LiveSide - News blog : Windows Live Platform

Join the Angus Logan Fan Club

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:44:00 GMT

Apparently our pal Angus spends so much time working and gets so little love that he’s been reduced to starting his own fan club. He can’t even get any love from cool new Cuil. (We’re even mean to him here at LiveSide, although he was kinda harsh about it). We kinda feel sorry for the guy, even though he kicked butt at TechReady, and except for another kick-ass speech by Ray Ozzie, sounds like poor Angus might have stolen the show. But the good news is that PDC sounds like it’s going to be great, and by then Angus may even have a fan or two! I love, I hate, I believe was a theme of Ozzie’s speech, and he had the Softies wowing and believing, even asking “Bill, who?”. So if you have a Facebook account, give our friend Angus a little love, willya? He needs all the love he can get, poor guy.

(c'mon, who wouldn't be a fan?)

Danny Thorpe rejoins Microsoft

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:20:02 GMT

Danny Thorpe, “Architect of Disruption” has rejoined Microsoft after leaving last year to work with Cooliris. Thorpe (who has his own Wikipedia page!) joined Microsoft in the Windows Live Platform team in April of 2006, working on “a secure client-side cross-domain scripting libraryfor browser web apps, as well as the Windows Live Contacts Control built upon that library”. We talked to Danny and Angus Logan about the Windows Live Platform last September, shortly before he left to join Cooliris in October. From his blog post about rejoining Microsoft:

The storm has come full circle. I will soon be jumping back into the Microsoft maelstrom, this time in the Visual Studio / Developer Division (devdiv) team. I will again be telecommuting from Santa Cruz. I’ll be part of a new incubation team composed of Chuck and a few other legendary devdiv veterans (I’m not sure I can say who yet) working on stuff to make accessing Windows Live services easier for developers. In some ways this is a lot like my previous role in the Windows Live team, only on the dev tools side of the coin instead of the services side.

That’s about it for details. I can honestly answer all further questions with “I don’t know” or “I can’t say.”

We pieced together a few hints on his Facebook page, and although Danny insisted in an email to us that “Hey, you're talkin to a math major here. 2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2! ;>”, we think we have an inkling of what he’s working on. We won’t spill the beans until he has something to announce, but Danny is excited:

“Nothing for public comment just yet, but with any luck we may have something …that will make people's heads explode. Damn, this is gonna be fun. :>”

Welcome back, Danny!

Live Mesh: We talk again with David Treadwell

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:18:25 GMT

David Treadwell is the Corporate Vice President for the Windows Live Platform, and we caught up with him at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco to talk about Live Mesh and the Windows Live platform. This interview was conducted on Thursday, April 24th, but I’ve been waiting to get a bit of time to attempt to work on the audio, and process the file. We conducted the interview in a little “room” (think office type wall dividers with no ceiling) on the main floor of the expo hall, and the ambient noise was LOUD. Actually my little video camera did a very good job of capturing the experience, but I did try to run the audio through some post processing to make it a bit more bearable (it was way worse than this ;) ). Next time we’ll find a nice quiet corner. Here’s the video:

Live Mesh with David Treadwell - MSN Video

And then of course when I got home I had to play with Live Mesh, by synchronizing some of the movie files I took at Web 2.0 Expo. I dropped about 1gb of files (the largest was 230mb, most of the rest were less than 100mb) into a folder, synched it from my laptop to the desktop in about 10 minutes, where it proceeded to begin synching to the web desktop. OK so that took 15 hours.

I’m on Comcast broadband cable here in Seattle, where the download speeds are good, but upload not so much. Here’s a peek at a recent Speedtest:

Live Mesh synchronizes in the background, at low priority. From my conversations with some of the Live Mesh guys, I’m not the only one to request a higher priority “synch now” button :). I was expecting a couple of hours of reduced functionality with my connection, but needless to say I didn’t attempt any video editing or uploads to Soapbox on Saturday.

But this is pre-beta software, and it’s working amazingly well. All of the files transferred flawlessly (though slowly), which is by design at this point. Lesson learned about large files.

But David was great to take the time to talk to us, we really appreciate it. We’ve spent a lot of time recently on Live Mesh, Sunshine has been doing a great job on her series, with Part 3 coming up, but we don’t want to overwhelm you with Live Mesh coverage, so you’ll be seeing more from Web 2.0 Expo in the coming days and weeks.

Had a great time with the Live Mesh guys, though, and we’re working on doing even more with them soon.

Tafiti and Windows Live Quick Apps

Sunshine — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:30:00 GMT

As Kip already said in his article, Windows Live Platform Announcements: Cool new toys just in time for Mix, some new WL Quick Apps were added. In this article I want to highlight an updated WL Quick App: Tafiti Search visualization.

