This is a quick post letting folks know that I've updated my web site with two new Webcast series.

The first is the new Aspiring Architect Webcast Series some of my colleagues are running. These Webcasts will discuss a variety of topics relevant to people new to architecture or interested in moving from development to architecture. They will cover things like Service Oriented Architecture, Enterprise Service Bus, Web 2.0 for the Architect, among other topics of interest and relevance to new architects.

The second is a really a micro-series of MSDN Webcasts focused on Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation. Most are 300 and 400 level talks. They feature presentations by some well known MVPs.

There are still a few upcoming Team System Webcasts listed, being delivered by colleagues, so check it out. And while you are on my site, if you notice a lack of live events listed, that's because Microsoft will soon be moving into our new fiscal year and we're deep in planning events for Q1. I'll get the site updated as plans and events firm up, and I will include several community events in the database as well.

This is a quick post to let everyone know that you can now register for PDC2008. (Update: fixing a layout problem)

Set for October 27-30 in Los Angeles, CA, the Professional Developers Conference is one of Microsoft's premier national events for the professional developer. I've been to two PDC events, and they are an amazing experience. PDC is so interesting to me, in fact, I have trouble choosing between PDC and TechEd.

While TechEd tends to focus on practical topics, currently available products, and occasionally features product announcements, PDC tends to focus on new and emerging technologies, more advanced technologies and techniques, and often features product announcements. This isn't to say that TechEd doesn't feature advanced technologies (it does) or announce new things, it's just that my experience is that PDC tends to do that a little more. Here's a bit about PDC:

Since 1991, the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects. Attend the PDC to understand the future of the Microsoft platform and to exchange ideas with fellow professionals. You’ll learn about upcoming products, meet Microsoft’s leaders and top engineers, write some code, and be inspired! Unplug for a few days and think about the future.

This year's PDC will feature loads of great things. Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, will keynote. PDC will have over 160 sessions covering multiple tracks. There will be cool parties, and all sorts of great and unique experiences.

So, check out the PDC2008 site and register if you are able. I will caution you that PDC tends to sell out early, and it usually sells out fast.

So a mere five days after I wrote a post about WorldWide Telescope the team at Microsoft Research released a preview of the application. While I am in Europe. And can't (easily) download the application. But download it I did... and all my dreams about what the application would be like came true!

How to Get It
It's pretty easy. Visit the WorldWide Telescope site's Experience page and follow the download instructions. It's a relatively hefty application, about 20MB download, though it does require the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 before it can install. You will want download that first if you don't have it. There's a pretty decent set of installation instructions on the download page, and the application installer prompts you along.

What Is It?
Like I said in my first post, it's like having access to a multi-billion dollar telescope array from your desktop. Once the installation is complete, the application -- a network aware program that defaults to using live data on the servers and only uses the local cache when you're not connected -- displays an interface that is reminiscent of the Encarta experience (at least to my untrained UX eyes) and loads a full-blown sky survey. From there, you can follow one of several guided tours, search for images from Hubble or Spitzer, search constellations, or explore any of a dozen other resources. The application flies around the screen, zooms on whatever image you're interested in, and points out relative data with a quick right-click on the object in question. It's really fun, not to mention educational.

There's a lot more information on the What is WWT? page. That page links to contributors, additional details, and other resources. They also describe what WWT is:

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

They also explain what a "Web 2.0 visualization software environment" is:

Web 2.0 is the next generation of the World Wide Web wherein technologies and social practices use metadata or tags to enable communication and resource sharing in a variety of forms (text, audio, video, links, etc.) through the Web without a centralized authority's intervention or approval.

Rich visualization software provides a graphical visualization of large structured data sets. The software's interactive graphical user interface provides users with a more data-rich presentation of the data and enables them to explore, filter, analyze, and interact with the data, resulting in a better understanding of that data.

No, What Is It Really Like?
It really is like having access to your own telescope array. You start with a simple user interface with a digital representation of a sky survey of what you would see from the surface of the earth. You will also see wire-frame overlays of constellations and other aspects of the night sky. Here's a screenshot of the application after starting it up:

You will then have the ability to navigate using the collections listed at the top of the application screen, take a tour, or simply pan around the sky survey with your mouse. You can use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out and right-click elements in the night sky, such as a star or nebulae, to learn more about those elements or to zoom in on them for a close look.

It's a really engaging experience. I suspect my children will also enjoy it, so please head over to WorldWide Telescope and download it today.

This is some seriously cool stuff...

