frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger

Not clicking, waving….

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:55:43 GMT

I’ve been helping my kids with their homework, and one of them (I wont name who, so as to avoid any embarrassment) had to deliver a presentation in PowerPoint. I wanted to add a bit of pizzazz to the experience looked at hooking up a Kinect so that they could present with gestures, rather than clicking with a mouse.

Seems like a good idea, right?

I grabbed the Kinect for Windows SDK, and went looking on codeplex for kinect related samples, where I found the Kinect PowerPoint Control. It was nice, but It didn’t do exactly what I wanted.

By coincidence, Dr Neil sent me an email about nsquared slyda, which just lets me change between slides using hand gestures.

Perfecto!!

We had a practice session and kiddo can move forward and back, with a wave of the hands.

Next stop, the classroom!!!

BTW – I see that boffins at nsquared solutions are working on more Kinect apps. I got a ping last night from Dr Neil about nsquared spydar, which is like the Coding4Fun Kinect Turret minus the violence. I got it set up – now let’s see who comes and uses my PC when I’m away….

My Geek Origin Story

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:00:09 GMT

Michael Kordahi, aka Delicate Genius, is asking for Geek Origin Stories.

How can I not contribute to this worthy cause……

The year was 1981, and my high school, CBC StKilda, got a fancy new Cromenco computer system. I was asked to man the computer lab by my math teacher, Mrs Fagin, and to pass the time, I wrote programs in Structured Basic.

I remember putting in programs that would to print out ASCII art – playboy bunny logo and Alfred E. Newman stick in my memory. After spending time playing in that lab, I decided to following a computing path, even though I had been planning to go on and do medicine.

I signed up for the EDP (or Electronic Data Processing) course at CIT in 1982. In my first year we used punch cards to input out programs. I still have some those punch cards someone in the garage – I’ve carried them for almost 30 years! In my second year, the class had access to time sharing terminals connected to a PR1ME computer and we worked on PR1ME Information (which was similar to PICK), as well as COBOL and FORTRAN, and in my third year, we had a dedicated Data General system, we programmed in COBOL and PL/1 and we had access to a new fangled a IBM PC and a software package called KnowledgeMan for our group project.

After graduating, I entered the workforce as a humble programmer and my first job was converting FORTRAN applications for an engineering company on St Kilda Rd, who were migrating systems. That was the start of many projects during my time

So there you have it….

20? meh - Just another day

Frank Arrigo — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:02:22 GMT

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

1991 was a big year for me.

I got married.

I bought a house.

My first child was born

AND

I joined Microsoft on May 20, 1991

Today marks my 20th year anniversary at Microsoft.

As I have done for the past few years (19, 18, 17, 16. 15, 14, 13), time to reflect a bit on my time at Microsoft. Yes, I still *love* the job.

The resume stays the same, but I’m now back in Australia, based in Melbourne.

May 1991	Sep 1993	Microsoft Canberra, working as a Systems Engineer
Sep 1993	Aug 1994	Microsoft Corp, @ Executive Briefing Center
Aug 1994	Oct 1995	Microsoft Corp, in the Advanced Technology Group, working on Interactive TV
Nov 1995	May 1997	Microsoft Australia, MSN Technical Director
Jun 1997	Jun 1999	ninemsn CTO
Jun 1999	May 2001	Microsoft Region, Digital Media dude
May 2001	Aug 2007	Microsoft Australia, Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE)
Aug 2007	Current	Microsoft Corp, Director – DPE Field Community & Readiness

This year, I find myself in a different situation -- I don’t have an office, so no 20lbs of M&Ms sitting in a bowl outside my door to share with my work colleagues.

It’s kinda weird that I have no one to share the moment with. It’s just another day.

But, I did get a rather large and heavy parcel sent to me.

which had another box inside

and inside that box was another box addressed to me

it was like a Babushka doll!!

So – what’s in it?

Well – it’s my 20 year “crystal” from Microsoft. (yeah – crappy photo, I know. I’ll take another one in the morning)

So – 20 years down, and the future looks promising – skype is joining the family, kinect is going gang busters with it’s own SDK , windows phone is getting Angry Birds soon.

Seems like there’s a lots to still do, and I’m pretty excited to continue doing it.

Plus, now that I’m back in Australia – I can get along to some local events, such as DDD Melbourne, PREMIX & REMIX

Bring on the next 20! Maybe I’ll get some M&Ms just for me and the kids!…

Technorati Tags: Frank Arrigo

My second #WP7 App – Saints Footy

Frank Arrigo — Fri, 06 May 2011 03:03:29 GMT

Ok, so I’m on a roll! Last week I got my first #WP7 App out.

This week , I grabbed the v2 of the Social Viewer Template for Windows Phone 7 from codeplex and put together another windows phone 7 app, which I called Saints Footy.

It has twitter feeds, feeds from news sites and fan sites, and the facebook feed from saints.com.au – the best way to experience Saints Footy on Windows Phone!!

