System Center was voted at TechEd North America this year as the Best Microsoft Product. At TechEd NA 2012, System Center 2012 SP1 CTP2 was announced, there are many exciting new features coming up with CTP2. There is a recorded session from TechEd NA on Channel 9 covering what is new in SP1 http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/VIR201 Below is list of key new features. All components now support Windows Server 2012 RC and SQL Server 2012. ...

[caption id=“attachment_9745” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Tim Berners Lee, is a computer scientist who invented the worldwide web. With Robert Cailliau, he sent the first HTTP communication between client and server. He has a first class degree in Physics and is a MIT professor. Credits: Wikipedia”][/caption] Bill Gates and Steve Jobs might have made it fashionable to be in the technology business and inspired a new generation of tech entrepreneurs, but Computer Science was not regarded as discipline that required a specific school to teach until recently. Back in the 70s, you wouldn’t say that “I have a degree in Computer Science.” A much closer reality would be “l took courses that were compsci-related in the math, engineering, physics departments.” On most university campuses, CS grew out of mathematics or engineering departments. Now that a few of our dear interns at Microsoft are about to embark on their university life come August, I start to wonder, when was the first Computer Science degree first introduced in Singapore and how has it evolved? Here’s a slice of history from Singapore: [caption id=“attachment_9741” align=“alignnone” width=“600” caption=“The old block of NUS’ School of Computing before it moved to the new building in 2008.”][/caption] The first university to introduce a computer science related degree is the National University of Singapore. The School of Computing originated from the time before Singapore University and Nanyang University merged to form NUS. Back then it was known as the Department of Computer Science. After the merger in 1980, The department became the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) within the National University of Singapore. It became a fully fledged faculty—the School of Computing—on 1 July 1998, comprising the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Information Systems. [caption id=“attachment_9755” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“NUS School of Computing now occupies a swanky new building, smack in the middle of Arts and Business, where there are more females around. Photo Credit: Wikipedia”][/caption] The School has about 2,000 students and it’s comp sci department offers 4 degree programs and interesting research programs such as the Turing Program (named after Alan M. Turing who provided the first model of algorithm and computation - the Universal Turing Machine-that allowed us to analyse what a computer can and cannot do) and the von Neumann program (named after John von Neumann who created the von Neumann architecture -that became the standard of computer architecture) ! The rise of tech entrepreneurship and growth of “hacker culture” is also very prominent amongst NUS SoC students. NUS Hackers has been organising many talks and weekly meetings called Friday “Hacks” that include one or two technical talks, followed by a hacking session. [caption id=“attachment_9754” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“NTU’s School of Computer Engineering, Photo Credit to, Li Xiaowei.”][/caption] ...

[caption id=“attachment_9707” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Darth Vader and Storm Trooper playing out Dance Central 2, Kinect had a hard time detecting his costume”][/caption] Microsoft Singapore was part of Echelon 2012 to promote our upcoming Windows 8 developer program Dream Build Launch. We had a great time showing audiences the brand new version of Windows 8 [Release Preview]. Word of our booth spread far beyond Earth and we were soon visited by Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers who were curious of the new Metro interface Here are some more images of their visit: [caption id=“attachment_9716” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Darth Vader and Storm troopers figuring out Windows 8”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_9718” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Fruit Ninja Vader - unfortunately being ruthless henchman of Emperor Palpatine doesn’t help you with a high score”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_9708” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Darth Vader and his team with Windows 8 and the DPE (Developer and Platform Evangelism) team!”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_9722” align=“alignnone” width=“610” caption=“Final Pose with Windows 8”][/caption] Thank you for liking our page and keeping in touch with us! We hope to see you around and remember to check out our Windows 8 developer program Dream Build Launch. See ya!

There were a lot of coverage on the robust power of System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V in Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2012 and you might have missed it since the announcements happened during our sleeping hours. Not to worry because we got good news for you! Microsoft Singapore is bringing the best of MMS 2012, Microsoft Cloud Summit 2012, to you this July. In this event you’ll learn about the evolving role of IT as cloud innovator and get a better understanding of what Private Cloud is all about. It will be a day jam packed with learning opportunities that will help you accelerate your career and solve today’s most challenging technical problems while preparing for tomorrow’s innovation. Below is the event details: Date: 4 July 2012 Time: 9am - 5pm (registration starts from 8.30am) Venue: Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel 392 Havelock Road Singapore 169663 Grand Ballroom, Level 4 Who Should Attend: ...

