Mike Nash is a corporate vice president in charge of Windows client operating systems product management. Previously, he ran the security team that created the new security systems and features in XPSP2. Charles got a chance to spend some time with him recently to have a very candid conversation about Windows Vista and to learn about Windows Vista SP1 (What’s in it? Will it contain lots of new features like XPSP2? Etc…). Of course, with Vista being out in the real world for several months,…[more ]

Alex Hinrichs runs the Windows Server ship room (you’ve met him before on C9). Jeff Woolsey is a senior program manager on the Virtualization team (you’ve met him before, too). Today, we announce the release of Windows Server 2008 RC0. RC0? What does that mean, exactly? Well, Alex sure knows… There are many new innovations in Windows Server 2008 not the least of which is our new built-in virtualization system, Hypervisor. Jeff explains… Then there’s server core, a stripped down UI-less version…[more ]

Just as you need someone behind the scenes to articulate the motions of a Muppet^TM for the screen, you also need someone to sit behind a web site and get it to do stuff.

Adam Kinney was such a man (for the web thing - he has not, to my knowledge, except possibly at a few parties, ever been in control of a Muppet^TM).

Adam toiled away for years in the Channel 9 boiler room, knocking pipes with his cyberwrench and other to…[more ]

For my first interview back from my little "vacation," I got to interview Tony Bernard about BizTalk.

This video focuses on EDI features of BizTalk, but in the process shows off a bit of what BizTalk can do.

Throughout my entire life as a geek, I've heard the name "BizTalk" spoken over and over, but I've never known what to think beyond the name. Sometimes another geek steps in and says something like, "BIZTALK IS AWESOME," but that doesn't tell me much about what it does.

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[Posted on behalf of Brian Keller.]

In this interview we asked Lenny Fenster of Microsoft Consulting Services to show us the recently released “Connector” for Team Foundation Server 2005 and Project Server 2007. This connector makes it easier for organizations to manage their development projects by providing a synchronization and workflow between Team Foundation Server and Project Server.

For more information and to download the Connector, visit [more ]

[Posted on behalf of Brian Keller.]

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (or “DBPro”) introduced a new way of working with your database in an “offline” or “sandbox” mode. Understanding how this works exactly requires a new way of thinking about how you build, deploy, and manage changes to your database. We asked Sachin Rekhi of the DBPro team to explain the paradigm and talk about the updated MSF guidance which adds roles and activities for database professionals.

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[Posted on behalf of Brian Keller]

Dupe. I've been gone. Didn't know it had already been posted.

Carry on.

Carry on...

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Something end users probably don't realize is that Office isn't just a suite of applications, but also a platform for development.

The idea behind building apps on top of Office is that you can provide users with apps in an environment with which they're already familiar and comfortable. Some of the plumbing is also already taken care of for devs, so you can rely on the strength of the platform rather than start entirely from scratch to build your apps.

To help devs get started, th…[more ]

Time and time again, I've encountered online arguments in which Geek A is telling Geek B that Company C does a poor job of maintaining backward compatibility.

In these cases, I'm never quite sure what it is that Geek A means. Does Geek A have any idea how difficult it is to maintain app level compatibility over the years as the underlying OS changes and evolves?

Maybe Geek A should watch this video...

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Robert Graham and David Maynor head up a company called Errata Security.

These are the people you hear about when you hear about people who get paid to break things. They look for vulnerabilities, pore over disassembled binaries, and generally have all kinds of fun while being rewarded.

We also talk a little about the security of OS X, and what their thoughts were on whether or not open source makes software more or less secure.[more ]