You can use Microsoft HealthVault Connection Center to upload data to HealthVault from health and fitness devices (such as blood pressure monitors, pedometers, glucometers and many others) and the HealthVault Gadget for Windows Sidebar. HealthVault Connection Center connects your device, your computer and your HealthVault record to manage the upload process for you.

HealthVault Connection Center Beta 2 provides quick and easy upload of device data to HealthVault and helps you use the data with Web sites and applications that work with HealthVault. This most current release includes:

• A simpler, more engaging user interface
• Guided setup to find and install compatible devices
• Ability to select multiple records for upload (for multi-user devices)
• Ability to set upload preferences for each device you use
• Improved support to prevent upload of duplicate data
• First-time uploads will be much faster, and all uploads will take up significantly less space in a HealthVault record.
• You can report any failures in the installation program back to Microsoft, with error codes and detailed logs. This improvement helps us solve any problems you might encounter and improve the product for all users.
• You will be less likely to experience unexpected messages in Connection Center if you install or connect a new device when you already have other installed devices.

The ASP.NET MVC RC2 release provides a new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 runtime. This means that developers can take advantage of the MVC design patterns to create their Web Applications which includes the ability to achieve and maintain a clear separation of concerns (the UI or view from the business and application logic and backend data), as well as facilitate test driven development (TDD). The ASP.NET MVC framework defines a specific pattern to the Web Application folder structure and provides a controller base-class to handle and process requests for “actions”. Developers can take advantage of the specific Visual Studio 2008 MVC templates within this release to create their Web applications, which includes the ability to select a specific Unit Test structure to accompany their Web Application development.

The MVC framework is fully extensible at all points, allowing developers to create sophisticated structures that meet their needs, including for example Dependency Injection (DI) techniques, new view rendering engines or specialized controllers.

As the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5, developers can take advantage of many existing ASP.NET 3.5 features, such as localization, authorization, Profile etc.

The Final Release of the ASP.NET MVC has been released. View this post for more information.

Model-driven development is often used to indicate a development process that revolves around building applications by using models of applications and data as specifications. Using a model-driven approach means a development process and platform that enables:

• Using abstraction to view structure at the important level of detail and hiding complexity until it is needed.
• Using models – or logical data types and relationships – as the core to the development experience.
• Implementing the model-aware components such that they follow the requirements of the modeled application or business process.
• Associating models and model instances at various development stages so that model-driven development can move back and forth in the development lifecycle and maintain those relationships.
• Automation of particular application environments and artifacts so that users can more easily make use of them in the preceding ways.

The preceding points describe a development approach in which the real feature is more robust support of efficient and manageable complex application development. It is this feature that the “Oslo” modeling platform aims at: The goal of code name “Oslo” is to reduce the gap between the intention of the developer and the software components that get developed, deployed, and executed inside of the complex, widely-distributed, database-driven applications. Modeling the application means moving more of the definition of an application into the world of data, where the platform (and you) can more easily make queries as to the developer’s original intent. Microsoft technologies have been moving in this direction for over a decade now; for example, things like COM type libraries, .NET metadata attributes, and XAML have all moved increasingly toward “writing things down” directly as data and away from encoding them into a lower-level form, such as x86 or .NET intermediate language (IL) instructions. The “Oslo” modeling platform continues this progression. In short, the “Oslo” modeling platform:

• Makes it easier for people to write things down in ways that make sense for the problem domain they are working in – a common term for this is modeling.
• Makes the things that people wrote down accessible to platform components during program execution.

The “Oslo” modeling platform makes this possible by providing:

• A visual design tool (Microsoft code name “Quadrant”) that enables people to:
  • Design business processes with well-understood, flowchart-like graphics.
  • Design applications and components that comply with the requirements of those processes
  • Flip from one view back and forth to observe the effect any changes either place have on the overall validity of the application or business process.
• A modeling language (Microsoft code name “M”) that makes it natural to extend system-provided models (such as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) or Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) models) or create your own models for use on the “Oslo” modeling platform.

  “M”:

  The Microsoft code name “M” language is a declarative language for working with data and building domain models. “M” lets users write down how they want to structure and query their data using a textual syntax that is convenient to both author and reader. “M” does not mandate how data is stored or accessed, nor does it mandate a specific implementation technology. Rather, “M” is designed to allow users to write down what they want from their data without having to specify how those requirements are met by a specific technology or platform.