Now, if only the Saints would win a few more games….

Big shout out to Nick Randolph and Dave Glover for a wonderful job with the Social Viewer Template.

Technorati Tags: WP7,SaintsFooty,St.KildaFC

My #WP7 App – FrankArr Tracker

Frank Arrigo — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 04:52:23 GMT

I’ve been meaning to write an Windows Phone app for ages. I even told Brandon Watson that I would.

I just never got around to it, until I saw a tweet from Nick Hodge which inspired me to get started

Nick pointed me to the Windows Phone 7 Social Viewer Application Template that Nick Randolph and Dave Glover had put together.

The Social Viewer template is a Visual Studio template that allows you to jump start the development of a Windows Phone 7 application. It provides the foundations of an application that can aggregate multiple RSS/Atom feeds, Facebook and Twitter.

I downloaded the zip file, looked over the documentation the guys had put together, and then I got started.

First, I got the tools installed onto my Samsung Series 9 laptop.

Installed Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Install January 2011 Windows Phone Tools Update

Next, I fired up Visual Studio, opened up the Social Viewer App Template and got coding.

Then I got my kids involved to design the app icon.

Emma suggested I put “Tech Frank” onto a radar image – so off I went.

I futzed with Paint.Net for a while trying to get the image just right. Dave was right – the icon is the thing that took the longest time!

Bill gave me a few pointers and voila - application icon created!

So what does the app do?

Well, you’re going to have to install it and find out for yourself

Enjoy!! Who knows, you may find FrankArr in your neck of the woods!

Technorati Tags: WP7,FrankArr Tracker

MIX11 or as I like to call it MMXI?

Frank Arrigo — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:35:09 GMT

I made the long trip to the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, which is where MIX 11 is being held this year.

It should be a good one this year – the sessions look great and the keynotes are not to be missed.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again – the team missed an opportunity to play with the name with some good old fashioned roman numeral hijinks.

Technorati Tags: MIX11,MIX

Mayorships up for grabs

Frank Arrigo — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:38:43 GMT

I love playing foursquare, and I have just started using a wonderful foursquare app on my Windows Phone called 4th and Mayor.

So, I am the “mayor” of a bunch of places. At one point, I got to 30 venues.

Anyways, since I’m leaving town, the mayorship of the spots will be up for grabs.

I would love to see how long it takes for all these go – a week? a month? a year?

Happy Foursquaring.

Technorati Tags: Foursquare,Mayor

Wait, What?

Frank Arrigo — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:28:02 GMT

So, I’m sitting in a hotel room in downtown Kirkland, wrapping up my affairs, and getting ready to move back to Australia.

Wait, What?

Yup – I’m heading back down under. Now, I say *I* because the rest of my family already went back nearly 2 months ago.

Wait, What?

Here they are at Sea-Tax airport when they were heading out on their journey back to Australia.

So I stayed behind to get the house packed – it was karma really, since I left Moira alone to pack when we moved from Sydney to Seattle. Hopefully we’re even now

We had a lot of stuff to pack. The final tally was 256 boxes and 251 wrapped items for a grand total of 507 items, which took up a 40’ & 20’ container and which weighed something like 20,000 lbs. Yes - That’s a lot of stuff!

Now the boxes are loaded, the containers are full, the house is empty and clean and I’m waiting for the confirmation that the sale is complete.

Soon my second Seattle adventure comes to an end, just as the local weather starts to improve and Spring begins.

What’s next?

Well – I’m heading back to Melbourne this time around. It’s my hometown. I left Melbourne in 1990 with my then girlfriend, Moira Brice. Now, I’m heading back to join Moira and my 4 kids. They are all loving it, so I cant wait to join them.

I’m also changing jobs, but I’ll save the details about that in another post.

Technorati Tags: Frank Arrigo,Personal

The word of the year is ”App”! ?

Frank Arrigo — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:44:00 GMT

I saw a news article recently that the word of the year for 2010 was “App”, as voted by the American Dialect Society

So true.

I picked up a Windows Phone 7 when it launched back in November. I’m a loyal (some say foolish) T-Mobile customer, so I went with the T-Mobile HTC HD7

I must admit I have been pretty happy with the phone (anyone surprised to hear that) apart from one thing.

It was reset by one of my kids when they tried to unlock the phone. He put in the wrong pin a few times, which got an policy enforced to do a remote wipe. I must admit, I did loose my cool for a while. I almost ruined christmas for my family a second time, but cooler heads prevailed.

The experience taught me a few things, which brings me back to apps. The one most relevant to this is that I need a way to remember what apps I have installed on the phone. Since I had installed most of my apps “Over The Air”, there is no way to “automagically” restore the installed apps. If I had installed them via the desktop client (aka Zune Client) they would have be reinstalled. Now, the good thing when I do ‘re-install’ the apps, is that the the marketplace tells me that I have already purchased them so I don’t have to buy them again.Phew!

