After the Chevy Volt and OnStar mobile app demonstration by the guys of GM, I got some quick time with Walt Dorfstatter, president of GM’s remote assistance subsidiary OnStar. There were only three questions I had for Walt since the Chevy Volt, no matter how spectacular a vehicle it has shown itself to be thus far, isn’t actually a part of what winJade’s focus. The questions focused on possible future platforms for the app (Windows Mobile was not mentioned while the iPhone was), the inspiration for creating a mobile app for the sake of controlling OnStar in the first place. and whether applications such as these could boost subscriptions.

Check it out after the break!

As the person who headed the Office user experience teams and the person who is now running the Windows experience teams in Microsoft, Julie drove the idea for the Ribbon user interface in Office 2007 and led the conceptualization and development efforts behind all of the new user interface elements in Windows 7. At PDC, I had a chance to speak with her about her efforts within the Windows and Office teams. During this interview, we discussed:

• the inspiration and need for a new interface for Office
• the circumstances which led to the superbar and the multi-touch-oriented user interface in Windows 7
• how the PDC laptops came into existence
• the decision to use various new technologies such as gaze tracking, heat maps, among others.

Highlights:

Office 2007’s Ribbon: “A lot of the things they would ask for would already be in [Office], and so we felt we could come up with a better way to expose capabilities that were in Office and help people create better, more powerful documents”

The Windows 7 superbar, jumplists, etc.: “We wanted to simplify the whole experience and take away the differences between launching applications and switching applications and making it easier to get back to documents you did the day before. That was kinda the inspiration: to put the customer more in control of everything they’re trying to do on their PC”

Multi-touch in Windows 7: “There were a lot of cool things going on both inside Microsoft and outside Microsoft with touch, things like the iPhone which has the touch interface as well as Microsoft Surface, and so we felt that your PC experience could be very much enhanced by having direct manipulation [of objects on the screen], and you’d work much more naturally with it.”

The PDC laptops and how they happened: “We worked together with Acer to spec-out a PC and we kinda had the idea that ‘what would the ultimate developer machine look like?’ and ‘what can we do to put all the things in it that would be the things we want developers to do with Windows?’ So we had location awareness, the touch screen, all of the virtualization capabilities in it, 64 bit, etc.”

The direction of the Windows 7 beta program: “We used a lot of the beta feedback from Vista to help inform the plan for what we were going to do with Windows 7, as well as things on the blogs, the customer research that we did”

How the Office 2007 UI itself was researched: “We always try to apply new technologies to learn about how people use [our software]. We even talked about trying to figure out if we could put electrodes on [people’s heads] and measuring brain waves to see how they responded to one interface over another, but we didn’t get to that point.”
(You can catch the Ribbon presentation where the gaze tracking and heat mapping bits were discussed on Jensen Harris’ blog. ~Bryant)

Catch the full video interview with full answers to these topics after the jump.

Update: I made the video public prior to posting this, but within the last ten minutes (as of 6:54 PM GMT-5), something happened to revert the video back to private again. Video has been re-established as public.

As the first of my interviews from PDC, I noticed that Loic Le Muer was quick to familiarize himself with me as a part of the interview. This fact coupled with his persistent praise for the Seesmic devs who worked on Seesmic for Windows have led me to believe that Seesmic might actually be one of the better small software companies in existence.

Loic demonstrated Seesmic for Windows at PDC 2009 during Tuesday’s keynote. The obvious difference between Seesmic for Windows and Seesmic Desktop (the AIR version) is that the Windows client is native and written on top of the .net CLR. The plus sides to this include far better performance figures, a more Windows-integrated UI, and a lower tendency to leak handles (and fill my ram). The only downside to this is that it’s Windows-only… well, until you realize that moving .net code from a Windows native environment to Silverlight is actually not nearly as bad as writing another app from scratch.

My interview with Loic takes a browse through Seesmic for Windows v. Seesmic Desktop. I also decided to run through Silverlight Seesmic with Loic during our quick block of time, and while the Silverlight version still requires some polish before going live, the Windows preview version is solid enough for everyone to take a look.

Both parts of the interview can be found below the read link. Blame YouTube for forcing me to split a 13 minute video.
My thanks goes to Andrew Lyle from neowin for manning the camera.

The interview with Dan Polivy from PDC 2008 can be found here.

We’ve tried to withhold ourselves from sourcing our news from leaky valves in Microsoft as of late (and you can see where that’s gotten us. ahem), but we don’t just stay away for the sake of keeping ourselves out of that eternally stressful race for content. We tend to stay out of it because behind every leak, someone’s job suffers as a result.

