Jeff Sandquist

It’s rare to find an organization that has not had a project stall, flail, or completely fall apart. By the time you find your project in this position (and are willing to accept it), you’re typically already “in the weeds” or “bailing water out of the boat with a bucket”. I’ll admit that this has happened to me. It happens to all of us. When you find yourself in this position, what should you do? Or, more importantly, what shouldn’t you do? Don’t Yank the Steering Wheel Don’t go into extreme course correction mode. If you had a plan, believe in the plan. It’s easy to scrap what you were thinking of doing and just “wing it”. But most of the time, this reactionary thinking only makes matters worse and takes you farther away from your goals. Review Your Goals It’s often the insignificant details that derail your project. For example, if the goal of your site is to sell concert tickets, is it really necessary to spend inordinate amounts of time getting the Twitter widget working? Be sure... - Jeff Sandquist

The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) team recently released two new security tools, BinScope Binary Analyzer and MiniFuzz File Fuzzer, to help you write more secure code. Jeremy Dallman, Michael Howard, and Ivan Medvedev created these tools so we decided to pay them a visit to chat about what these tools do and why they matter. Of course, it's been way too long since Michael Howard has preached to us from his security soapbox so we just had to get him talking about the general state of software security today and where it's going! For the Microsoft SDL team, SDL is as much a lifestyle as it is a software development lifecycle. Developers, thrive securely so that others may securely thrive. Oh yeah, brothers and sisters. I'm sensing the need for a security soapbox show on 9. We need more preaching. There's still far too many developers writing insecure code. "Reverend" Howard, are you game, sir? Get BinScope and MiniFuzz on SDL Tool Repository. Please use them!!! Stay... - Jeff Sandquist

The release candidate of Windows Identity Foundation is here! Chock-full of improvements driven by YOUR feedback, WIF RC gives a very good idea of how the final release will look like. Vittorio went to visit Sidd, Govind and Sesha to learn about the new features and explore the rationale behind some of them. From a comprehensive list of new features to deep dives in their favourite scenarios, the guys tell it all. Tune in! URL references: WIF RC Announcement Download the Windows Identity Foundation RC The Identity key topic on Channel 9 - Jeff Sandquist

Over the course of the past year, the MIX Online team has taken some great risks designing and developing our labs. Each lab requires months of effort, and we occasionally have to placate our legal department or internal influencers to do things that some consider controversial. Not all of our labs pan out. I’ve personally worked on two labs that never saw the light of the day. It's truly frustrating when this happens, when the risk does not pay off. Back to the drawing board. On the other hand, it's extremely rewarding when we successfully launch a new lab. Our biggest challenge is gauging whether our efforts will be worth the risk. Are the risks worth taking? What's the potential return for our risk? Is the potential return worth the effort? We try to mitigate high risks and envision all possible outcomes and issues that might derail a project before we start. The S.W.O.T. analysis is a simple, useful tool we use to evaluate risk and form a good project strategy. It's basic... - Jeff Sandquist

The Windows7News blog has a handy tip on how you can add Windows 7’s Flip 3D feature directly to the new Windows 7 taskbar. Introduced in Windows Vista, Flip 3D is the more dazzling version of Windows Flip which lets you cycle through your open windows using a keyboard shortcut. Most users are already familiar with the basic “Flip” action – a cycling feature activated by pressing ALT + TAB. However, those who are just arriving to Windows 7 from Windows XP may not have known about “Flip 3D,” a feature introduced in Vista. Activated through Windows Key + TAB, the open windows’ thumbnails are now live updating, meaning if you have a video playing in one, it will continue to play in the 3D interface. Although this feature is only a keyboard combo away, there are those of you out there who prefer to have access to features from icons you can click with your mouse. (You’ll know if you fall into this category if you’ve been finding yourself wondering why the “Show Desktop” button got moved... - Jeff Sandquist