So, how do I remember what apps I have installed? It seems there is no easy way. However, I found a great little site, developed by an italian MVP, called WP7Applist. It a pretty cool site that is full of reviews, updates, news of new apps etc, but the one thing i L-O-V-E about it is the ability to tag an app you have installed and it creates the My WP7A library.

I took a look at the page, did some scrapping and voila – the apps I have installed on my phone!

Yeah, it’s a bunch of apps isn’t it and I haven’t gotten to games yet!!! I’ll save that for another post.

Three runs off the half century, and only got one maiden over.

Frank Arrigo — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:46:00 GMT

Geez, it's been a while since I posted here.....

Like the rest of the world, my attention has been over on twitter and facebook but I do want to keep the tradition alive of doing a blog post on my birthday.

So here I am, again!!

Last year, as I celebrated my birthday, I was in LA at the PDC. This year, I'm in Seattle, with the threat of snow, and the anticipation of the new Microsoft Store opening in Bellevue, and a Miley Cyrus concert!

As happened last year and the year befire, I’ve received best wishes from my friends via email, tweets, and on facebook and these started the day before, due to my down under crew. I even got my own hash tag, thanks to Brian Madsen

Thank you to all who left me a note – I will get back to each and everyone of you! I promise!!!

Now, some trivia about my age. It is the atomic number of silver! It is the fifteenth prime number, a safe prime, the thirteenth supersingular prime, and the sixth Lucas prime. Forty-seven is a highly cototient number. It is a strictly non-palindromic number. It is also a Keith number, because it recurs in a Fibonacci-like sequence started from its base 10 digits: 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47…. Its representation in binary being 00101111. It is the Telephone dialing country code for Norway

But, by far and away, the best thing I heard was a comment left on facebook which I used as the title of the post. If you need explaination - leave me a note....

Oh, by the way. To celebrate the day, I am introducing a new avatar. I don't know how long it will stick - but it's a new me.....

Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk

Frank Arrigo — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:06:12 GMT

One of the things that appealed to me when I made the move to Redmond almost 3 years ago was being in a position to drive cultural change.

The Blue Monster was the social object we grasped representing this change and I made it part of my everyday. I hung it proudly on my door

Fast forward to 2010, and I’m still working on driving cultural change within DPE.

Right now I’m looking to get folks fired up about Community Driven Marketing and I’m in need of a speaker for an upcoming meeting we will be running.

So, what do I do? I turn to my social network.

I make a connection with Jeremy Epstein who has been part of my network for a number of years.

He walks the walk and talks the talk, and has the stories to back it up.

We talk. We get excited. We’re set.

Done!

Community Marketing at it’s best.

Jeremy -- Looking forward to meeting you in person soon.

Technorati Tags: Blue Monster,Microsoft,Community Driven Marketing,CDM

I really tweeted that ?

Frank Arrigo — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:22:22 GMT

I’m playing around again with a new Windows Live Writer Plugin which Inserts Tweets Into Your Blog Post by Tod Birdsall, aka @tod1d

So, thanks to this new plugin, here’s my last 155 tweets (going back to April 28th 2010) – and I can’t believe I tweeted some of the things I that did.