I had a very open interview with someone at the launch event. This person frequently deals with product leaks, and as a result, it’s fair to say that the person knows exactly how said leaks impact work, the lives of everyone connected to the project, the public perception of a product, and so forth. My interview with this particular Microsoft employee was fulfilling in the sense that I’m able to offer an uncensored glimpse into what Microsoft has to deal with whenever someone decides to leak a build, leak a screenshot, break an embargo, and what not.

Check the break to read about how it all went down. Keep in mind that there’s no video or audio and that this is, indeed, a long read apparently not as long as some people have seen in the past. Thanks is due to the anonymous commentators who pointed this out.

Anonymous Softie: So, with regards to leaks

Bryant: Yeah

Anonymous Softie: Leaks can affect the public perception of a product. For instance, there’s a reason why we only release specific builds. You know, because we want to release a certain level of quality that people can take a look at, have faith in, and [say] "okay, this is the product, the product is progressing as planned." Sometimes, interim builds, leaked builds, they often haven’t passed any of our quality checks. They were never meant to be released.

Bryant: Right. They can easily have nasty bugs.

Anonymous Softie: Yeah, exactly, and all of a sudden, you’ve got everyone in the world taking a look at this build; everyone wants to see the leaked build, right? ’cause it’s mysterious. It’s rare. It’s from the inside. So yeah, there could be bugs in it. People [find] bugs in it. They question functionality they find in it. And so when all of that happens, my phone starts ringing [with] people asking for comments. I’m not doing my day job at that point.

Anonymous Softie: And so, one, it’s a huge distraction on all of us. Phones ring off the hook. [People say] "I can’t believe there’s this shitty quality build out there!" It’s like, look, I’m not going to take time to talk to you, first of all, ’cause you, you know, that was an unplanned leak. It’s not representative of what we ultimately want to sanction and release.

Anonymous Softie: So, there’s the distraction, the bugs… if it’s really buggy, people might think that that’s the current state of the product when, in fact, it’s not. Internally, we’re already many many builds beyond the one that’s leaked. We don’t really care about that one. It doesn’t exist.

Bryant: Right.

Anonymous Softie: –for all we care.

Bryant: Right. It never happened.

Anonymous Softie: It never happened! But everyone is quick to jump to an opinion about that particular moment in time. They often draw incorrect conclusions, "oh my gosh, the product is incomplete, it doesn’t have this, it doesn’t have that." So that’s one.

Anonymous Softie: And quite often we have features that come out over time, right? You don’t necessarily have all the features in [Windows 7 Milestone 3], for instance. We didn’t have any [of the new] UI.

Bryant: Right. Well when we posted [the article about Milestone 3], that was it. It was just very bare and everything was hidden by a bunch of switches. I remember when we originally posted the very suggestive "we know what’s coming but we don’t actually… know" article, we got a lot of hits. We really killed your day job with that one.

Anonymous Softie: Yeah. So it’s a big distraction; it causes people to form incorrect opinions which I as a communications professional ultimately have to fix. Right? The world starts thinking "Wow, this is it?" and I go "Wait, wait wait"

Bryant: "Yeah, this was like a few months in the past. We’re much further ahead of this now, and there are different branches [besides the one with the leaked build], etc."

Anonymous Softie: Exactly. It’s a distraction for developers that are… you know, so we have an enormous [Independent Software Vendor] community that tests various milestones. They test their software. They test their drivers. They test their apps.. and for them it’s a distraction too because they’re wondering "wow, what’s going on? Should I look at this? Should I stop what I’m doing and look at this leaked build?" and so it tends to slow everything down.

Anonymous Softie: Those are the biggest issues that we have. And then so many people get sucked into potentially having to respond to all the questions that people are raising about that particular moment in time. We just don’t have time to deal with that, and so, generally, we don’t comment on unreleased builds.

Bryant: There you go.

Bryant:
I guess… how does it affect, I mean, you talked about how it affects you guys, what you guys do, but let’s say… how does it affect the actual development of a product itself? Or, on a similar line, how does it affect the timeline? Let’s say you’ve got a bunch of leaks setting things back.

