Since Microsoft released the Photosynch beta at Web 2.0 it's generated a lot of buzz.  If you have not played with it yet you owe it to yourself to see where photo journalism and tourism and advertising are headed.

Install it here.

Sharepoint users might get a kick out of Uncle Mikey's Sharepoint Photosynth web part.

Click here to watch it on YouTube!

When geo-spatial and hub and spoke networks collide :)

You can check out a litany of features/fixes here -
http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/B/5/2B5E5D37-9B17-423D-BC8F-B11ECD4195B4/WhatsNewSQL2005SP2.htm#BKMK_ReportingServices

Here are the items that I think customers will enjoy...

Analysis Services

• Microsoft Office 2007 requires the installation of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services SP2 to support all of its business intelligence features. Features of Microsoft Office 2007 that require SP2 will be disabled when running against an instance of Analysis Services that does not have SP2 installed.

• The performance of local cubes, grouping, and subselects have been substantially improved.

• MDX query performance has been improved with respect to subselects, arbitrary shapes, running sum calculations, visual totals, ROLAP dimensions, cell writeback, many-to-many dimensions, 64-bit NUMA hardware, semi-additive measures and unary operators.
• The redistribution of data mining viewer controls is now dependent upon ADOMD.NET.
  The new redist file will be available in a feature pack that will ship soon after Service Pack 2.

Reporting Services

• You can integrate a report server instance with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office 2007 SharePoint Server to store, secure, access, and manage report server items from a SharePoint site. Integration features are provided jointly through SP2 and a special Reporting Services Add-in that you download and install on an instance of the SharePoint technology you are using.
  The new Report Viewer Web Part is included in the Reporting Services Add-in that you install on a SharePoint technology instance. For more information about the Web Part and other integration features, see Reporting Services and SharePoint Technology Integration and Features Supported by Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration Mode.
• In SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (SSRS), a Select All check box was automatically added when you created an available values list for a multivalue report parameter. If you upgraded to SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the Select All check box was no longer available. In SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2), the Select All check box has been restored.
  For more information, see Breaking Changes in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
• To access a Hyperion System 9.3 BI+ Enterprise Analytics data source, Reporting Services now provides the Microsoft .NET Data Provider for Hyperion Essbase. This new data processing extension provides a graphical query designer that enables you to interactively build Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) queries. The Microsoft .NET Data Provider for Hyperion Essbase sends these MDX queries to the Hyperion System 9 Enterprise Analytics Adapter. The adapter uses those queries to build the structures necessary to query and retrieve data from a Hyperion Essbase OLAP repository. The Hyperion System 9 Enterprise Analytics Adapter is only available with Hyperion System 9.3 Beta 2. You must install Hyperion System 9.3 Beta 2 on the data source server before you can use Hyperion Essbase as a data source. For information about how to obtain Hyperion System 9.3 Beta 2, contact hyperion@microsoft.com.
  For more information, see Defining Report Datasets for Multidimensional Data from a Hyperion Essbase Database and Configuring Reporting Services to Use the Microsoft .NET Data Provider for Hyperion Essbase.
• Report model generation from Oracle data sources that run on version 9.2.0.3 or later is supported. You can generate Oracle-based models by using Report Manager, Management Studio, or Model Designer.
  The Oracle client must be installed on the report server and on any client computers that will access the report server remotely. The Oracle client directory must be located in the system path and both the Report Server Windows service and the Report Server Web service must have permissions to access the files in this directory.
  For more information, see Creating and Using Oracle-Based Report Models in SQL Server Books Online.

What the Press is saying...

· The long wait for Microsoft’s next operating system, Windows Vista, is almost over. Dramatically redesigned, the new OS features tighter security, slicker visuals and friendlier—one might be tempted to say Mac-like—applications for managing photos, movies and music. –Wilson Rothman, TIME

· If all Windows users were running Vista, the world would be a much safer place. –Larry Seltzer/eWEEK

· As to Microsoft (Windows) Vista, bravo. … It brilliantly and intuitively lets one use a PC with extreme efficiency and/or enjoyment. –James Coates/Chicago Tribune

· One of Vista's biggest promises and one of the best inducements to want it now - is to help you regain the upper hand in the battle against information overload. –John Clyman/PC Magazine

· With Vista, Microsoft has made significant investments in connecting people to information so they could work in smarter ways, which is essential for the enterprise. –Peter Galli and David Morgenstern/eWEEK

· There are a lot of things in Vista for the enterprise that are compelling. You have security, management, robustness, fewer reboots…. I think a lot of people will refresh their desktops, servers and applications. –Peter O’Kelly, an analyst with Burton Group in Network World

from http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2006/11/06/google-earth-vs-microsoft-virtual-earth-3d/

Google Earth - Las Vegas

Microsoft Virtual Earth

A really interesting model is emerging around 3D objects injected into the Virtual Earth 3D

And the code to do it...