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint - http://nyti.ms/c8GATa
RT @ThisIsSethsBlog Seth's Blog: "Powerpoint makes us stupid"--these bullets can kill http://bit.ly/dkoXPw
RT @simonsinek: The Weirdos http://bit.ly/98dWqp
Happy #flashforward day
#Crusade is ON for @thewebbyawards! I voted 4 @glympse in BestUseofGPS. Pledge your allegiance: http://bit.ly/cyTLoj #Webbys
@orinthomas - we need a photo!!!
w00t. @fitbit #2 on it's way.
@ozziesterling yup. i got the confirmation email today. so excited. i lost #1 and have been missing it
feeling fried
#gosaints Western Bulldogs (46) lost to St Kilda (49)
@delitescere lol. it was aussie rules. first time combined total > 100 points at the dome. saints lowest winning score since 1960
heading to gig harbour.
http://is.gd/bQbiI hello gig harbor
angry young man http://is.gd/bQcTX
hurrah! meatball sandwich soothes angry young man.
woah. high speed police chase on ne 85th in kirkland
snow? what the what?
Where is spring? http://www.king5.com/news/local/Storm-to-bring-wind-to-W-Wash-heavy-snow-to-mountains-92625164.html
what's another word for firedrill when there is no fire
hey! it's hailing?
everything feels better when the sun is shining
May the fourth be with you..... #StarWarsDay
d'oh! Gas Leak Intersection of NE 36th St & 150th Ave NE. Redmond Fire Department and Puget Sound Energy are currently working on repairs
yay! that the Gas Leak is contained, and streets in the area have been reopened.
Second IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers : http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/
#cincodemayo feast @ casa arrigo
so proud of my emma - she made us rocky road. yum!!!
a real firedrill. wtf? just my luck eh?
http://is.gd/bXcGv fire engine for firedrill
RT @pocketnowTweets: Almost 200 Ready Made High Quality Wallpapers for Sense 2.5 http://is.gd/bXhIU
RT @pocketnowTweets: HTC Sense UI Themes and Tweaks http://is.gd/b0TqL
Meet #Fizzik - A new type of Web Browser http://bit.ly/bYiw3L
@matthewcp because there's an app for that?
wtf? @billyarr has sent 1402 txts so far for the month of may. a new PB
the last few days have been a series of What the Whaaat?
I'm at Casa Arrigo (629 11th Ave, Kirkland). http://4sq.com/avxI3M
#Australia takes on #England in #T20 #Cricket final. now where can i watch the game???
#aflsaintsbombers
late night trip to medical center for bricey - early signs of pneumonia. poor little fella
i found my missing little franky poken guy. finally something positive for a change
great - my battery on my poken died. i guess i get 6 months out of it. time to find the FAQ on replacing batteries.
to change POKEN battery (Lithium CR1632), use small flat screwdriver to delicately pry apart the top & bottom halves of the poken hand.
lots of great poken faq at http://www.poken.com/faq
stuck in a swirling vortex of spreadsheet cells
hey - got my @spindexme account. updating my status from spindex.
now I remember why I don't catch campus shuttles any more. wait time is crazy. time to walk.
RT @DamianEdwards LOL, ahhh Dilbert, it's been too long old friend http://bit.ly/b0O0Lb
SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol or Strategy On A Page ?
standing in the rain. got lulled into a false sense of security earler today when the sun wad shining and the sky was cloud free.
it's bucketing down! it is like a sydney downpour
19lbs of M&Ms makes a big pile http://flic.kr/p/83Dois
From My Blog : Only 19 http://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/archive/2010/05/20/only-19.aspx
Only 19 http://goo.gl/fb/JkJd1 #fb #personal
Only 19: 1991 was a big year for me. I got married. I bought a house. My first child was born AND I ... http://bit.ly/ba9eqE (new on blog)
got absolutly drenched *again* by an angry raincloud.
Best Legal Department 2010: And The Winner Is ... Microsoft! http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202458237407
thanks @ozziesterling @davidlem @mrsnickhodge @jldavid @brucery - there's plenty of M&Ms left if you want some.....
Where do I go? See a heat map of my @foursquare checkins and make your own at http://bit.ly/cDZS7W
Take a look at an interactive map of you and your friends' foursquare checkins at www.CheckoutCheckins.com! I did!
Tweets about frankarr have reached 7,465 people - http://bit.ly/8YK8aL (from TweetReach)
cool RT @moldor Seesmic Blog: Introducing Seesmic for iPhoneHey @frankarr, you made it onto the Seesmic home page ! http://skitch.com/t/hbp
meet AJ the tweeting Fiesta @AJtheFiesta. Yes, AJ is a car! I want my car to tweet tool
Eastside Lions to play for Shield Championship | Rugby http://shar.es/mYvfd good luck to @billyarr coach @JoshuaYoung
it's absolutely pouring down this morning. great day for a rugby final!!!
woot saints! RT @contestedfooty: West Coast vs. St Kilda – Round 9 Match Review http://bit.ly/b9PQcA #AFL
RT @Gartenberg Smoke Monster's name is apparently Thaddeus which perhaps explains his disposition.
cupcakes for everyone! http://is.gd/cmdxT
emergency alert broadcast during lost finale! wtf komo?
@MossyBlog it was only a test.
#Eurovision week! 1st semi-final is tonight. 2nd semi-final is Thursday night. Final is on Saturday night. let the partying begin
1.Go, make something happen.2.Do work you're proud of.3.Treat people with respect. 4.Make big promises & keep them.5. Ship it out the door.
New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/23ctp4t - Blog Platform Upgraded
Only 19 http://goo.gl/fb/ZRaZ4 #fb #personal
Blog Platform Upgraded http://goo.gl/fb/bxe5G #fb
Blog Platform Upgraded: Over the weekend we had an update to the blog platform used by all MSDN and T... http://bit.ly/91FDfW (new on blog)
RT @fxshaw internet time, TCP/IP and MS history, Oh my! http://chilp.it/ed892f
RT @microsofthohm: Are you an #energy hog? Get your #HohmScore and compare with 60 million US homes at http://bit.ly/wSFxx #energy #green
RT @OMGFacts The total weight of all the ANTS on Earth is about the same as the weight of all the humans on earth. #omgfacts
My #twitter age is 1258 days 6 hours 8 minutes 45 seconds. Find out yours at http://twitter.seocoder.org/ #twittertime
My #twitter age is 1258 days 6 hours 8 minutes 50 seconds. Find out yours at http://twitter.seocoder.org/ #twittertime
w00t! RT @microsofttag: Microsoft Tag is officially out of Beta today! With cool new features! http://ow.ly/1QBxK #qrcode #mobile
LOL -- IRON BABY http://youtu.be/SyoA4LXQco4
it feels like a winters day here in seattle. wtf ??
today is a good day to get my inbox under control or maybe just move the whole inbox into another folder and be done with it!!!
all that is left of my 19lb of m&ms. http://is.gd/ctmHD
＼ @frankarr !! ／ ( #isparade on http://isparade.jp/183886 )
finally setting up my 2nd #fitbit after having lost my original one. 10000 steps here i come
prince of persia - donnie darko in the sand
I saw the movie Prince of Persia and gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. http://bitly.com/a9dLgU
Last week I walked 2,654 steps and 1.7 miles and burned 2,799 calories a day on average via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/229VLQ
checking out #metrotwit http://www.metrotwit.com/ from downunder!
i swallowed what?http://oto.ph/8
Internet Explorer rubix cube mosaic from #remixau http://flic.kr/p/86Xvch
@adamse with halo http://is.gd/czagW
aarrgg *nothing* is going right at the moment. at least it's stopped raining in seattle.
@ceibner Hellooooo???
go, you big red firetruck! http://is.gd/cCO06
finally - spring cleaning time.
RT @gizmodo How a Silly Phone for Teens Reveals Microsoft's Plan for Us All http://bit.ly/dv52yx
checking out @MetMarket with what seems to be half of Kirkland!
it's time for Doctor Who! ftw!
hiding out @pacsci in the planetarium
miss emma is the center of the universe http://is.gd/cF0AN
naked mole rat.
naked mole rat http://is.gd/cF0M7
Ohh cool. The International Rugby Board’s (IRB) annual Junior World Championship streaming live http://www.irb.com/jwc #silverlight
Last week I walked 5,762 steps and 2.5 miles and burned 2,743 calories a day on average via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/229VLQ
Reading about Bigdoor and their platform for points, badges, levels, leaderboards, virtual currency & virtual goods http://www.bigdoor.com/
mmmmm donut ...... Seahawks receiver Tate warned for trespassing at donut shop - Seattle- msnbc.com http://bit.ly/aHUWnJ
I wish I were attending the Office Mayor Meetup 2010 in Sydney -- http://officemayormeetup.eventbrite.com
A geek's guide to the World Cup: http://bit.ly/b8ImRO via @addthis
Watching the World Cup unfold on Twitter at http://twitter.com/worldcup/match/aus/ger
Bing bets big on World Cup fever with map app, Foursquare badge: http://bit.ly/dzuRIn via @addthis
Football Fans Get Ready For Kick-Off http://shar.es/mAyZ9
Cool World Cup Social Media Analytics http://www.extendedresults.com/worldcup/ #worldcup #analytics @extendedresults
RT @gedrobinson: Amazing viral public art / advertising http://bit.ly/aPYiAv #worldcup
New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/2c48mmu - SLP Services – Where are they now?
SLP Services – Where are they now? http://goo.gl/fb/gl6In #fb #isv #announcement

