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1 day ago, fwaris wrote

I understand Anders is being very practical and doing the best he can given all of the constraints around web and javascript.

I think instead of a 'language' standard, we should have a VM standard for browsers. If we have a VM standard then we could use any language we want. There will be constraints that all languages will have to adhere to, for interoperability but it's doable. Note both the CLR and JVM have evolved to support a large variety of languages so its technically feasible.

I don't see any standardization effort in regards to a browser VM. Clearly it is needed because javascript can only be taken so far.

 

Exactly. A VM standard would be great.

The CLR/DLR have proven the benefits provided by this approach.

Developers wouldn't have to be tied to a language unfit for the problem they're tying to solve, or with which they are not as productive. They can pick the language that best suits them while benefitting from cross-language compatible class libraries, VM optimizations, tooling and infrastructure. The CLI is an ECMA and ISO standard. The DLR is open-source. There's already third-party implementations of the technologies in various profiles. It's long overdue for MS to get together with Xamarin and whomever else would be interested, and come up with a proposal for a standard I'll call Web\CLI.

There's also no reason XAML couldn't be part of that proposed standard as a new markup language for the web. HTML could still be supported for legacy, or even continue to be evolved for some time, gaining the benefits of the new platform. Really, the new platform could give choice of presentation language to the developer as well, since it could be possible for a third-party to implement their own presentation language whose compiler could be downloaded as a resource when the page is loaded, further enabling innovation and domain-tailored solutions, while remaining compatible with the underlying platform and just working transparently for the end-user.

Web\CLI could also solve the CODEC issue, as Silverlight did, by enabling managed-code CODECs to be provided with the application, so if you want to publish your videos in VP8 instead of H.264, for instance, just provide the CODEC, and the end-user's browser would use it, either always, or only if the browser didn't have built-in support for the format (that's a detail left to the browser vendor or standards org). It could work for images, audio, video, maybe even document formats. It'd be like WIC (Windows Imaging Component) for the web. Again, for the end-user, they'd simply get an experience that just worked, and the developer would get the tools and languages most comfortable to them.

It's over 9,000!!!

6 hours ago

Will Win8 be set up to run Ink-enabled apps, or does it extend only to touch devices?

 

Ink is still there.

I've used it on my HP TouchSmart tm2 Tablet PC.

The ink input panel shares the same Metro look as the virtual keyboard.

It's a bit big though. Would be nice to be able to resize to half its minimum height.

Regarding timecodes, it'd be cool to also be able to specify an ending time code so you could link to a certain segment of a video (cooler still to specify a segment list, but I digress). This would be similar to feature WMP had up to v.11 where you could mark in/out a segment of online media, then share that segment (great for linking to the demo section(s) of a keynote for instance) . This C9 style would be better actually (at least for single videos) as WMP used a .asx file for the segment list vs. being able to specify it inline in a URL.

You guys are forgetting that the current 6.x devices also carry the Windows Phone brand.

There shouldn't be much confusion as, like Windows CE, PocketPC/Phone, and Windows Mobile before it, Windows Phone is a background brand signifying the base platform, not available featureset.

To the general public, it has minimal impact. The brands seen by them will be ODM or carrier brands as always.

People will be buying a Kin, not a Windows Phone.

Similarly, with Windows Phone 7 (and 8 and 9...), people will be buying an HTC X or T-Mobile Y. Windows Phone will just be a small logo on the box, boot screen, and back of the device -- cool for us that pay attention and like devices built on Windows, but it sadly hasn't been widely effective in itself at getting non-geeks to not call my PocketPC a Palm, or realize their Windows Mobile phone w/ slideout keyboard  isn't a Blackberry.

I'd guess sometime around March 15th (Mix) would be a likely time for the next SL4 drop unless MS has SL-related plans for Mobile World Congress. Even if they do, I'd expect only an announcement there with code following at Mix.

If the WMVs are too big, you may not be able to maintain the wormhole long enough to get them in one shot. The PowerShell BITS cmdlets can help with that issue though.

Seriously, on top of being great shows in general, it was cool that Tablet PCs were often used in the SG series (particularly Atlantis). MS should've capitilized on that. Tablets have never gotten much TV marketing. Hopefully they'll get a much needed push with Windows 7's release.

As in Vista, hold Ctrl+Shift and press Enter or click the item to launch as elevated.

CardSpace is part of .NET 3.x and runs on XP in addition to Vista and Windows 7.
Moreover, there are several Information Card selector implementations for other platforms that are the equivalents of CardSpace on Windows. CardSpace is just Microsoft's brand name for their specific implementation.

If I understand you correctly Minh, what you want is still in Vista.
Right-click on the speaker icon in the notification area and then click Recording Devices.
Right-click the whitespace and click Show Disabled Devices.
If supported by your audio device, other recording devices such as Phone Line, Mono Mix, CD Player, and Stereo Mix will appear.
Right-click the Stereo Mix device and click Enable.
If you set it as your default recording device, you'll be able to record the audio being played through your soundcard.