A figura a seguir ilustra a configura��o necess�ria:

Conclus�es

Este procedimento ir� desabilitar o protocolo SSL v2.0 e PCT v1.0 removendo-os da lista dos protocolos permitidos no Schannel. Ao se remover os protocolos SSL v2.0 e PCT v1.0 da lista de protocolos permitidos no Schannel, o servidor Web IIS n�o ser� mais capaz de estabelecer canais de comunica��o utilizando os mesmos, dessa forma evitando que vulnerabilidades conhecidas sejam exploradas. Contudo, clientes antigos ou propriet�rios que n�o implementem os protocolos restantes (com o SSL v3.0 ou o TLS 1.0) n�o conseguir�o mais ter acesso ao servidor. Cabe a voc� avaliar se h� aplica��es que dependam dos protocolos desabilitados, e o consequente impacto para o seu neg�cio ao se tomar esta a��o.

Refer�ncias:

Cipher Suites in Schannel:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374757(VS.85).aspx

Schannel Cipher Suites in Windows Vista:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff468651(v=VS.85).aspx

How to disable SSL 2.0 in Internet Information Services 7:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/amol/archive/2010/04/27/how-to-disable-ssl-2-0-in-internet-information-services-7.aspx

How to disable PCT 1.0, SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, or TLS 1.0 in Internet Information Services:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=187498

Prioritizing Schannel Cipher Suites:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb870930(VS.85).aspx

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ATD Invades Groupon's Chicago HQ (Video)

Last week, my partner-in-crime-and-bloggery, Walt Mossberg, and I were in Chicago for a Wall Street Journal event, so we took the opportunity to visit the global HQ of Groupon there.

The social buying company has been going like gangbusters over the last year, both in terms of valuation and growth.

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Fear Replacing Overriding Bullish Sentiment

Wall Street Strategies submits:

By Brian Sozzi

It wouldn't be an appropriate start to a long holiday weekend on Wall Street without that last data release to leave you thinking. Today it was the turn of the personal income and spending report for April to try and re-inject some animal spirits back into risk assets. Let's face it, with a 10-year note yield nearing 3% and at its December low, it's obvious that fear has replaced overriding bullish sentiment. Unfortunately, today's deep dive into the income and spending data lends support to the chorus of newly minted bears, while sending the second half economic growth recovery bulls into a hot -tempered fit as they prepare to light their BBQs this weekend.

Key Areas of the Report:

Personal income: A 0.4% m/m growth in April, marked the third consecutive month of stagnation. Interestingly, the S&P 500 began to sell off upon the release of the

Complete Story »

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Blog Post: Understanding Quorum in a Failover Cluster by Symon Perriman

Hi Cluster Fans,

This blog post will clarify planning considerations around quorum in a Failover Cluster and answer some of the most common questions we hear.

The quorum configuration in a failover cluster determines the number of failures that the cluster can sustain while still remaining online. If an additional failure occurs beyond this threshold, the cluster will stop running. A common perception is that the reason why the cluster will stop running if too many failures occur is to prevent the remaining nodes from taking on too many workloads and having the hosts be overcommitted. In fact, the cluster does not know your capacity limitations or whether you would be willing to take a performance hit in order to keep it online. Rather quorum is design to handle the scenario when there is a problem with communication between sets of cluster nodes, so that two servers do not try to simultaneously host a resource group and write to the same disk at the same time. This is known as a “split brain” and we want to prevent this to avoid any potential corruption to a disk my having two simultaneous group owners. By having this concept of quorum, the cluster will force the cluster service to stop in one of the subsets of nodes to ensure that there is only one true owner of a particular resource group. Once nodes which have been stopped can once again communicate with the main group of nodes, they will automatically rejoin the cluster and start their cluster service.

For more information about quorum in a cluster, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731739.aspx.

Voting Towards Quorum

Having ‘quorum’, or a majority of voters, is based on voting algorithm where more than half of the voters must be online and able to communicate with each other. Because a given cluster has a specific set of nodes and a specific quorum configuration, the cluster will know how many "votes" constitutes a majority of votes, or quorum. If the number of voters drop below the majority, the cluster service will stop on the nodes in that group. These nodes will still listen for the presence of other nodes, in case another node appears again on the network, but the nodes will not begin to function as a cluster until the quorum exists again.

It is important to realize that the cluster requires more than half of the total votes to achieve quorum. This is to avoid having a ‘tie’ in the number of votes in a partition, since majority will always mean that the other partition has less than half the votes. In a 5-node cluster, 3 voters must be online; yet in a 4-node cluster, 3 voters must also be online to have majority. Because of this logic, it is recommended to always have an odd number of total voters in the cluster. This does not necessarily mean an odd number of nodes is needed since both a disk or a file share can contribute a vote, depending on the quorum model.