Follow me on Twitter

Technorati Tags: Twitter,WLW

SLP Services – Where are they now?

Frank Arrigo — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:24:23 GMT

I had written about Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services a few years back when it was still a Microsoft product.

About a year ago, the product was picked up by startup company based in Dublin, called InishTech, which would take the Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services to the world.

I kept in touch with these guys, since I always felt it was a cool piece of technology. Plus, I have a soft spot for startups.

I got an email just this morning from my friends at InishTech which made me smile.

Provance Looks to InishTech to Provide a Licensing Solution for their System Center Management Packs

Provance selects InishTech’s Software Licensing and Protection Services as best of breed for licensing and code protection for the Provance IT Asset Management Pack Solution.

Dublin, Ireland and Gatineau, Quebec, Canada June 11, 2010 –– Provance, the leading provider of IT Asset Management solutions for Microsoft System Center, launched their new IT Asset Management Pack for System Center Service Manager 2010 in April. As part of the solution, Provance require the ability to protect their code and intellectual property, license software with flexible configurations and business models, and track the performance and profitability of products. To fill that need, they selected InishTech’s SLP Services, saving development time and focusing precious resources on their core product offering.

“Wherever possible, Provance collaborates with best of breed technology partners to allow us to develop better products and get to market more quickly,” said Gord Watts, Provance Vice President Product Development. “The complete, turnkey technology and service that InishTech provides lets us focus our development effort and confidently delegate our software licensing and protection to the experts.”

The SLP Service provides Provance with a fully managed Product Licensing and Management solution that provides greater flexibility in licensing and protects their core IP. Using SLPS allows Provance to concentrate on delivering the best products and solutions to the market without the distraction, development and maintenance and infrastructure overhead of maintaining a complex licensing system. This means a faster time to market, too.

