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Last Wednesday, I attended a meeting of the East of Toronto.NET User Group. Attendees included Kate Gregory, Chris Dufour, Jeff Laughlin and many others. It was great meeting everyone. Dwayne Lamb from Visual Byte gave an excellent talk on the MapPoint Location Server. Here are some interesting factoids from the presentation:
- The FCC E911 Bill will make location based services a reality. All major telcos in the U.S. must comply with legislation to allow authorities to track and find anyone dialing a 911 emergency call on a mobile device.
- AGPS (Assisted GPS) uses a combination of cell tower and sattelite tracking to get a localization fix. AGPS requires a smaller chipset, less power and is less expensive than other localization systems.
- Bell Mobility in Canada estimates that 25% of their mobile devices are AGPS compliant. By EOY, they predict that every device they will sell will function using AGPS. Bell is currently the only company offering Location Based Services (LBS) in Canada.
- The only PocketPC device in Canada that supports AGPS is the Audiovox 5050.
- The MapPoint Web Service conducts over 15 Million transactions per day for over 24 countries. The generated maps contain over 200 000 Points of Interest and 16 million listings.
- Microsoft Research estimates that 80% of Enterprise data contains some localization aspect
If you are in the Toronto area, be sure to attend the Toronto Windows Server User Group inaugural meeting on September 15th at Microsoft Canada. We will have a special presentation on Windows XP Service Pack 2. To sign up or learn more, check out our website at: http://www.twsug.com
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I'm proud to announce that the inaugural meeting of the Toronto Windows Server User Group will take place on September 15th at Microsoft Canada. All IT Professionals in the GTA area are invited to this free event! The theme is Windows XP Service Pack 2 - we will have a Microsoft IT Evangelist presenting an outline of the important security features found in the product. We'll also have some free food and drink and it will be a fantastic opportunity to mingle with your peers. It's an event you won't want to miss.
Here are the details of the general meeting:
Date: 15/09/2004 6:00PM - 15/09/2004 8:00PM
Language: English
Audience: IT Professional
Products: Windows XP Service Pack 2
Location:
Microsoft Canada / Events Entrance
1950 Meadowvale Boulevard - MPR
Mississauga, Ontario
Canada
L5N 8L9
If you would like to attend the event, please send an email with your name and email address to register@twsug.com. If you would like to participate in the administration of the group, feel free to drop me a line at dotnetmvp@hotmail.com
For more information about the user group, please visit our website at: http://www.twsug.com
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I am now downloading Windows XP Service Pack 2 from the MSDN Subscriber Download website. The file weighs in at 475.35 MB and is available in both English and German. Here is the description posted on the site:
"In Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft is delivering several security technologies that help protect customers against malware and other risks to their computer. These technologies are not intended to replace periodic security updates as they are release, but rather to help strengthen Windows XP's overall defenses against malicious attacks...Microsoft understands that security technologies are only one aspect of a sound defense-in-depth security strategy. The security technologies outlined here are the next steps being taken in the Trustworthy Computing initiative to make customers’ systems more resilient to malicious attacks."
I can vouch that Microsoft is taking security seriously. It took me twice the amount of time to write the chapter on security in my upcoming Longhorn book. There are several dozen initiatives in the works including the focus on LUA. I personally think this is a step in the right direction.
In other news, Windows XP Service Pack 2 will be the focus of the Toronto Windows Server User Group inaugural meeting on September 15th at Microsoft Canada in Mississauga. I'll be posting more details next week including a link to our new website. Stay tuned!