Yes, I Admit I am a Geek
I am a space buff. I love SciFi books, shows, and movies. Battlestar Galactica (the new one) is wonderfully engaging (who is the final Cylon?!?), and I am a fan of Star* (you know, -Wars, -Trek and -gate). I enjoy historical documentaries like From Earth to the Moon and movies like Apollo 13. I watch programs on NASA and space travel on Discovery Channel and History Channel. I've even watched a shuttle launch or four. When I read about the WorldWide Telescope I realized someone just granted me access to my very own multi-billion dollar telescope array from the comfort of my own home.

I've always been fascinated by astronomy and telescopes and pictures of the stars. Sure, I can look at pictures on the Internet and browse catalogs in books. But being able to interact with those images? I'd need access to a telescope and some seriously expensive equipment.

Your Own Personal Telescope
Now imagine being able to gain access to images like this one of the Orion Nebula on your computer, seamlessly stitched together with hundreds of other photos from a variety of sources from Hubble to the Spitzer Space Telescope. That's my take on the idea behind the WorldWide Telescope.

As I watched the videos and read through the FAQ, I began to envision an application capable of bringing together images and data from a variety of sources into an engaging user experience that essentially behaves like a telescope you control with your mouse on your computer. The site says you'll be able to pan and zoom across the night sky, perhaps even finding the Orion Nebula where it sits in the night sky. How wonderful would it be to sit behind the controls of the Hubble telescope, controlling where the lens points, seeking out the mysteries of space? To me, it would be incredible fun.

WorldWide Telescope at your Fingertips
So, what is the WorldWide Telescope? I can't say it any better than the FAQ...

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space telescopes to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe. WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft's high-performance Visual Experience Engine, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.

According to the web site, the WorldWide Telescope will be "Coming in Spring 2008". And I can't wait.

Footnote
The Chicago Manual of Style continues to prove a really helpful resource for would-be authors and journalists. Check it out.

At the St. Louis Heroes Happen Here Launch event, Denny Boynton used some mysterious utility that added a really nice touch to his demos and presentation. With a deft keystroke, Denny's screen would zoom smoothly to wherever his mouse was on screen. He used it to draw attention to various hard-to-read things like the Visual Studio Property Sheet. I was so interested in what he was doing, I corralled him after his talk and asked him about it.

He told me it was one of the Windows Sysinternals utilities called ZoomIt, and he promised to write a post, which I dutifully read. Now, I can't say I'm the person he quoted, though that's pretty close to what I said. So, I promptly downloaded the utility and ran it on my computer. That's when the trouble started. As Master Chief would say, I ran into a snag.

ZoomIt, like many of the Sysinternals utilities (my favorite being Process Explorer, but that is perhaps best saved for another post), is made available in a zip file. It's the world's greatest install: extract the executable, ZoomIt.exe, to your favorite folder and double-click the program to run it. ZoomIt — a completely self-contained, literally copy-and-run installable — causes Windows Vista to prompt you with a security warning:

Now the easy thing to do would be to uncheck the "Always ask before opening this file". And that would have worked, but I like to keep all my Sysinternals utilities under C:\Program Files, which is a protected system directory. This is where the trouble part of the story comes in.

You see, you can't unblock an applications that live under the Program Files folder while User Account Control (UAC) active. And you can't permanently unblock an application from its property sheet while UAC is active, either. Why does this become a problem? Well, the security prompt above will show every time you launch the program. You have two options: a brute force option and a more elegant option.

The brute force option is to turn UAC off — which I do not recommend, for many, varied, and obvious reasons, not the least of which is the security risk it exposes... and the pain of one or more reboots — and unblock the application. (Honesty time: before I discovered the more elegant approach below, this was how I unblocked applications like Process Explorer.) This takes a few solid minutes, especially if you turn UAC off then turn it back on, what with the two reboot cycles.

The more elegant — and faster, IMO — approach is to move the executable to another folder, right-click it and choose properties to pull up the property sheet, click the Unblock button (see below), click OK, and move the program back to your favorite folder in Program Files directory structure.

Problem solved! Now you can add a shortcut to the Startup folder or Quick Launch and have easy access to ZoomIt (or Process Explorer) without the security prompt splashing onscreen every time you launch the program.

For completeness it should be noted that if you put the ZoomIt executable in any non-system directory (e.g., Program Files, Windows, or other protected folders), you can easily uncheck the "Always ask before opening this file" checkbox on the security prompt dialog to unblock the application. The steps I list only apply when you place applications like ZoomIt in the protected Program Files folder.