Anonymous Softie: It generally doesn’t affect the timeline. The developers are always heads down; they’re writing code, they’re fixing bugs, but even they will stop and read the reviews of the leaked build. So there’s loss of progress there, potentially. And so, when you add it all up, it really does no one any good. ’cause even all the people that pause to download it– we also have the problem of viruses. People leak builds. They stuff them with payloads, and everyone wants the leaked build. They get a bunch of viruses, and now I have to deal with that problem. So, in some sense, it’s "dangerous" as well, and we have no control over what’s out there, what the quality is…

Anonymous Softie: but leaks generally don’t affect the schedule, but they affect the communication. They affect the perception They’re a distraction for all of the outside developers in the world that are trying to be focused on the right builds, and they might see something they didn’t expect, but when you catch us in between, all bets are off. We establish a contract with developers. We say "here are the APIs." It’s a contract between Microsoft and the developers. [We tell them] "we’re not going to change these APIs." and interim builds could actually have changes, maybe some things that we’re actually just testing out, prototyping. And so, you get some people on the outside that are, you know, wondering "Gosh. Did Microsoft– Did I not– Did I miss something? Did Microsoft not tell me what’s happened?" And so it’s pure theater.

Bryant: Right.

Anonymous Softie: People like to see it because it’s secret and nobody else can see it, but if you download some rogue binary from some site and you get infected, or you download something that, you know… people accuse that, even, of being Microsoft’s fault, and I’m generally the one that has to deal with… you know, whenever press call, my phone rings. I would rather spend my time preparing for that next big real milestone, making sure people have the most accurate information and keeping everyone on track instead of being distracted by all of these external issues.

Bryant: Now that was with regards to, um, actual build leaks. How about news leaks? Like, um, if somebody leaks a screenshot of something in progress– I figure that would possibly be the same ordeal. You know, news leaks, perception leaks [such as reviews], let’s say an embargo is broken about something. How about those? How does that work?

Anonymous Softie: Both a similar and a whole different set of issues as well. You know, we have a… I have a very professional relationship with all of the professional journalists that I work with. And so, it’s difficult. When I en masse pre-brief journalists and I say "okay, all of the information that I’m telling you under confidence–" professionals embargoed under this certain date. For the most part, people respect that. But then, somebody breaks the embargo, and then all the other journalists look around [and think] "well, they went! I gotta go!" And then it jeopardizes my relationship with other people ’cause suddenly everybody is going. At the end of the day, it often causes a lot of misinformation to be out there because people– I haven’t had a chance to talk to you, Bryant, yet, to let you know what’s our intent, What do we do and what is this about, why are we delivering this thing, who is it for, what’s it capable of doing. And so, if I don’t have that opportunity to kinda frame everything with everybody and put it in context, everybody starts speculating. "Maybe it means this. Maybe it means this. Maybe it means that.” Again, huge distractions. The people that need accurate information don’t have that accurate information any longer, and I spend weeks trying to sorta put things back in order so that everyone has the accurate Microsoft view of things instead of 30 different conspiratorial opinions on what may or may not be true.

Bryant: Yeah, of course. And, well I suppose for now that’s all I’m really looking for.

Anonymous Softie: Cool.

Whether this person’s account of how leaks affect things at Microsoft represents the Microsoft way of thinking is beyond me. I didn’t ask, but it’s safe to infer that this person isn’t the only person who thinks along these lines.

1. Microsoft is fully shifting focus to Windows 7. Windows Vista, of which the sheer length of the development cycle was inversely related to the level of approval and favor it garnered as time passed, has turned into something of an elephant in the room for Microsoft employees. Using the same metaphor and finding an excuse to quote an anonymous Microsoft employee I overheard yesterday afternoon, Windows 7 is the equivalent of a reputational wrecking ball designed for the sole purpose of “getting that elephant the f*** out”; it was the first Windows consumer OS born almost entirely from what the user wanted (read: what the average user hated about Vista). Now that it’s out and it starts replacing what was a good OS blighted by pre-SP1 bugs with what is a good OS right from the get-go, Microsoft has switched into what’s essentially a massive damage control mode.
2. Adoption rates and momentum are high, at least according to an analysis by Rob Enderle. Based on his analysis of a study done independently from Microsoft by Laura DiDio and Sunbelt Software, he believes that Windows 7 adoption rates are “unmatched since Windows 2000” adoption rates almost a decade ago. Consumer adoption rates are also up there, with PCMag using the line “Windows 7 More Popular Than Harry Potter” to carry their point. Given that Windows 7 beat Harry Potter on Potter’s home turf, I’m going with the notion that PCMag and Amazon UK are right.
3. Apple created more ads specifically for launch day. Yes, that depressing and uninspired ad campaign which Apple has continued for the last 4 years saw three new additions to the lineup. That’s three new ads released on the same day, which makes sense given the massive dearth of negative press against Windows 7. When a competitor simultaneously launches three attack ads specifically for your product launch, it’s a sign of desperation and a good enough reason for you to pull out your grill and refill that propane tank.

