There’s significantly less than two years to go before Windows XP is unsupported, and of course if you’re still running Windows XP in your school, it’s worth remembering that Windows XP was probably born before some or many of your students.

But for schools making the shift to Windows 8, there’s still a need to plan carefully the migration, and this summer holiday will be one of the first opportunities for many of the classrooms around the country to be updated.

So this resource guide might be perfectly timed:

Basically, it steps you through focused documentation for the five key stages of rolling out Windows 8, and provides information that answers key questions:

• Explore – Windows XP is good enough, why should I care?
• Plan – Does it work in my environment? How do we prepare?
• Deliver – What can I do to make deployment easier and faster?
• Operate – How do I manage risk? How do I maintain control?
• Support – Where can I find help and support?

The Resource Guide has links to over 70 detailed documents which will help you to understand what Windows 8 does, how to plan the deployment, and what tools are available to make it easier. For an education institution or partner, there are a number of documents which would be especially useful, including information on:

• Bitlocker – to encrypt sensitive data on staff computers, especially laptops
• Windows To Go – to create a Windows 8 environment on a USB stick that staff or students could use on non-managed PCs (for example, to have a secure Managed Operating Environment build that students can run on a home PC which isn’t part of your standard managed network)
• AppLocker – to allow you to control which applications are run on which computers
• Microsoft Security Compliance Manager – to allow you to support a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy whilst maintain information security

Download the Spring Resource Guide for Windows 8

There’s significantly less than two years to go before Windows XP is unsupported, and of course if you’re still running Windows XP in your school, it’s worth remembering that Windows XP was probably born before some or many of your students.

But for schools making the shift to Windows 8, there’s still a need to plan carefully the migration, and this summer holiday will be one of the first opportunities for many of the classrooms around the country to be updated.

So this resource guide might be perfectly timed:

Basically, it steps you through focused documentation for the five key stages of rolling out Windows 8, and provides information that answers key questions:

• Explore – Windows XP is good enough, why should I care?
• Plan – Does it work in my environment? How do we prepare?
• Deliver – What can I do to make deployment easier and faster?
• Operate – How do I manage risk? How do I maintain control?
• Support – Where can I find help and support?

The Resource Guide has links to over 70 detailed documents which will help you to understand what Windows 8 does, how to plan the deployment, and what tools are available to make it easier. For an education institution or partner, there are a number of documents which would be especially useful, including information on:

• Bitlocker – to encrypt sensitive data on staff computers, especially laptops
• Windows To Go – to create a Windows 8 environment on a USB stick that staff or students could use on non-managed PCs (for example, to have a secure Managed Operating Environment build that students can run on a home PC which isn’t part of your standard managed network)
• AppLocker – to allow you to control which applications are run on which computers
• Microsoft Security Compliance Manager – to allow you to support a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy whilst maintain information security

Download the Spring Resource Guide for Windows 8

Windows 8 is a new user experience. One of the best parts is a uniformity and consistency across applications to handle common tasks the same. Specifically, I mean the charms. Users search consistently. Users share consistently. And, users access settings, preferences, options, personalization, and about screens consistently.

You know what I mean, right?

In some applications, there’s a Preferences item under the File menu. In some applications, there is an Options item under the Tools menu. In some applications, there is a Personalization item under the Edit menu. What’s a user suppose to do? Well, hunt for it – that’s the way it used to be. Do you see the problem? Of course you do. You’re smart.

Read the whole article

Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant sur WOWZAPP Algiers, créez votre application Windows 8 et devenez parmi les premiers à le faire en Algérie!

WOWZAPP est le plus grand Hackathon au monde organisé par Microsoft permettant à des milliers de développeurs d’apprendre à développer des application Windows.

Que vous soyez étudiant, développeur ou entrepreneur, cet évènement est pour vous.

Note :Les Places à cet évènement sont limitées.

Faites partie de la Révolution App

Rejoignez des milliers de développeurs à travers les 5 continents et créez des applications Windows.

Il y aura des dizaines de sites d’événements de campus universitaires dans les bureaux de Microsoft, tout bourdonnant d’énergie, musique, la nourriture gratuite et plus encore.

L’aide d’experts, les ressources libres

Microsoft App Experts, développeurs et formateurs seront disponibles pour vous aider dans votre apprentissage et codage. Apprenez plus sur le développement d’applications Windows Store dès aujourd’hui - info, les outils et les ressources disponibles maintenant.

Outils et téléchargements

Obtenez les outils de développement d’applications Windows Store pour Windows 8.

