Parody: Microsoft’s Vision of the Future

Pretty neat graphics!

Blaise Aguera y Arcas Demos Augmented-Reality Maps

In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. Blaise Agüera y Arcas is the architect of Bing Maps at Microsoft, building augmented reality into searchable maps. He’s also the co-creator of Photosynth, software that assembles static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces.

How to Setup Microsoft StreamInsight SQL Example?

I spent a whole day of yesterday trying to get the SQLApp example of Microsoft StreamInsight working on my local machine. I’m quite new with .NET and Microsoft SQL Server, and the documentation that is provided with the StreamInsight example isn’t good to get started. I’ve just had it working, and I thought of documenting it so that it could also be useful for others in similar situation. I’m using Windows 7, but it should be somewhat similar if you have any other version of Windows.

Requirements
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (I’m using the professional version, if you’re a student, usually school provides it for free from MSDNAA)

Steps
1. Download Microsoft StreamInsight CTP2
2. Install Microsoft StreamInsight CTP2
3. Download SQL Server Express 2008 Runtime with Advanced Services
4. Install Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008
5. Download SQL Server Express 2008 SP1
6. Install the SQL Server Express 2008 SP1
7. Download AdventureWorks2008 R2 sample database

Enable FILESTREAM I/O
8. Go to All Programs –> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 –> Configuration Tools –> SQL Server Configuration Manager
9. Right click SQL Server –> Properties –> FILESTREAM tab
10. Check Enable FILESTREAM for Transact-SQL access
11. Check Enable FILESTREAM for file I/O streaming access

12. Install the sample database
13. Change the following lines in the SQLApp.cs

inputConfig.ConnectionString = @"integrated security = true; database = AdventureWorks2008R2";
outputConfig.ConnectionString = @"integrated security = true; database = AdventureWorks2008R2";

To

inputConfig.ConnectionString = @"Data Source=[YOUR COMPUTER NAME]\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks2008R2;Integrated Security=True";

outputConfig.ConnectionString = @"Data Source=[YOUR COMPUTER NAME]\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks2008R2;Integrated Security=True";

14. Go to SQL Server Management Studio, Connect
15. Expand the Databases tree, you should see AdventureWorks2008R2
16. Expand the Tables folder, right click –> New Table
17. Create the following table using the GUI:

[SalesByOrderID](
[EventKind] [nchar](10) NULL,
[StartTime] [datetime] NULL,
[SalesOrderID] [int] NULL,
[TotalSales] [float] NULL
)

18. Change the following line in SQLTypedOutput.cs

insert = @"insert into [AdventureWorks2008].[guest].[SalesByOrderId] (EventKind, StartTime, SalesOrderId, TotalSales) values (@EventKind, @StartTime,@SalesOrderId, @TotalSales)";

To

insert = @"insert into dbo.SalesByOrderID (EventKind, StartTime, SalesOrderId, TotalSales) values (@EventKind, @StartTime,@SalesOrderId, @TotalSales)";

19. Press F5, to run it in Debug mode
20. Check in the dbo.SalesByOrderID table, the data should be there!

Happy Streaming!

PDC 2009: Microsoft StreamInsight

Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight

Advanced Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight

Microsoft Cloud Computing

The above is the diagram on the Microsoft’s Cloud Computing service that was drawn by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, in the interview with the New York Times. Microsoft is catching up!

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