A voter can be:

A node
- 1 Vote
- Every node in the cluster has 1 vote
A “Disk Witness” or “File Share Witness”
- 1 Vote
- Either 1 Disk Witness or 1 File Share Witness may have a vote in the cluster, but not multiple disks, multiple file shares nor any combination of the two

Quorum Types

There are four quorum types. This information is also available here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731739.aspx#BKMK_choices.

Node Majority

This is the easiest quorum type to understand and is recommended for clusters with an odd number of nodes (3-nodes, 5-nodes, etc.). In this configuration, every node has 1 vote, so there is an odd number of total votes in the cluster. If there is a partition between two subsets of nodes, the subset with more than half the nodes will maintain quorum. For example, if a 5-node cluster partitions into a 3-node subset and a 2-node subset, the 3-node subset will stay online and the 2-node subset will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 nodes.

Node & Disk Majority

This quorum configuration is most commonly used since it works well with 2-node and 4-node clusters which are the most common deployments. This configuration is used when there is an even number of nodes in the cluster. In this configuration, every node gets 1 vote, and additionally 1 disk gets 1 vote, so there is generally an odd number of total votes.

This disk is called the Disk Witness (sometimes referred to as the ‘quorum disk’) and is simply a small clustered disk which is in the Cluster Available Storage group. This disk is highly-available and can failover between nodes. It is considered part of the Cluster Core Resources group, however it is generally hidden from view in Failover Cluster Manager since it does not need to be interacted with.

Since there are an even number of nodes and 1 addition Disk Witness vote, in total there will be an odd number of votes. If there is a partition between two subsets of nodes, the subset with more than half the votes will maintain quorum. For example, if a 4-node cluster with a Disk Witness partitions into a 2-node subset and another 2-node subset, one of those subsets will also own the Disk Witness, so it will have 3 total votes and will stay online. The 2-node subset will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 voters. This means that the cluster can lose communication with any two voters, whether they are 2 nodes, or 1 node and the Witness Disk.

Node & File Share Majority

This quorum configuration is usually used in multi-site clusters. This configuration is used when there is an even number of nodes in the cluster, so it can be used interchangeably with the Node and Disk Majority quorum mode. In this configuration every node gets 1 vote, and additionally 1 remote file share gets 1 vote.

This file share is called the File Share Witness (FSW) and is simply a file share on any server in the same AD Forest which all the cluster nodes have access to. One node in the cluster will place a lock on the file share to consider it the ‘owner’ of that file share, and another node will grab the lock if the original owning node fails. On a standalone server, the file share by itself is not highly-available, however the file share can also put on a clustered file share on an independent cluster, making the FSW clustered and giving it the ability to fail over between nodes. It is important that you do not put this vote on a node in the same cluster, nor within a VM on the same cluster, because losing that node would cause you to lose the FSW vote, causing two votes to be lost on a single failure. A single file server can host multiple FSWs for multiple clusters.

Generally multi-site clusters have two sites with an equal number of nodes at each site, giving an even number of nodes. By adding this additional vote at a 3^rd site, there is an odd number of votes in the cluster, at very little expense compared to deploying a 3^rd site with an active cluster node and writable DC. This means that either site or the FSW can be lost and the cluster can still maintain quorum. For example, in a multi-site cluster with 2 nodes at Site1, 2 nodes at Site2 and a FSW at Site3, there are 5 total votes. If there is a partition between the sites, one of the nodes at a site will own the lock to the FSW, so that site will have 3 total votes and will stay online. The 2-node site will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 voters.

Legacy: Disk Only

Important: This quorum type is not recommended as it has a single point of failure.

The Disk Only quorum type was available in Windows Server 2003 and has been maintained for compatibility reasons, however it is strongly recommended to never use this mode unless directed by a storage vender. In this mode, only the Disk Witness contains a vote and there are no other voters in the cluster. This means that if the disk becomes unavailable, the entire cluster will offline, so this is considered a single point of failure. However some customers choose to deploy this configuration to get a “last man standing” configuration where the cluster remain online, so long as any one node is still operational and can access the cluster disk. However, with this deployment objective, it is important to consider whether that last remaining node can even handle the capacity of all the workloads that have moved to it from other nodes.