Téléchargez Windows 8 RTM et les outils de développement d’applications Windows Store

 

Votre App inclut-elle un service Cloud ou stockage ?

Commencer dès maintenant avec Windows Azure Mobile Services http://aka.ms/RaoufWAMS, tous les participants WOWZAPP auront une 6 mois de services Windows Azure offert!

We are pleased to announce the new book C++ AMP: Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++ by Kate Gregory and Ade Miller. C++ AMP lets you capitalize on the fast GPU processors in today’s computers through the C++ AMP code library, bringing massive parallelism to your project. Experienced C++ developers will learn parallel programming fundamentals with C++ AMP through detailed examples, code snippets, and case studies.

The case studies include:

· An “N-body” case study that uses several different implementations of the classic n-body problem, which models particle movement under gravity, intended to show you how to use C++ AMP to get the most out of your GPU hardware in a computational application

· A “Cartoonizer” case study that demonstrates braided parallelism, using both the available cores on the CPU and any available GPU(s). This project processes video into simpler “cartoonized” images, using two different approaches to solve the problem.

· A “Reduction” case study that shows twelve different implementations of the reduce algorithm. The book shows and discusses each implementation’s performance characteristics and the trade-offs associated with each.

You’ll discover how to:

· Gain huge code performance improvement using graphics processing units (GPUs)

· Choose accelerators that enable you to write code for GPUs

· Program code using the Microsoft DirectX platform

· Apply thread tiles, tile barriers, and tile static memory

· Debug C++ AMP code with Microsoft Visual Studio

· Use profiling tools to track the performance of your code

The full table of contents appears below. You can purchase the book from O’Reilly here: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0790145341907.do, and find more information on CodePlex: http://ampbook.codeplex.com/. Author Kate Gregory also maintains a page for this book: http://www.gregcons.com/cppamp/.

Chapter 1 : Overview and C++ AMP Approach

Why GPGPU? What Is Heterogeneous Computing?

Technologies for CPU Parallelism

The C++ AMP Approach

Summary

Chapter 2 NBody Case Study

Prerequisites for Running the Example

Running the NBody Sample

Structure of the Example

CPU Calculations

Chapter 3 C++ AMP Fundamentals

array<T, N>

accelerator and accelerator_view

index<N>

extent<N>

array_view<T, N>

parallel_for_each

Functions Marked with restrict(amp)

Copying between CPU and GPU

Math Library Functions

Summary

Chapter 4 Tiling

Purpose and Benefit of Tiling

tile_static Memory

tiled_extent

tiled_index<N1, N2, N3>

Modifying a Simple Algorithm into a Tiled One

Effects of Tile Size

Choosing Tile Size

Summary

Chapter 5 Tiled NBody Case Study

How Much Does Tiling Boost Performance for NBody?

Tiling the n-body Algorithm

Using the Concurrency Visualizer

Choosing Tile Size

Summary

Chapter 6 Debugging

First Steps

GPU Debugging Basics

Seeing Threads

Taking More Control

Summary

Chapter 7 Optimization

An Approach to Performance Optimization

Analyzing Performance

Optimizing Memory Access Patterns

Optimizing Computation

Summary

Chapter 8 Performance Case Study—Reduction

The Problem

Case Study Structure

CPU Algorithms

C++ AMP Algorithms

Summary

Chapter 9 Working with Multiple Accelerators

Choosing Accelerators

Using More Than One GPU

Swapping Data among Accelerators

Dynamic Load Balancing

Braided Parallelism

Falling Back to the CPU

Summary

Chapter 10 Cartoonizer Case Study

Prerequisites

Running the Sample

Structure of the Sample

The Pipeline

The Pipeline Cartoonizing Stage

Using Multiple C++ AMP Accelerators

Cartoonizer Performance

Summary

Chapter 11 Graphics Interop

Fundamentals

Using Textures and Short Vectors

HLSL Intrinsic Functions

DirectX Interop

Summary

Chapter 12 Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices

Dealing with Tile Size Mismatches

Initializing Arrays

Function Objects vs. Lambdas

Atomic Operations

Additional C++ AMP Features on Windows 8

Time-Out Detection and Recovery

Double-Precision Support

Debugging on Windows 7

Additional Debugging Functions

Deployment

C++ AMP and Windows 8 Windows Store Apps

Using C++ AMP from Managed Code

Summary

Appendix Other Resources

More from the Authors

Microsoft Online Resources

Download C++ AMP Guides

Code and Support

Training

????????????????? JavaScript ???????????????????????????????? Web ????????????????? JavaScript ???? API ????????????? API ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Web ???????????????????????? Amazon?Google, Mozilla ? Microsoft ????????????????????? ECMAScript 6 ????????????????????????????????????????????????????? API??????????????????????????