• A SQL Server database (the code name “Oslo” repository) that stores models as SQL Server schema objects and model instance data as rows in the tables that implement the schema. This data is available to “Quadrant” and any other tool or data-driven application that can make use of it (and that has the appropriate permissions to do so). Whether models or model instance data is created visually, using “M”, or using any SQL data access API (for example, ADO.NET, EDM, OLE-DB, and so on) creating models and storing them in the “Oslo” repository enables future applications to examine and manipulate not only data structures used by applications but – because applications are modeled – the applications themselves, as they run. If a data-driven application has enough detailed model information, applications can run without recourse to static compilation.

  “Oslo” Repository:

  The code name “Oslo” repository provides a robust, enterprise-hardened storage location for the data models. It takes advantage of the best features of SQL Server 2008 to deliver on critical areas such as scalability, security, and performance.

Whether you create or modify model data visually, textually, or using a SQL data access technology, all of the modeling information is available in a relational database (the code name “Oslo” repository) at runtime. Some platform components are part of the System-Provided Models, which enable you to write a service or an application by populating that database with the definition of that service or application. In addition, because that data is captured in the “Oslo” repository, it is available to all kinds of tools that specialize in structured data, whether these tools are design tools like “Quadrant” or third-party tools that can sift, search, and filter the information to make available information that is very difficult to understand using current tools.

This CTP has been refreshed on the 27th February. It changes three DLLs to resolve crashing problems with three-pane modes in Intellipad.

Microsoft Producer 2007 for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 makes it easy to capture and synchronize audio, video, slides and images – creating engaging rich media presentations. Capture, synchronize, and publish audio, video, slides, and images to create rich media presentations viewable in a browser.

This beta release of Producer is intended primarily for customers who have used Producer 2003 and have requested that Microsoft provide an updated version that is compatible with PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2003, Internet Explorer 7, and Windows Vista.

After the beta of Producer 2007 ended, Microsoft will review feedback received from customers who participated in the beta and determine whether any bug fixes need to be made to Producer. A final version of Producer 2007 will be made available for download on the Office Download Center.

System requirements

• PC with at least 305 MB hard disk space to install Producer 2007.
• Additional hard disk storage is required for any audio or video content you capture using Producer 2007.
• Windows Vista or Windows XP (SP2) operating system
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 or PowerPoint 2003
• Internet Explorer 7.0

Microsoft made a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the SQL Server 2008 SP1 available to the testers yesterday. There is not much to say about it, expect that it has been made available for general testing purposes only, so not deploy the CTP software in a production environment.

The final release of the Service Pack 1 is expected to be in early April 2009.

The final version of the Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 has been released on the 7th April 2009. Please read this post for more information and download links.

What Is Microsoft Recite?

Microsoft Recite is a search technology for your voice that runs on Windows Mobile (version 6.0 or higher) devices. With Microsoft Recite, you can use your voice to easily store, search and retrieve the things you want to remember, where and when you need them.

How Does It Work?

Microsoft Recite’s voice search makes it easy to retrieve your stored thoughts and notes by using voice pattern matching. It analyzes the patterns in your speech and finds matches between two recordings – the notes you stored on your phone, and the search you do using your voice. With Recite you can store thousands of spoken notes, and then later retrieve the notes you want based on a match with your search term(s). This is different from speech recognition, which has to accurately convert spoken words to application-readable input.

To install Microsoft Recite, you can either use the installer below, or browse to http://recite.microsoft.com/download with your Windows Mobile device.

The Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5 (Beta) installs the Windows Live ID online provider for Windows 7. By making it possible to link a Windows Live ID to a Windows 7 user account, this online provider helps enable Windows 7 applications to deliver great features like sharing documents, pictures, music, and video.

Benefits
Through the online provider, the Sign-in Assistant helps a Windows 7 application running on one computer identify and communicate with other computers that are associated with the same Windows Live ID. Just by linking your Windows Live ID to the user account on each Windows 7 computer you own, you enable those computers to identify each other and work together more easily than has been possible in the past. Applications can take advantage of this capability to support scenarios as in the following example:

On his homegroup, Bob wants to share certain documents with his wife but not with his kids. Simply by specifying his wife’s Windows Live ID user name, Bob can give his wife exclusive permission to access documents on his computer.

Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway is a comprehensive secure Web gateway that helps protect Web-using employees from threats on the Web with an enterprise-class Web proxy and anti-malware functionality. Forefront TMG helps ensure that encrypted Web sessions (SSL) are protected from threats. It also delivers simple, unified perimeter security to protect networks from attack by providing an integrated application and network-layer firewall, intrusion prevention, VPN connectivity, and management of e-mail security. It enables you to easily maximize existing information technology (IT) investments by improving network security and performance. The newly added protection technologies will help you inspect e-mail traffic for spam and malware and enforce content policy compliance in your organization. Furthermore, Forefront TMG protects the organization from zero-day-attacks, and inspects outbound HTTP and HTTPS traffic to improve Internet security for your organization.

Forefront TMG Beta 2 can help you:

• Protect users from Web browsing threats (Secure Web Gateway)
• Control network Access at the edge (Firewall)
• Protect users from e-mail threats (E-mail Protection)
• Protect desktops and servers from intrusion attempts (Network Inspection System, Security Assessment Sharing)
• Enable users to remotely access corporate resources (VPN, Secure Web Publishing)
• Simplify management and deployment
• Integrate with the Forefront Security Suite (codename Stirling) to provide a unified security solution for protecting all of the assets in your organization

Note: Connecting Forefront TMG to a Stirling Server is supported only with the public Beta 2 of Forefront Codenamed Stirling

Microsoft Response Point 1.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) introduces new-and-improved features that expand your voice service choices, empower the administrator to better manage the system, and enhance the phone system experience for everyday users and callers.

In Service Pack 2, Response Point adds “digital service” to the list of flexible voice service options to help balance the voice and data communication demands of your growing small business. Digital service is transmitted through an enterprise-grade hard-wire connection. “T1″ (in the U.S.), “E1″ (in Europe),”PRI,” or “ISDN” service providers will run a special cable into your office building, similar to the cabling installed by a telco. Digital service lines normally have up to 24 rotating channels that can deliver voice and data packets to phone system components. Using Response Point Administrator, you can configure the digital gateway device required for this voice service. Some digital service providers may offer fractional digital service, which means you purchase only a portion of the circuit that may have only 8 available channels instead of 24.

Response Point Administrator gives you more control over how you manage the system. In this service pack, you can schedule the Automated Receptionist to handle calls after-hours, on holidays, and during business closures; enable access to a virtual private network (VPN), giving employees in remote locations secured access to the resources on the local area network (LAN); configure hybrid gateway devices that have both FXO and FXS ports, or that can be used for either analog or digital service; reduce speech misrecognition, often caused by background noise and variable service requirements, when you change the channel that detects the DTMF touch tones on your phones.

Response Point Assistant improves the overall experience for everyday users and callers. In this service pack, you can control how you receive 2-way intercom calls and 1-way pages, and play a call-forwarding announcement (or not) for people when they contact you.

Additional SP2 features include automatic parked-call return, which ensures that no callers are left waiting in park longer than 3 minutes; support for VoIP gateway devices that can help improve service quality; and customizable URLs in call notification windows.

The Service Pack 2 for Response Point 1.0 has been updated on the 25th February.

The ASP.NET MVC RC1 release provides a new Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework on top of the existing ASP.NET 3.5 runtime. This means that developers can take advantage of the MVC design patterns to create their Web Applications which includes the ability to achieve and maintain a clear separation of concerns (the UI or view from the business and application logic and backend data), as well as facilitate test driven development (TDD). The ASP.NET MVC framework defines a specific pattern to the Web Application folder structure and provides a controller base-class to handle and process requests for “actions”. Developers can take advantage of the specific Visual Studio 2008 MVC templates within this release to create their Web applications, which includes the ability to select a specific Unit Test structure to accompany their Web Application development.

The MVC framework is fully extensible at all points, allowing developers to create sophisticated structures that meet their needs, including for example Dependency Injection (DI) techniques, new view rendering engines or specialized controllers.

As the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5, developers can take advantage of many existing ASP.NET 3.5 features, such as localization, authorization, Profile etc.

A couple of issues have been reported with the RC. This is the refreshed version (01/30/2009).

The Release Candidate 2 of the ASP.NET MVC has been released. View this post for more information.