This is pretty impressive – Windows 7 hasn’t been out for even 2 weeks yet and already it’s achieved a 3.48% market share as of the end of October according to the tracking firm Net Applications. To put that in perspective, Mac’s OSX has a 5.27% total share. And given the speed at which the percentage is climbing, Windows 7 should pass the install base of OSX sometime in the next two months. According to Vince Vizzaccaro of Net Applications, Vista didn’t climb as fast as this during its early days. He also noted that the company saw surges over the past weekend which was also different – historically, Windows saw higher usage market share on weekdays, not weekends. Overall, Windows is still doing well, too, with a 92.52% market share that includes all versions of the OS. (And would you believe that 0.11% are still using Windows 98?! That’s just crazy. Somebody help these people). - Jeff Sandquist

There’s a new tool called Workshare Compare for PowerPoint, which will appeal to power users of PowerPoint who create large, complex, and complicated presentations using the Microsoft Office slideshow software. The purpose of the software is to track and manage edits made in slides from collaborators and other reviewers or within multiple versions of a presentation made by one individual. The changes can include things like text changes, images, speaker notes, fonts, changes to the slide master, and more. After identifying the differences between the presentations, Workshare Compare users can then easily combine slides from the multiple presentations into one single presentation file. This software is not for the casual user though – you would have to have a heavy investment in PowerPoint to make purchasing it worthwhile. A one year subscription starts at $145 USD and includes upgrades. For that price, it’s obviously not meant to be consumer-level technology. However, for those who... - Jeff Sandquist

Gizmodo recently posted a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the new Windows 7’s login screen and default desktop came into existence. Apparently, the company sought out the help of Chuck Anderson, a young, 24-year old designer who worked his way up through the years from starting at a screen printing shop in high school to now having a professional portfolio of design work that includes projects for big brands like Pepsi, Urban Outfitters, Reebok and more. Chuck is the man responsible for the blue login screen with its subtle wisps of white lines and leaves as well as the default desktop featuring the Windows logo on the same sort of background. What’s really cool is that Gizmodo has posted two image galleries that show the evolution of each of these screens throughout the design process so you can see how the designs changed over time. You can see the login gallery here and the desktop gallery here. So how did Microsoft convince a hot, independent designer like Chuck to work... - Jeff Sandquist

In this video, Ryan Linton, a Senior Program Manager on the Library Experience Team, describes the new Help system in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.      Kathleen McGrath Visual Studio User Education http://blogs.msdn.com/kathleen Visual Studio and .NET Framework Content Survey - Jeff Sandquist

Episode 5 has killer content on Deep Zoom, Expression Web 3, a codeplex project on a Snippet Editor for Visual Studio, LINQ Tool Samples, LINQ Pad, Link To Twitter, Expression Blend 3 Importing Adobe assets, and an incredible codeplex project must see on a solid Silverlight website starter kit using best practices! This is Russ's Tool Shed's best effort yet! Grab a beer and hope you enjoy this most educational, enlightening and entertaining instant classic video! Producer: Russ Fustino Audio and Video Editing: Russ Fustino Many thanks to the many volunteers, live studio audience and presenters. This was an all volunteer effort! One note on the default player.. I tested this out at a very slow speed, and it may buffer a few times in the first minute of play during the theme song with lots of video action but settles right down for smooth play after that, just in case you experience this: 1) either ride it out, or 2) view the highdef wmv by clicking here to play in your media player, or... - Jeff Sandquist

False rumors about life at Microsoft abound, like "drinking the juice" or sleeping at our desks; even that everybody watches Battlestar Gallactica. Truth is: only most of us watch it. In a continued effort to debunk the rumors once and for all, I present to you - Life at Microsoft Episode 2. - Jeff Sandquist

Mark your calendars, on Friday,  November 6th at 3:00PM Pacific Standard Time, Channel 9 will host its first live broadcast for This Week on Channel 9! We’ll have a special Web page setup for our live streaming player and you’ll be able to ask us questions in real-time via Twitter. Start following @ch9live on Twitter for more information. FAQ: Q: Do I need anything special to watch the live stream? A: You just need Silverlight installed. Q: How do I watch the live stream? A: We’ll be posting the URL Friday morning PST? Q: How can I participate? A: Send questions or comments by replying to the @ch9live Twitter account during the live broadcast at 3PM Pacific Standard Time.  Q: Will the content be available afterwards? A: Yes, we’ll be uploading the recording for anyone that can’t tune in during that time.   Q: Will you do it live? A: WE’LL DO IT LIVE! - Jeff Sandquist