Join us at this special SQL User Group event in collaboration with BigData.SG User Group, an Analytics and Real Time Computing Community of Singapore. To find out more about BigData.SG User Group, do visit http://www.bigdata.sg/ Often, when companies speak of “big data” it implies the need for a strategy for dealing with large quantities of data. Join us in this session and hear about Microsoft and its Big Data vision and strategy. William Tay, Principal, Application Platform, Microsoft Singapore will show how to unlock business insights from all your structured and unstructured data, including large volumes of data not previously activated, with Microsoft’s Big Data solution. Microsoft’s end-to-end roadmap for Big Data embraces Apache Hadoop™ by distributing enterprise class Hadoop based solutions on both Windows Server and Windows Azure. Our solution is also integrated into the Microsoft BI tools such as SQL Server Analysis Services, Reporting Services and even PowerPivot and Excel. This enables you to do BI on all your data, including those in Hadoop. Xavier Conort will be talking about Data Analysis competitions on Kaggle. Xavier is currently ranked #2 worldwide on Kaggle! http://www.kaggle.com/users/17379/gxav-xavier-conort Details of the event: Day/Date: Tuesday, 19th June 2012 Time: 1830pm - 2130pm Buffet Dinner will be provided at 1830pm – 1900pm Venue: One Marina Boulevard, NTUC Center, #21-00 The BigData.SG User Group will also be trying something new and interspersing the presentations with a few lightening talks from BigData.SG members in attendance. Lightening talks are 1-5 minute talks that summarize a topic. Pick something that’s interesting to you: a book you read, an algorithm you learned, a project you are working on–and share! It’s very informal and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great way for the other members to know about cool and interesting things you have stumbled upon! RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/318172111600955/ Website: http://www.bigdata.sg Google News Group: https://groups.google.com/group/bigdatasg/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigdatasg/ See you at the event!

Windows Server and System Center forms the platform of Microsoft Private Cloud. One of the key capabilities that System Center 2012 delivers is heterogeneous management. You are empowered to manage different hardware, three major hypervisors in the market, different flavor of Enterprise grade OS, and different apps. I always got asked how System Center 2012 manages VMWare environment. While here is a quick Demo video that I made to show you how System Center 2012 can do. I showed two key capabilties ...

If you’re a member of LinkedIn, Last.fm or eHarmony, it might be a good idea to immediately change your password. In case you haven’t heard, these three sites have been the latest social networks to suffer from massive security breaches, thanks to an alleged Russian hacker leaking their databases of passwords. Given the pervasive trend of people using one password across platforms, these successions of leaks might severely impact the privacy strength of all your online accounts. Go reset your LinkedIn password here. Then, if you’re curious, find out if it was one of the 6.5 million passwords leaked here. Online security has always been an important part of any open network, despite the often ridiculous lengths IT departments will go to in order to ensure that users choose a strong passkey. Here are some tips to beef up your own passwords. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcG7ftYMObA[/youtube] Sadly, this has happened to me too many times to count. Don’t be lazy This may sound obvious and cliched, but stay away from things like “Password1” or “letmein”. You’d be surprised how many people still use them, as seen from SplashData’s recent study on the most-used passwords of 2011. According to its CEO Morgan Slain, the list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. In descending order, they are: ...

Does automating the compliance management of your desktop, virtualized, and private cloud environments sounds good? I’m talking about the new evolution of the Microsoft Security Compliance Management tools series- SCM 2.5 is now available for download! Besides the key features from the previous version, SCM 2.5 offers new baselines for Exchange Server (2007 and 2010) and several updated client product baselines! SCM now enables you to quickly configure and manage computers and your private cloud using Group Policy and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. Here are the key features in SCM 2.5: ...

Microsoft just announced Windows Azure preview capabilities in a blog post from Bill Laing and a feature article on the Microsoft News Center. I am all excited about this preview capabilities especially capabilities to create Linux VM and Website. I just login my Azure account and created a WordPress Blog within 2 minutes. Here is how. I login to the Azure manage portal, activate the preview feature under Account. There I get to see the new Azure management portal. Go to website services and select create a website. There are options of creating website, VM, and storage etc. I select Web site -> From Gallery. I just choose BLOGS and select WordPress. Of course there are other options like ECOMMERCE, FORUMS, and CMS as shown in below. It will go ahead and install WordPress, then prompt me for some basic information like site title. Admin name and password. Once it is done, and I have my WordPress ready. I can then go in and install themes and plugin just like any other WordPress site.

It used to be that the only people who actively used image filters in the past were those who either knew their Javascript or had some basic working knowledge of Photoshop. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNsI9g_eiyU[/youtube] Or you can use Photoshop to create Instagram filters, the slow and painful way! With the recent advent of filter-applying applications, there has been a surge of social media-savvy folk who easily share automatically-enhanced photos of their friends, their meals and random cats with the touch of a button. The emotional appeal such apps like Instagram garnered also play a significant role in technological exclusivity and social status, demonstrated most clearly with the uproar by iOS users once an Android version of the app was released. Because only Apple users should have the honour of uploading heavily-filtered photos of sunsets. Taken from: http://www.darcyeden.com/posts/2011/7/26/sunset-sloans-lake.html After Facebook recently bought Instagram for a billion dollars, it’s easy to see how software with a focus on user-editing seems to be the way to go for the social networking industry. It’s true - the subject most people are interested in tend to be themselves, a trait likely to encourage more narcissistic forms of personal software, unfortunately. Below, you will find a slideshow of some images. Can you tell which ones are authentic (i.e. no enhanced filters) and which ones have been Instagram-ed? [SlideDeck id=‘9476’ width=‘100%’ height=‘300px’] It might surprise you to know that only Photo 3 has been digitally altered. All the rest are un-retouched, albeit old, polaroids. Maybe it’s time to reconsider that photography course, eh? Photos taken from: http://www.flickriver.com/groups/55453478@N00/pool/interesting/ http://rockinonphotography.blogspot.sg/2011/05/unenhanced-vs-enhanced-photos.html