???????????? API ????????????????????? Web ????????????????????????????????????? JavaScript ????? API ???????????????

????? API ???????????????

???? Google ???Yahoo ???FXCM?ForXCharts ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Web ????????????

1) ?? Flash ???????? Yahoo ?????? 2) ?? Flash ??? DateTime ??? Google ??

??? API ????? ActiveX ?????????????????? 100% ?? JavaScript ?????????? jqPlot ???????????????????????? JavaScript????????????????????????????????????????? ja-JP-u-nu-latin ?????????????????????????????“Plot with Intl”????????? JavaScript API?

JavaScript ??? API ??

Web ????????????????????????? JavaScript ????????????????????????????? JavaScript ?????????????????????????????????? API ???????????????????Windows 8 ????????? 364 ????????18 ????????????????????????????????????????????????

???????????????????????? ActiveX ????????????????????????? JavaScript API ???????????????? JavaScript ?????????????

API ????? Web ???????

• ?????? – ???????????????????????????
• ????????? – ?????????????????????????????????????????
• ??????? – ?????????????????????????

???????? API ????

// Number formatting var nf = new Intl.NumberFormat(["en-US"], { style: "currency", currency: "CNY", currencyDisplay: "symbol", maxmimumFractionDigit: 1 }) nf.format(100); // "¥100.00" // Date formatting var dtf = new Intl.DateTimeFormat(["ar-SA-u-ca-islamic-nu-latin"], { weekday: "long" }); dtf.format(new Date()); // Prints today's week day in long format //Collation sample var co = new Intl.Collator(["de-DE-u-co-phonebk"]); co.compare("a", "b"); // returns -1

ECMAScript ???????

?? API ?????????????????????????ECMAScript 6????????????? 2013 ????????? API????????????????????????????????????????????? Web ??????????

????????????????????????????????? JavaScript ??????? API ????????????????????????????????????????? JavaScript??????? API ???? Web ??????????????

— JavaScrip ?????? Suresh Jayabalan ? Amanda Silver

If you’ve attended one of my talks on building Windows Store apps with HTML5 and JavaScript, you’ve heard me say that although the default for our app templates is to use the WinJS library for providing rich databinding, controls, and a great look and …read more…(read more)

---

Article by Tamer Maher, a Senior Microsoft Premier Field Engineer.

---

As part of the excitement around the release of Microsoft SharePoint 2013,  I was in Redmond last week to attend the SharePoint 2013 Ignite Developer training, and while there I was lucky enough to learn about the new development concepts for SharePoint 2013 from non-other than Kirk Evans!

I asked Kirk to record a few minutes to talk about the exciting work he has been doing around the world, new custom development opportunities and the SharePoint 2013 Developer training. Here is what Kirk had to say:

 

We are pleased to announce that Professional Scrum Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (ISBN 9780735657984) has been sent to the printer! This book will be shipped to retailers in just a few weeks. In the meantime, preorder your copy here or here.

Here is a quick look at the contents:

 

Contents at a Glance

Foreword 
Introduction

PART I FUNDAMENTALS

CHAPTER 1 Scrumdamentals
CHAPTER 2 Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 ALM
CHAPTER 3 Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 2.0

PART II USING SCRUM

CHAPTER 4 The pre-game 
CHAPTER 5 The Product Backlog  
CHAPTER 6 The Sprint 
CHAPTER 7 Acceptance test-driven development 
CHAPTER 8 Effective collaboration

PART III IMPROVING

CHAPTER 9 Continuous improvement

Appendix: The Scrum Guide 
Index

 

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction:

Introduction

Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex products, such
as software. Scrum is just a set of rules, as defined in the Scrum Guide (www.scrum.org/Scrum-Guides),
and it describes the roles, events, and artifacts, as well as the
rules that bind them together. When used correctly, this framework enables a team to
address complex problems while productively and creatively delivering products of the
highest possible value. Scrum is an Agile method. In fact, it is the most popular Agile
method in use today.   

Scrum employs an iterative and incremental approach to optimizing predictability
and controlling risk. This is due to the empirical process control nature of Scrum.
Through proper use of inspection, adaptation, and transparency, a Scrum Team can try
a new way of doing something (an experiment) and gauge its usefulness after a short
iteration. They can then collectively decide to embrace, extend, or drop the practice.
This includes the tools a team uses and how they use them.

