Archive
Microsoft AI solutions
* AI business solutions: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/solutions/practice-areas/artificial-intelligence
* AI platform: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/ai-platform/
at the section «Open and comprehensive platform» (scroll down) and see the three tabs AI tools/AI frameworks/AI related infrastructure
* Azure (cloud) Machine Learning: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/machine-learning/
– Machine Learning service (TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Jupyter etc.)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/machine-learning-service/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/service/
– Machine Learning Studio (visual drag-drop/flow based)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/machine-learning-studio/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/studio/
– Data Science VM (collection of third-party Machine Learning tools)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/data-science-virtual-machine/
* Azure DataBricks (Apache Spark-based BigData analytics): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/databricks/
* Visual Studio AI extensions:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/data-science-virtual-machine/
* Visual Studio Code (cross-platform IDE) AI extensions:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/ai-tools-vscode
* Bots (Conversational):
* Cognitive Services: (pre-trained models for Speech, Face recognition, generating Q&A from unstructured text etc.)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/
* AI blog: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/topics/artificial-intelligence/
* more resources for developers:
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/isv-resource-hub/develop-or-migrate-your-app
Fix: Reset forgotten Windows Phone pin remotely if locked out of it
I got an older Lumia 930 phone (nice big display and 20MP camera, Windows Mobile 8.1 upgradeable to Windows 10, main shortcoming is that it doesn’t have microSD slot) on big discount the other day, but after upgrading it to Windows 10 I accidentally entered the wrong PIN code at login an it managed to lock permanently.
I was having the deadlocking situation where after it locked asking me to reboot, at each reboot (even tried resetting with power+vol down for 10sec), it was saying the same thing again and again.
Luckily I had already activated a Microsoft account (was required at Win8.1 in order to download the Windows upgrade advisor app from the store), so following the guidance at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mobiledevices/forum/mdlumia-mdsettings/how-to-reset-phone-if-i-forgot-my-lockscreen/ff4d7ba3-d301-4392-b05a-46bac68dcc69 and some other forum discussions, I went to http://account.microsoft.com, then at the Devices section, selected to see more info on that specific phone and then from Find My Phone I choose to lock it with a new 6-digit pin.
There, it asks you to also enter a message that is supposed to display to the user of the phone, but haven’t seen it appear. However it does make it to change it successfully.
For changing the pin remotely the phone obviously needs to have wifi or data access active (if it doesn’t and doesn’t allow you to set it without entering a code, try plugging it via USB to a Windows 10 computer first or if you’ve set it up to connect automatically to open hotspots find one such). Else will need to have a SIM and number and be connected (correct SIM pin entered) to mobile (GSM etc.) network. The lock phone pane at account.microsoft.com does ask you if the phone has a number assigned to it or not, to send some special locking SMS I guess.
Fix: Windows 10 laptops with AMD graphics adapter going really slow
Quoting my comment from a discussion thread on the AMD Community website
Actually the drivers back from 2015 that Microsoft serves for AMD laptop graphics adapters seem to make Windows 10 crawl (at everything, not just in graphics stuff). Installing the newest ones from AMD (in this case the beta driver) makes laptops work decently again.
This doesn’t occur only with the legacy adapters like HD 7310, but also with a bit newer supported adapters like AMD Radeon HD 8600M (have one combined with Intel HD on a Dell Inspiron laptop)
Also note that at every Windows 10 feature upgrade, it seems to replace the newer driver with that older one and then you have to replace it with the newer one again (assuming you had the newer installed before, can do it by right clicking Start menu, selecting to see Device Manager, opening display adapters, right clicking the AMD adapter and selecting Update Driver, then selecting to use one on the computer and then select to pick from list and choose the one with the newest release date or the one with bigger version [those two don’t always seem to be "matching"])
This thing makes both Microsoft and AMD look very bad and wonder when they’ll realize it
So if you have a graphics adapter like AMD Radeon HD 7310 grab the Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta that contains a beta driver from 2016 (don’t get the WHQL one that comes with the older Catalyst Software Suite or the old one coming from Windows Update) from the AMD legacy drivers page:
https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows%2010%20-%2064
And if you have a newer graphics adapter like AMD Radeon HD 8600M that is still supported, get the latest AMD driver using https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/auto-detect-tool
Do not use the old back from 2015 driver that Windows Update installs and make sure you replace it with the newer driver again every time manually after you do a Windows 10 feature upgrade (the periodic major update that Microsoft releases). That is till Microsoft decides to fix this issue and install a performing graphics driver (e.g. have AMD get that legacy driver out of beta) and moreover to not replace your graphics driver with an old problematic one that makes your system crawl to its knees.
Kinect for Xbox 360 and Kinect for Windows (KfW) v1 specs
1) 3D Depth sensor (IR Emitter + IR Camera / Depth Sensor)
2) RGB camera (Color Sensor)
3) Microphone array
4) Tilt motor (for detecting floor and players in the playspace)
| Kinect | Specifications |
| Viewing angle | Field of View (FoV): 43° vertical x 57° horizontal |
| Vertical tilt range | ±27° |
| Frame rate (depth and color stream) | 30 frames per second (FPS) |
| Audio format | 16-kHz, 24-bit mono pulse code modulation (PCM) |
| Audio input characteristics | 4-microphone array 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) onboard signal processing (including acoustic echo cancellation & noise suppression) |
| Accelerometer characteristics | 2G/4G/8G accelerometer configured for 2G range 1° accuracy detail limit (can help detect when the sensor is in an unusual orientation) |
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/kinect/kinect-sensor-components
fix: Microsoft mouse right-click failure
The other day my Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 (was either a gift from Microsoft Hellas or had ordered it myself from Microsoft Company Store with the credit Microsoft used to give pro-crisis to MVPs) started behaving erratically, failing most of the times to right-click and sometimes doing left clicks instead with some delay, or doing other actions like Paste etc.