Provance customized the System Center Service Manger Console to include SLP Services API’s to manage and upgrade licenses at the customer’s site. This way, to change the scope of the license, the customer uses a familiar tool to perform that. SLP Services API’s are also used to query licenses installed by the customer. Installation includes both server and console installation. This custom integration of SLP Services into the Provance Console was accomplished by 2 people in 2 months. This integration of licensing into the relative complex client/server nature of Provance’s solution demonstrates the power of the Provance architecture and ease of integration of SLP Services.

Licenses are time-based or based on the number of assets managed. Customers of Provance now have seamless integration of the licensing with the console. Provance now has the ability now to evolve their licensing dynamically over time.

According to Aidan Gallagher, CEO of InishTech, “Provance is a recognized leader in the provision of System Center solutions”. “Provance has a history of understanding their customers’ needs and providing solutions that have tangible business benefits to their clients. We are delighted to be part of that solution and look forward to helping Provance grow their business models in a proactive way with flexible licensing.”

“System Center is a strategic and growing business area for Microsoft. SLPS is ideally suited for use in the System Centre solution environment and we expect to see considerable growth in our business in this area”.

About Provance

For over 12 years Provance™ IT Asset Management software has been used by mid- to large sized enterprises and government organizations to drive down IT costs, increase service management efficiency, and reduce security and compliance risks. The new Provance IT Asset Management Pack is a Process Management Pack that runs within Microsoft® System Center Service Manager 2010. It complements the Incident, Problem and Change Management capabilities of Service Manager with powerful IT Asset Life Cycle Management and Software Asset Management. Supporting ITIL® and the Microsoft Operations Framework, Provance strengthens the IT effectiveness of companies at every level of the Microsoft Core Infrastructure Optimization model. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Provance holds the Microsoft Systems Management Competency and is a member of the Microsoft System Center Alliance. For further information, please visit http://www.Provance.com

About InishTech

Founded in 2009, InishTech provides Software Developers and Product Managers globally with code protection and license management solutions that protect their most valuable asset and enable their customers to deploy and use their products in the most flexible manner possible. InishTech’s Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services provides ISVs with a choice of either a managed service or in-house server that is both easy to deploy and simple to integrate with back office systems. For further information, please visit http://www.inishtech.com.

Great to see companies adopting this solution to provide licensing and code protection.

Technorati Tags: SLPS,Software Licensing and Protection Services,Inishtech

Blog Platform Upgraded

Frank Arrigo — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:37:29 GMT

Over the weekend we had an update to the blog platform used by all MSDN and Technet blogs.

If you want to read a bit about some of the platform improvements Sean Jenkin’s blog is a good place to start.

If you notice any problems or want to comment on the new platform, comments welcome!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Only 19

Frank Arrigo — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:57:32 GMT

1991 was a big year for me.

I got married.

I bought a house.

My first child was born

AND

I joined Microsoft on May 20, 1991

Today marks my 19th year anniversary at Microsoft.

19 reminds me of "Only Nineteen", which a song by Aussie folk group Redgum. Not that I am comparing my job to military combat, but read into it what you want ;) The song has a "Frankie" in the lyrics, which connected me to it.

Today I continue the Microsoft tradition which dictates that I bring in a pound of M&Ms for each year that I’ve been an employee.

As I have done for the past few years (18, 17, 16. 15, 14, 13), time to reflect a bit on my time at Microsoft. Yes, I still *love* the job.

The resume hasn’t changed that much over the year, apart from a title adjustment

May 1991	Sep 1993	Microsoft Canberra, working as a Systems Engineer
Sep 1993	Aug 1994	Microsoft Corp, @ Executive Briefing Center
Aug 1994	Oct 1995	Microsoft Corp, in the Advanced Technology Group, working on Interactive TV
Nov 1995	May 1997	Microsoft Australia, MSN Technical Director
Jun 1997	Jun 1999	ninemsn CTO
Jun 1999	May 2001	Microsoft Region, Digital Media dude
May 2001	Aug 2007	Microsoft Australia, Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE)
Aug 2007	Current	Microsoft Corp, Director – DPE Field Community & Readiness

I've been caught up in the day to day of my job recently and my blog has been gathering some dust recently - it's even prompted some emails from folks checking in on me. I'm ok. I'm doing fine. I haven't kicked a mine like Frankie did "the day that mankind kicked the moon".

Ok, time to share those M&Ms

Technorati Tags: Frank Arrigo

Virtual Ark struggling to find a good developer

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:43:14 GMT

I got an email recently from Emma Pudney, EVP Product Strategy of a new startup called Virtual Ark.

I’ve known Emma for ages, going back to the early days of ninemsn and the team from Hostworks in Adelaide.

So, when Emma asks for help, I’m going to try and assist.