First let me explain Tafiti:

Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, is an experimental search front-end from Microsoft, designed to help people use the Web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results.

Tafiti uses Silverlight 1.0 RC and AJAX to provide rich, cross-platform user experiences and leverages the following Microsoft services on the backend:

Tafiti’s user interface is built entirely in Silverlight. When the user does a search, drags an item to the shelf, or performs some other action, Tafiti uses ASP.NET AJAX to contact the web server. In turn, the web server hits the Live Search API to get the results. A user’s shelf is stored in a SQL Server database, indexed on the unique ID provided by Windows Live ID.

On Tafiti you can stack search results (web, images, news, feeds, books) on a shelf to make one research project. This project get's saved for later use if you sign in with your Live ID. You can send stacks to anyone’s email address, or you can post your results to your Windows Live Space. Because Tafiti uses Silverlight this all works very smooth and intuitive; you search, find, and drag results you would like to use to your Shelf on the right. You can name your research project by adding a label to it, to do that hover over the stack and click ‘type to label…’ To view your stack click on the shelf and it will load in the middle. Want to remove stuff from your project? No problem, simply hover over the items and click the red remove button. To delete the complete project hover over the shelf and click the white X that will appear in top right of that shelf. The basics are explained in the Tafiti video walkthrough.

More info: Tafiti faq

Windows Live Quick Applications:

Windows Live Quick Applications Beta provide customizable out-of-the box solutions for specific Web scenarios. Each Quick App is built on Windows Live services and is offered as a source code download for you to use today.

Tafiti Search Visualization:

Tafiti Search visualization is a Windows Live Quick Application. Where does Tafiti Search visualization differ from http://www.tafiti.com/? Angus posted the following:

Tafiti Search visualization has had a major addition. Using the Windows Live Messenger Library and Script# we turned Tafiti from being a slick search UI to being a social search application. You can now perform searches, save your results and share that experience with your Windows Live Messenger friends. Research has never been so fun! try it | watch it | get it

So in short, on top of creating a research project on your own, you can now create them with one, or more, of your Windows Live Messenger contacts!

When you sign in with your Live ID it will also sign you into Messenger (this is mandatory). You can IM straight from the Tafiti Search Visualization site, just click on the contact in the buddy list that appears at the bottom of the middle pane when you view your stack. To make a contact co-owner, click and drag that contact from your list on top of the stack. You will then be prompted if you want to allow Tafiti to send IM's to other shelf stack owners. When you choose yes or always, a notification IM will be sent to the contact you made co-owner. When your contact logs in on http://tafiti.mslivelabs.com, he/she will also see the stack you created and is able to edit that stack.

All changes made will also appear at your end. TEAMWORK! Awesome!

Angus explains how to do this step by step, and more, in his video. Watch it! Then try it! You'll love it, I know I do!

Previous LiveSide articles:
Tafiti Search Visualization - Overview
Microsoft launches Tafiti - Search and Silverlight experiment

Windows Live Platform Announcements: Cool new toys just in time for Mix

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:00:00 GMT

With Mix08 less than a week away, details of what's coming are slowly creeping out: details of the IE8 beta, Scott Guthrie has posted details about Silverlight 2.0. And now the Windows Live Platform team is announcing today a series of new and updated features, including a new Messenger Library API, significant updates to Silverlight Streaming, an updated Windows Live Contacts API and Windows Live Photos API, and new Quick Apps and Visual Studio tools. Update: David Treadwell has just made the announcement on dev.live.com.

We'll go into more detail (and will be trying out ourselves) many of the new toys soon, but for now here's a quick look:

Messenger Library API beta
- This new addition to the Windows Live Platform family will allow third party developers to build their own complete custom Messenger applications on cross platform websites, using a new set of APIs to access and deliver Messenger functionality to websites. This means that websites could build their own front ends to Messenger on their websites, with all of the functionality (and a good deal more) of a Messenger client.
Silverlight Streaming updated:
- Silverlight Streaming, which has been in Alpha and offering 4gb of storage space and 22mb file limits, is now in beta.
- Upgraded to 10gb of storage space and 100mb+ file size limits
- 1400kbps streaming speeds (free for up to 500,000 minutes/mo)
- Better file manipulation with the ability to use Windows Explorer
- and better support for Visual Studio 2008 with Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio,
- You can take a look at a Hi-Def video streamed from Silverlight Streaming video here, and we'll have more soon.
Windows Live Contacts API Beta
- The Windows Live Contacts API Beta allows people to use their Windows Live contact information (including Hotmail, Messenger, and Mobile contacts) with any site—while keeping complete control of their data. Featuring Windows Live Delegation Authentication, the Contacts API can return Full or "invite" information (many sites just need name and primary email for invitations, and the Contacts API now allows that without exposing any other Windows Live Contacts information).
Windows Live Photo API CTP
- The updated Windows Live Photo API gives full control of photos stored on Spaces using the Atom Publishing Protocol or WebDAV, and now photos shown on a third party site are not required to go through the site - the API will call Spaces directly, and photos can be shown as thumbnails as well as time-limited permalinks (yeah, sounds contradictory...):
Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication
- Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication enables any web applications to request permission from users to access their Windows Live data
- Windows Live servers securely handle access control and user authentication
- Some Web sites would request Live ID and password – this is not necessary with Delegated Authentication
- Users can manage and revoke access at any time
Windows Live Quick Apps
- Two new Quick Apps, Contoso University and AdventureWorksResorts have been added, and Tafiti, the search app, has been updated. We'll have more on Tafiti and the Quick Apps soon, in the mean time, Angus has some more information on them.
Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio
- 4 key enhancements:
  - Windows Live Messenger IM Control integration (which Angus hinted at)
  - Deploy your controls to partially-trusted environments, including medium trust web hosting farms
  - Silverlight 2 SDK compatibility
  - No longer depends on ASP.NET Futures
ATOM Publishing Protocol
- Atom is a simple XML format for exchanging data in the form of feeds (which Windows Live Writer already supports)
- The Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) is a lightweight HTTP-based protocol for publishing and storing Atom-encoded feeds
- Windows Live services will align with a consistent AtomPub-based interface

This is a lot of information to throw down all at once - but we'll be going into more detail in the upcoming days, as well as hearing more about a lot of it at Mix. We're writing this under embargo a few hours before it's set to go live, so we don't have a lot of live links yet, but we're sure Angus will have more on his blog, and of course there will be lots of info at dev.live.com.

Attention all students! Imagine Cup Software Design Windows Live Award

Sunshine — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:40:36 GMT

Angus Logan just made us aware of the Imagine Cup Software Design Windows Live Award in his post Are you a student? Want to compete for $10k and a trip to France? Imagine Cup Software Design Windows Live Award:

I've been with our great academic team to launch the Imagine Cup Software Design Windows Live Award.

Basically - its a software dev competition for students to build compelling applications using the Windows Live Platform.

The Imagine Cup 2008 Theme: "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment."

What are the deadlines for the Windows Live Award?
This Contest starts at 12:01 AM Greenwich Mean Time ("GMT") on February 12, 2008 and ends at 11:59 PM (GMT) on May 14, 2008 ("Entry Period"). Entries must be received within the Entry Period to be eligible.

You can register at www.imaginecup.com as instructed during the Entry Period, either individually, or as a member of a Team.

The Imagine Cup 2008 Worldwide Finals will be held in Paris France from July 3-8, 2008.

If you want a chance to win $10,000 and get a trip to the final in France check it out here.

Thanks Angus. Good luck students!

All Angus, All the Time: more from our favorite Microsoft Executive, this time on Eye-Fi

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Angus Logan, the Senior Technical Product Manager for Windows Live Platform, last year sent out some 30,000 emails. If our inbox is any indication, he's looking to beat that record by a large margin this year. However, and especially since he's known to Wired Magazine as a Microsoft Executive, we don't want to ignore him as it will probably cause him to send us even more email, and we don't know if Windows Live Mail can handle it.

(We're just KIDDING, Angus! Keep the emails coming!)

Anyway Angus' obsession of the moment is Eye-Fi integration with Windows Live Spaces, and in spite of our joking around, it really is pretty cool news. Angus (with some Windows Live help, acknowledged on his blog) worked with Eye-Fi, and using the Windows Live Spaces Photo API, got Eye-Fi working with Spaces:

You can read more on Angus Logan's blog (or just wait for an email from him in your inbox, it shouldn't be long), he's got a great write-up on how the Eye-Fi integration works, and how using it with Windows Live Spaces offers privacy controls some of the other services don't. Check it out!

(See Angus? We're not haters!)

Windows Live Platform discussion on Channel 9

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:44:00 GMT

Catherine Heller, Windows Live Technical Evangelist, interviews Group Program Manager Koji Kato and Architect Danny Thorpe of the Windows Live Platform team on Channel 9. They discuss internet software, Windows Live "components", customization plans, support for multiple browsers, the Windows Live Contacts Control, and the Spaces Photo Control, along with much more. Check it out on Channel 9.

http://dev.live.com

Windows Live Contacts Control

Windows Live Spaces Photo Control