Combining Scrum with the application lifecycle management (ALM) tools found in
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 is a powerful combination. It is the purpose of this book
to establish a baseline understanding of Scrum, as well as how Scrum is supported
in Visual Studio 2012. I will also illustrate which practices provide more value when
executed without the use of tools. In addition, I will point out those tools which have been
erroneously marketed as healthy when used by a collocated, collaborative Scrum Team.

In software development, anything and everything can change in a moment’s notice.
Healthy teams know this. They also know that continuously inspecting and adapting the
way things are done is a way of life. High-performance Scrum Development Teams take
it a step further. They know that within every dysfunction or impediment identifi ed is an
opportunity to learn and improve. Reading this book is a great fi rst step.

Who should read this book

This book will be of value to any members of a software development team using
Scrum. I primarily focus on the responsibilities and tasks of the developer (which in
Scrum includes designers, architects, coders, testers, technical writers, etc.). Product
Owners and Scrum Masters will also derive value from this book, as they will be using
many of the same Visual Studio tools to plan and manage their work and assess
progress. Stakeholders, including customers, users, and managers, will also gain value
from this book, especially when they learn what they can and cannot do according to
the rules of Scrum and which tools in Visual Studio support this.

Who should not read this book

This book is intended for teams using Scrum and Visual Studio 2012 together. It won’t
provide as much value for teams executing Agile (non-Scrum) software development
and won’t provide any value for teams running more formal “waterfall” software
development projects, although Chapter 1 may hopefully change the minds of such
proponents. Likewise, if a team is using Scrum, but not yet using Visual Studio 2012,
the bulk of the book won’t be very interesting. This is also the case for teams using
Visual Studio 2012 Express or Professional editions, which don’t contain the high-value,
team -based tools for planning and managing the backlogs and team collaboration.

Organization of this book

This book is divided into three sections, each of which focuses on a different aspect
of the marriage of Scrum and Visual Studio. Part I, “Fundamentals,” sets a baseline
understanding of the Scrum framework, Visual Studio 2012 editions and their
interesting ALM features, as well as the Visual Studio Scrum 2.0 process template.
Part II, “Using Scrum,” provides several chapters detailing the practical application
of how a Scrum Team would use the relevant features of Visual Studio 2012. Part III,
“ Improving,” includes a chapter on identifying common challenges and dysfunctions
in order to remove them, as well as techniques to continually improve your game of
Scrum. By reading all sections sequentially, you will see how Visual Studio and
Scrum can be used together in an effective way and how a team can become
high – performance in the way it develops software.

Finding your best starting point in this book

The different sections of Professional Scrum Development with Microsoft Visual
Studio 2012 cover a range of topics. Depending on your needs and your existing
understanding of Scrum, Visual Studio, and the related development practices, you may
wish to focus on specific areas of the book. Use the following table to determine how
best to proceed through the book.

 

Back in 2006, I put my extreme example string in the blog More on cursor support: the rest of the answer.

Many people, even native speakers of bidirectional languages and scripts who do not really know about Unicode or the UBA, find it to be confusing.

Now those native speakers of bidirectional languages and scripts who do know a bit about what is going on here? Even they can have trouble editing bidirectional text. This extreme case is showing off how complicated things can be.

This confusion that everyone can have to some degree is the main reason that people can often find the visual option in Word to be interesting:

Kind of ironic that the Cursor Movement options are Logical and Visual.

I mean, the Visual option is well-named — it is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), and bring the cursor along for the ride!

But if editing in Word confuses both new users and old users (in different ways) to some extent, then calling it :Logical is kind of silly.

Thus my suggestion for Word and for everyone — the setting should be

Illogical

vs.

Visual

right?

Of course, it currently is the default option in Word, which would put them in the awkward position of calling their default illogical.

So that may not be such a good option for them.

I mean, its one thing to be illogical by default, but it is quite another to say it in your dialog!

Now it isn’t fair to blame Unicode or the Unicode Bidi Algorithm (UAX #9), since it doesn’t refer to cursor movement or text selection issues at all.

The whole “Logical” vs. “Visual” thing does come from there, because from the point of view of the Unicode Standard, it makes sense to call the text in the backing store logical.

Whether the default option in Word or the only option most other places should follow that direction, and extend it to cursor movement and text selection is a hard one.

So hard that they encourage so many implementations to do it in a way that confuses people!

Perhaps they should take up this issue and talk about it. You know, have the Unicode Standard weigh in.

Now that I think would be logical.