This is the job description

---

If you have a passion for cloud computing and having fun at work with a highly qualified technical team, we’d like to talk to you. We are building a team of the earliest innovators in Cloud computing in Australia. We're looking for an experienced, clever and enthusiastic Developer. Reporting to the Head of Product Strategy this role will initially be a 3 month contract term but has the potential to become full time and a founding member of a new start up’s technical team! The role location is flexible however if we need to choose between equally qualified candidates our preference will be given to Australian Adelaide or Sydney residents.

Your main responsibility will be developing a web application that runs on the cloud and interfaces with many back end systems via different APIs. The architecture needs to be flexible (to accommodate future integrations), resilient (this will be core to our business) and scalable (we plan to grow). We'd like the frontend to look good, but we can always pretty that up later!

We are looking for the following skills and experience:

Required:

Experience with one of the major programming languages (e.g. PHP or .NET)

Experience in integrating applications using APIs

Familiarity with XML, SOAP/WSDL, REST etc

Experience with integrating with a database back-end (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL)

Understanding of W3C standards and how they apply to web development

Understanding of cloud infrastructure and platform services (e.g. EC2, Azure)

Essential:

Excellent time management skills

Ability to work to deadlines

Ability to work with broad direction

3+ years experience integrating management tools such as monitoring, reporting and service management platforms

Strong documentation standards

Desired:

Ability to create a quality functional specification from business and technical requirements

Experience with cloud infrastructure or platform services (e.g., EC2, Azure)

Experience using or scripting on instances on public cloud infrastructure such as EC2, GoGrid, RackSpace etc. or developing applications on Azure / GoogleApps is highly desirable but not required. As part of this new start-up technical team you will develop the most innovative modern cloud computing skills in this fast emerging area.

--
Interested? Leave me a comment or send an email to frankarr @ microsoft.com and I will get you in touch with Emma and the team

Technorati Tags: Virtual Ark,Cloud Computing,Azure

From Treo to Leo – My New Gadget, the HTC HD2

Frank Arrigo — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:16:21 GMT

I’ve been a happy Palm Treo Pro user since Oct 2008, and it’s been the best phone I’ve had for ages. I had paired it up with SPB Mobile Shell and found it quite a handy and enjoyable combination.

But, the 320x320 screen was a bit weird.

So, in my quest for the ultimate Windows Mobile Phone, I got myself an unlocked HTC HD2 (codename Leo).

I’m a fan of the unlocked phone – let’s me be in control, rather than the carrier. It’s a weird model they have here in the US with carriers lock-in. All my phones have been unlocked (Shadow, HTC TyTN II, Palm Treo 750, Imate K-Jam)

There are a few online retailers who have the unlocked phone, such as Expansys and Integrontech but the big news for those in the US is that T-Mobile will be offering the HD2 sometime in 2010. Since I am on T-Mobile, I felt quite quite smug about my decision.

For my friends downunder, Telstra will be offering the phone, and to celebrate the local folks are giving away five HTC HD2 Windows phones. You gotta be in in to win it, eh?

So, I’ve had the phone a few days and I really really really like it. Especially the 480 X 800 WVGA screen. mmmmmm.

The 1GHz Snapdragon™ processor isn’t too shabby either.

This is a killer phone!

Technorati Tags: HTC HD2,Windows Mobile

Merry Christmas Y’all

Frank Arrigo — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:40:36 GMT

It’s that time of year

Emma came to visit me one day at work at left a happy holiday message on my white board – thanks Emma!

From my family to yours ….

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2010!

Technorati Tags: Christmas,2009

3 by 3 from me

Frank Arrigo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:20:44 GMT

In keeping with my 3 year twitter-versary, here’s 3 twitter clients for 3 different platforms

WPF	Sobees Lite	Seesmic for Windows	Mahtweets
Silverlight	Sobees Web	Gadfly	Twittzure
Windows Mobile	Twikini	Pocketwit	Motweets

Enjoy!

If you want to find more twitter apps – head over to http://oneforty.com/

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Silverlight,WPF,Windows Mobile

Behold the Physical Manifestation of the Azure Cloud

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:16:19 GMT

In my current job, I don’t get out much.

What I mean is that I have an internal focused role, so I don’t get out to meet with customers & partners, attend events, speak to press etc.

So when I was at the PDC last month, Lynn Langit asked me to be a guest commentator for TechZulu, I couldn’t resist the chance to get involved.

The result was this little video of the ‘physical cloud’ from PDC - Physically Diving Into The Azure Cloud – hosted by me!

No plans to give up my day job!

Technorati Tags: TechZulu,Azure,PDC09,Frank Arrigo

Twittering for 3 years

Frank Arrigo — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:47:28 GMT

I hinted about this in a recent post, today is my 3 year twitter-versary.

I first tweeted on Dec 15 2006 – and it feels so long ago.

As I write this, my scoreboard looks like this

10,890 tweets
4,242 Following
3,853 Followers

Now what do my tweetstats show? Any difference from when I looked back in 2008?

Hmm – not twittering these days as much as I used to …

But I’m pretty consistent during the week

and I get busy in the afternoon.

What else??