Hey, it wasn’t just me. The vast majority of Engadget’s commentators happen to agree.

Despite the recession and the subdued projections stemming as a result, it’s fair to say that all of the excitement is actually making jobs easier. Microsoft’s PR teams have an easier time when products don’t suck, and the press can move on to fuming at something more important, like the name of the next celebrity’s adopted baby.

The benefit to you? Better apps, higher developer morale, a solid OS, a higher willingness to publicly be a fan of Windows 7, and enough free time for a quick and awesome interview with a certain keynoting executive and perhaps the new face of Windows client by the name of Brad Brooks (Brandon LeBlanc would wisely and accurately like to remind me that there is no single face to Windows).

You can catch the video after the break. This interview happened near the end of our day, so the detailed questions were reserved for others who were around the event. You’ll see all (but one) of them over the coming week.

Download links coming in a bit.

At first, many expected the opening keynote at PDC to be about Windows 7. However, PDC’s first major keynote was dedicated to the announcement of Windows Azure, a platform which (until PDC) was completely concealed by Microsoft from the public (except through occasional, highly dramatic blurbs from Steve Ballmer). The platform’s announcement also came as a surprise to many developers, IT professionals, and pundits who saw Azure as an attempt at matching Amazon’s offerings through Amazon Web Services.

With this in mind, a number of questions regarding Windows Azure remained unanswered. Who exactly was this platform targeting? Was it after IT professionals looking to offload some of their services to Microsoft’s servers? Was it for developers looking to create interactive, deep web 2.0 applications? What would Microsoft do with the data? What about security?

Amitabh Srivastava, corporate vice president and head of Windows Azure within Microsoft, took some time to answer the most common questions about Windows Azure. You can read his responses and comment below the fold.

Who are you and what do you do with Microsoft?

Amitabh: My name is Amitabh Srivastava and I am the Corporate Vice President at Microsoft with responsibility for major components of the company’s next-generation services platform. I joined Microsoft in 1997 as a Senior Researcher and led the Advanced Development Tools group in Microsoft Research that investigated new techniques to build innovative tools and technologies to improve performance and quality of Microsoft software.

I assisted in the creation of the Programmer Productivity Research Center (PPRC), now known as the Center for Software Excellence (CSE), and I am one of a select few to be named a Distinguished Engineer, now known as Technical Fellow.

In 2003 I had the opportunity to join the Windows team as Corporate Vice President to redefine the engineering process for Windows Vista. Then in November, 2006 my focus shifted and I began working on the company’s services platform with Dave Cutler. This is when we started ‘project Red Dog’ to build the operating system for the cloud. Project Red Dog was announced as ‘Windows Azure’ on October 27 at PDC 2008.

For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/srivastava/default.aspx
 

How would you summarize/define “Cloud Computing?”

Amitabh: Microsoft believes the cloud is fundamentally about enabling the developer eco-system to reduce complexity of delivering software. Today, as an industry, we have made some strides, but most of that innovation has come around removing the complexity of installing, maintaining and optimizing hardware. We think that there is a huge opportunity to move beyond hardware, and remove the complexity of the application platform itself; letting customers focus on their applications and end user experiences.
 

What kind of customers are you targeting with the release of Windows Azure?

Amitabh: Windows Azure was designed with developers in mind. This is about enabling developers within ISVs, System Integrators and businesses to quickly and easily create, deploy, manage, and distribute web applications and services. As an example ISVs can give their customers a range of choices in user experience over the Web or on connected PCs, servers, and mobile devices. However, the common thread among all of our audiences is their ability to choose from their existing on-premise or new virtual offerings; the opportunity to save operationally, and access to the vast scalability only offered by the internet.
 

What are some examples of corporate scenarios which the Windows Azure platform aims to resolve?

Amitabh: The Windows Azure platform will help corporate IT departments to run more efficiently and cost-effectively with Windows Azure’s scalability, reliability, and security they need to grow or enhance their productivity. Some of the advantages include:

• Availability of optional single sign-on, authentication, and identity services
• Communication services between on-premises and off, and between business partners and customers on any device via the use of the optional connectivity services
• Use of database services to share information on a global basis via the additional SQL data services

We’re providing an easy on-ramp to the cloud by providing the tools and building blocks to combine existing on-premises systems with the cloud offerings. Corporate developers have new options in writing internet-connected applications, adding new functionality to a company’s existing software solutions, and the ability to connect with partners and customers in new ways via the web or a multitude of connected devices.
 