It seems the issue was with Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard center software that Windows Update installs. Uninstalling it (from the Windows Control Panel) fixed the issue immediately.
That software is a total failure since it doesn’t support correctly various Microsoft hardware device older models. It shouldn’t install at all in the first place if it finds an incompatible device or try to behave better. It’s a shame that software is from Microsoft itself.
Even worse it that at their webpage they say:
Tell us what you think!
We are interested in your experiences with Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center and your Microsoft device!
- Send your comments and questions by clicking on the Send Feedback icon on the Windows 8 desktop, select Apps then Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center from the options listed.
Not very helpful for those wanting to send feedback from Windows 7, is it?
Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7 taskbar previews, a broken story
Hello Microsoft, can you count? In the image above you can see the Windows 7 taskbar showing THREE (merged) icons/instances of Internet Explorer, although I only have ONE windows open (they seem to use multiple processes internally when you have many tabs, but why should the user care?). More importantly, in the popup shown when left-clicking the pinned Internet Explorer button, you can count 18 entries for open tabs, however in the Internet Explorer window there are many-many more open tabs.
This occurs both in Classic Windows theme and in Aero theme (using Windows 7 Ultimate – a courtesy of Microsoft to active testers of Windows 7 beta) and shows both when you see a list of titles (for many tabs) and when you’d see previews (shown when that bug makes it “THINK” you have few tabs – you might have lots more of course as shown above)
This brings to the surface the bad practice of some Microsoft teams on Microsoft Connect (former Product Feedback Center). They tend to close bug submissions very easily without checking who I the submitter (e.g. a current or former Microsoft MVP like me) and what is their past record of bug submission resolutions in all Microsoft products over the years.
I had submitted this issue in the past (sadly I currently can’t Connect to Microsoft Connect to locate it), only to see it soon closed as non reproducible without much effort to think why it might be happening (update: since I can’t find that feedback now that I made it to connect again – probably was together with some other tab-related feedback – I submitted it separately at https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/725397/ie9-bad-behaviour-with-multiple-tabs). For example, I believe IE chokes upon a frozen tab – e.g. one with some heavy JavaScript or Flash – and stops polling the other tabs for their title/preview etc., showing only some few as a result. Also it seems that counting IE processes as separate apps and merging them as three IE9 icons (when you only have one window with many tabs open) might play a role (might it be showing tab previews from only one of the IE9 processes?). Have they checked their source code if it is robust enough against such a scenario? Why do they feel they need to reproduce every bad software behavior reported first, instead of proactively act to be shielded against similar software behaviors?
Especially the many open tabs scenario that really makes IE9 crawl to its knees both in performance and usability, which is really sad given the effort Microsoft has spent on it. Not to speak of the many-many favorites (gathered over several years or from many synced machines – e.g via Windows Live Mesh) scenario and the very poorly designed, folder-based Favorites dialog which takes a long-long time to open up and has a miserable scrolling UI with no embedded Search filter.
Speaking of multiple tabs, in Mozilla Firefox you can set an option to remember tabs that were open at last application run so that you can shut down your PC and continue later. With IE9 only if it crashes it suggests to reopen previous tabs at next run, so unless you use the Add Current Tabs to Favorites (Folder) option of the very-very slow (if you have many favs like me) IE9 Favorites tab, you are forced to keep IE9 and your PC running if you want to checkout those multiple tabs you’ve opened, but don’t have the time to do it all in one go.
Can’t connect to Microsoft Connect
Ahem, Microsoft Connect says I can’t Connect (sign-in) to it for the moment. The Microsoft bug reporting site probably came upon some bug itself?
#LOL
Microsoft Expression Blend – learning and community resources
Copying from Expression Blend 4 User Guide’s “Learning and community resources” section:
Apart from this User Guide, the following additional content and resources are available.
Expression Blend and other Expression Studio products
Expression community website (training, tutorials, videos, and webcasts)
Silverlight
System.Windows.Controls Namespace for Silverlight
Windows Presentation Foundation
Try IE9 with HTML5 showcases from Microsoft, Mozilla, Google and Apple
Since IE9 final version is being released today (http://www.beautyoftheweb.com), here are some HTML5 showcases from different browser makers to test it out against:
- Microsoft: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive
- Mozilla: https://demos.mozilla.org/en-US
- Google: http://www.html5rocks.com / http://studio.html5rocks.com
- Apple: http://www.apple.com/html5
Could even try some of Google’s Chrome specific demos in case they work with IE9 too: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/
IE9 RC (Release Candidate) wasn’t fully HTML5 compliant last time tested mind you, but neither the other browsers were as you can see at W3C tests:
http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/Testing
IE9 is way better though than IE8: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter/
Can also see lots of HTML5 tests for browsers at: http://html5demos.com/
BTW, it is very interesting that IE9 also supports the WOFF format (Web Open Font Format). Typeface lovers can drool freely here: http://lostworldsfairs.com/
Here’s a relevant post with nice video of Mozilla’s showcase: http://techtimely.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/html5-showcase-demos/
So should we start drooling on future WebGL support in the browsers’ world too now?
http://techtimely.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/webgl-1-0-specification-releasedwebcl-coming/
(see video at that post and find more WebGL apps at http://learningwebgl.com/blog/)
George Birbilis @zoomicon 