My first follower was @mspecht! and I was @cameronreilly's first follower?

Unfortunately i cant pull back my first tweet as I get the error - “Too Many Tweets”

Yup, says it all :)

Technorati Tags: Twitter

MIX10 – why not MMX ??

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:36:00 GMT

As soon as the PDC ended, the team has started work on MIX10.

There are workshops running March 14^th, 2010 and the Conference is on March 15^th - March 17^th, 2010 – (yes, the Ides of March)

This year’s event is at Mandalay Bay. Attendees who register by January 15^th will get one free night at the hotel.

Registration has just opened, there is a call for content, and here’s a collection of blog bling……

Speaking of the Ides of March – why not call the conference MMX this year??? Missed opportunity folks….

Technorati Tags: MIX10,MMX

6 Years of Blogging and 1,884 Posts later

Frank Arrigo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:12:32 GMT

A little milestone just crept up on me *again*

Six years ago - December 3 2003 - I made my first post here. At the time the blogs were sitting on http://weblogs.asp.net/, having recently moved from http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/.

So much has happened since then, from being on the telly, being in newspapers and magazine articles, special guest on podcasts, trips to the hospital, moving my family to the US and having adventures with a Snowmobile.

Some stats from my blog:

Total Posts Published: 1,884
Total Pages Published: 34
Total Comments: 2,699
Total Trackbacks and Pingbacks: 3,122

How big is yours?

Frank Arrigo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:44 GMT

During Steven Sinofsky’s keynote on Day 2 of the PDC09, he spoke how the windows team uses all the data they collect to make decisions about features and fix bug.

One thing that I found really interesting was the statistic about screen resolutions

Here’s the slide…

What surprised so many folks was that 1024 x 768 is such a dominant screen resolution. (I’m in that < .05% running at 1900 x 1200)

It made me wonder about the visitors to this blog and their screen resolution. The data shows something a bit different

Resolution	%
1280x1024	38%
Unknown	38%
1024x768	19%
1600x1200	2%
800x600	2%
1152x864	2%
640x480	0%

It’s a different distribution, which makes sense since the folks who visit my blog would have higher resolution monitors – at least that’s my theory.

I also wonder what that that large “unknown” is? Could it be spiders crawling my blog?? or mobile devices maybe? i don’t really know.

Is it that time of the year?

Frank Arrigo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:01:00 GMT

It only seems like yesterday that I wrote my XLV post -- I’m celebrating another birthday today.

Today I’m XLVI

As happened last year, I’ve received best wishes from my friends via email,tweets, re-tweets, facebook and these started the day before, due to my down under crew.

Thank you to all who left me a note – I will get back to each and everyone of you!

Now some information about my age: It is a Wedderburn-Etherington number, an enneagonal number and a centered triangular number. It is the sum of the totient function for the first twelve integers. 46 is the largest even integer that can't be expressed as a sum of two abundant numbers. It is the 13th semiprime. It is the atomic number of palladium, the number of human chromosomes and the (decimal) value of the ASCII code for the period (full stop), as well as the code for international direct dial phone calls to Sweden.

This year, I am away from home, but I do get to celebrate my birthday at PDC09, with thousands of fellow geeks. There’s even a geekfest in the evening (which I’m thinking is surprise birthday party for me – how cool could that be!!!!!).

As I look ahead, I’m see a what others did at age 46:

Ben Franklin conducted kite experiments, and discovered lightning is an electrical discharge.
Scottish surgeon, James Baird, discovered hypnosis.
Jack Nicklaus became oldest man ever to win golf's Masters.
Alfred Eisenstaedt took his photo of a sailor sweeping up a girl in a kiss during the V-J day celebration in Times Square.
Theodore Roosevelt was elected to a full term as President in 1904.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

and can wonder what lies ahead for me…

Technorati Tags: Frank Arrigo,PDC09,XLVI

frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger

Not clicking, waving….

My Geek Origin Story

20? meh - Just another day

My second #WP7 App – Saints Footy

My #WP7 App – FrankArr Tracker

MIX11 or as I like to call it MMXI?

Mayorships up for grabs

Wait, What?

The word of the year is ”App”! ?

Three runs off the half century, and only got one maiden over.

Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk

I really tweeted that ?

SLP Services – Where are they now?

Blog Platform Upgraded

Only 19

Virtual Ark struggling to find a good developer

From Treo to Leo – My New Gadget, the HTC HD2

Merry Christmas Y’all

3 by 3 from me

Behold the Physical Manifestation of the Azure Cloud

Twittering for 3 years

MIX10 – why not MMX ??

There are workshops running March 14th, 2010 and the Conference is on March 15th - March 17th, 2010 – (yes, *the* Ides of March)

6 Years of Blogging and 1,884 Posts later

How big is yours?

Is it that time of the year?

There are workshops running March 14^th, 2010 and the Conference is on March 15^th - March 17^th, 2010 – (yes, the Ides of March)