What regulatory compliance issues might companies face, if any at all? (Also, how did Microsoft make sure that Windows Azure would not generate any regulatory compliance issues with state and national governments?)

Amitabh: Our user agreement calls out some specific issues with respect to privacy that subscribers will need to manage. Because every subscriber will have unique circumstances, we cannot provide a blanket statement that all potential uses of Windows Azure will comply with the laws of each jurisdiction that is applicable to that subscriber’s use. But we have looked at some common scenarios and believe that subscribers should be able to comply with all relevant legal requirements when making use of Windows Azure in most cases. This is a topic that we have spent a significant amount of time working on, and that work is continuing.

As we draw closer to commercial launch and obtain feedback from users during the technology preview period, we will ensure that we take all the necessary steps to help our subscribers to be compliant with various regulatory requirements.
 

What data privacy and security measures are in place to protect, for example, the trade secrets of client companies as well as the personal information of those companies’ employees and customers?

Amitabh: Microsoft has a single standard worldwide approach to privacy compliance that is based on the requirements of global privacy laws. A single high standard of privacy is more than an efficient business model; we feel it is important to treat all of our customers around the world with the same level of privacy protection. We take the security of personal information very seriously. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect personal information hosted on the Azure Services Platform from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

For Windows Azure, Microsoft will have a contractual relationship with its subscribers. We will only use the data stored by subscribers in Windows Azure to provide the service and will not make any use of the data beyond that which is permitted in our contractual agreement.

For detailed information of our terms of use during the CTP period please refer here
http://www.microsoft.com/azure/termswindowsazure.mspx

For detailed information on our privacy statement during the CTP period, please refer here
http://www.microsoft.com/azure/termsazureservices.mspx

On a related note, are there any content restrictions for packages published to Windows Azure? What kind of filtering is performed, if any? (e.g. malicious binaries, scripts)

Amitabh: Microsoft provides a computing infrastructure on which developers can build applications. It is the responsibility of the developer to ensure that their applications, content and services comply with applicable laws and do not engage in malicious conduct. For more information refer to http://www.microsoft.com/azure/termswindowsazure.mspx
 

Will Windows Azure have a free-of-charge or discounted counterpart for non-profit and/or home developers and if so, will there be any such premium features as extended hosting services? (Perhaps an Express version with limited hosting capabilities for hobbyist developers and students?)

Amitabh: We are still working on our pricing structure, but I can say that we are considering a variety of scenarios to address the varying needs of our customers and partners. We will announce specifics on the business model and overall commercial availability at a later date.
 

What was Windows “Strata?”

Amitabh: Microsoft often uses code names for products during their early developmental phases. Strata was the code name for “Azure™”
 

Are any Microsoft/Windows Live services already taking advantage of the Azure platform?

Amitabh: Currently Live Mesh and parts of Live Meeting are running on Windows Azure. Over time, all of our services will run on Windows Azure, and we are currently in the process of moving those over.

Beyond simply the looks, however, there’s also gesture and touch support. These two will have a significant role in Windows 7, as can be seen already via features such as Aero Shake and gesture functionality in common controls (such as scrolling) via the the tablet framework.

Finally, Windows 7 will be much more context-aware than any other operating system thanks to a new sensor framework debuting in Windows 7.

Despite all of thiis, there are still some Windows Vista features which have not been expanded upon during PDC; SideShow, for example, was curiously absent. Will SideShow see more enhancements which will increase adoption? Here’s the quick list:

• Touch support with SideShow displays
• TCP/IP support via the updated .net micro framework
• 100% Backwards Compatibility with all Windows Vista SideShow gadgets

You can hear the full answer in an audio interview I magically recorded with the SideShow lead while at WinHEC (!) after the jump.

Play:

[audio:http://mirror.longhornlive.net/pdc2008/AeroXperience_WinHEC2008_Sideshow_1ch128kb.mp3|titles=Interview with Dan Polivy: SideShow|artists=Bryant Zadegan]

Download:

• Mono: 128kbps 320kbps
• Stereo: 128kbps 320kbps

Given that this is an interview, mono might be preferable for most listeners as positioned vocals tend to strain the brain when on the move (say, while driving). However, if you want to still want to hear the interview with the voices coming relative to microphone positioning, feel free to grab the stereo version. Both are the same side since mono still has two duplicate channels total.

If you like what you hear, keep in mind that we produce all content on the site without the assistance of advertisements. Your help is much appreciated!

Update: added 128kbps links thanks to an opening in free time.