Default Quorum Selection

When the cluster is created using Failover Cluster Manager, Cluster.exe or PowerShell, the cluster will automatically select the best quorum type for you to simplify the deployment. This choice is based on the number of nodes and available storage. The logic is as follows:

Odd Number of Nodes – use Node Majority
- Even Number of Nodes
  - Available Cluster Disks – use Node & Disk Majority
  - No Available Cluster Disk – use Node Majority

The cluster will never select Node and File Share Majority or Legacy: Disk Only. The quorum type is still fully configurable by the admin if the default selections are not preferred.

Changing Quorum Types

Changing the quorum type is easy through Failover Cluster Manager. Right-click on the name of the cluster, select More Actions…, then select Configure Cluster Quorum Settings… to launch the Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard. From the wizard it is possible to configure all 4 quorum types, change the Disk Witness or File Share Witness. The wizard will even tell you the number of failures that can be sustained based on your configuration.

For a step-by-step guide of configuring quorum, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733130.aspx.

Thanks!
Symon Perriman
Technical Evangelist
Private Cloud Technologies
Microsoft

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Blog Post: Ramblings from TechEd 2011: More on the Cloud

Last week I attended TechEd 2011, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia at the World Congress Center. It was quite the conference, with over 10,000 attendees and 465 sessions. In true content-blasting fashion, C9 has done an amazing job at very quickly getting the sessions online for your perusal and learning. If you could not get there, grab a coffee and wander through the offerings here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica.

One of my key ramblings of late has been the integration of SharePoint and Windows Azure, and of course TechEd provided me with an opportunity to talk a little more about this growing area. I say growing because there?s a lot of interest in Windows Azure but people are still getting started with the development side of things when applied to SharePoint 2010. So, when you put these two together you?re at the beginning of a steep tipping point. With that in mind, I?m continuing to work with more companies that are building across these two technologies (e.g. Commvault and Nintex) and am continuing to see a growing interest from people as these two technologies come closer together.

To help with this, last week MSPress (via O?Reilly) released 2,000 free 3-chapter teasers of the forthcoming Developing Microsoft SharePoint Applications using Windows Azure. What was great last week was that I actually got a chance to meet a bucket-load of folks who picked up a copy at the MSPress booth while there. A shout-out to all of you who came by and chatted with us at the booth. We?re in final production, and with MSPress?s new publishing process the final book should be ready for you in mid- to late June, so I?m really looking forward to getting it out there for you to read and use.

As a complement to the book, we also published a SharePoint and Windows Azure developer kit. The goal of the kit was to help supplement the book and give you even more code samples and walkthrough guidance to get started developing with these two technologies.You can download the kit here. We?ll be revving the kit and releasing another version at the Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

The cloud is an important part of our future at Microsoft, and this was loud and clear at TechEd 2011. From the keynote to the foundation sessions through to the break-out sessions and beyond, the cloud was an important theme that cut through the week. And while you can browse the session list above for your favorite sessions, here are a few that focus on IW and cloud that I thought you might be interested in:

Building Your First Windows Phone Application for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 ? Paul Stubbs.
Integrating Microsoft SharePoint with Windows Azure ? Steve Fox
Integrating Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM ? Girish Raja
Developing Microsoft Business Solutions that Span the PC, Windows Phone and the Web ? Donovan Follette and Steve Hansen
Advanced SharePoint Data Access with Microsoft Silverlight ? Paul Stubbs and Scot Hillier
SAP Interoperability with Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint, BCS and Microsoft Office 2010 ? Donovan Follette
Developing Collaboration Solutions in the Cloud with SharePoint Online ? Chris Mayo
Taking Office to the Cloud: Integrating Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows Azure ? Steve Fox
Developing Powerful Workflows in the Cloud with Microsoft SharePoint Online ? Chris Mayo

The above represent just a handful of sessions that had something to do with SharePoint/Office and the cloud. There are obviously a ton more, so you?ll want to review the C9 sessions online on your own.

One interactive session we did, but was not recorded, was one that talked to integrating Windows Phone 7, SharePoint and Windows Azure. (We even discussed how the patterns could apply to other devices such as iPad, iPhone, Android, and any WCF-conversant language/device.) I?ve embedded the deck here, so you can at least see what Paul, Donovan and I covered (which were 5 different patterns that show how to integrate these technologies). Expect more to come soon, and expect to hear about developer kits and sample code to get you started.

Well, I think that?s about it for now. I have more information and code samples I want to get up on my blog, and given it?s a long weekend there?s a good chance that they?ll finally make it up there.

Happy coding, and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Steve

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Consumer Sentiment increases in May, Pending Home Sales decline sharply

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