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My First Spaceland Application</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/v4/mapcontrol.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var map = null;
function OnPageLoad()
{
map = new VEMap('map');
map.LoadMap(
new VELatLong(42.35822, -71.05309), 19,
'h', false,VEMapMode.Mode3D );
}

</script>
</head>

<body onload="OnPageLoad()">
<div>My First Spaceland Application<br/></div>
<div id="map" style="HEIGHT: 600px; WIDTH: 800px; OVERFLOW: hidden; POSITION:relative; border: 1px solid;">
</div>
<p>3D textured buildings in your web browser! Some things to try:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hold the <strong>Control</strong> key while dragging your mouse or using the cursor keys</li>
<li>Try the same actions with the <strong>Shift</strong> key instead of Control</li>
<li>Plug your Xbox controller into your USB port to navigate even more naturally</li>
<li>Control-Q puts you in first person mode&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

Here, experience it yourself:

http://www.veteam.members.winisp.net/spaceland/HelloSpaceland.html

So, here's the huge surprise.

Over the past few months, the VE team has been doing some fantatic work in interpreting aerial photos and constructing 3D surfaces based on these photos.  Since I live near Philadelphia I thought you might enjoy the incredible detail that this technology brings to the masses.

Oh, and did I mention - this is browser based - not heavy client like the Google Earth/Keyhole stuff.

Take a look at the "sheen" on Liberty One - the blue/sliver landmark building in the middle with the spire perfectly constructed and the Pyramid club just to it's Northwest.

 Looking straightdown from Liberty One into the street below...

 Here's Billy Penn's statue on City Hall...

 Check out the spires on this old church...

 And the bridge...

 even the girders and suspension lines are represented.

 More on how you can add your own BI data to this in the near future, but until then enjoy exploring the incredible 3D Detail in the following cities...

See the following cities in 3D view:

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Dallas
• Denver
• Detroit
• Fort Worth
• Houston
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Seattle

As I menioned last week, Michael Peters of OculusInfo (www.oculusinfo.com) provided me with a killer algorithm for taking two 3D points in space and rotating a cylinder so that it resolves to a "Bond" between the two points. So, this is psuedocode that is easily tranferrable between and language.

' Inbound - two points (x,y,z and lx,ly,lz)

' Handle Rotation
Dim p0, p1 As  Microsoft.DirectX.Vector3

p0 = New Microsoft.DirectX.Vector3
p1 = New Microsoft.DirectX.Vector3

p0.SetValue(x, y, z)
p1.SetValue(lx, ly, lz)

dx = p1.GetX - p0.GetX
dy = p1.GetY - p0.GetY
dz = p1.GetZ - p0.GetZ

' New vector
Dim directxvec As New Microsoft.DirectX.Vector3(dx, dy, dz)

len = directxvec.Length

elevation = CDbl(System.Math.Asin(dz / len))

azimuth = CDbl(System.Math.Atan2(dy, dx))

' Convert from Radians to Degrees
cazimuth = (azimuth * 57.29578)
celevation = (elevation * 57.29578)

' Spin about the Y...
cylinder.SetRotation(0, 1, 0, 90 - celevation)

' Over the top on Z...
cylinder.AddRotation(0, 0, 1, cazimuth)

' Make it the distance between the points...
cylinder.SetHeight(Math.Sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy + dz * dz))

' Move it into place...
cylinder.SetTranslation(p0.GetX, p0.GetY, p0.GetZ)

Thanks Michael!  Oh, and readers - check out Oculus!

There sure are a lot of Novell/Microsoft discussions going on out there today...

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=35972

http://www.techmeme.com/061102/p69#a061102p69

But certainly, the most interesting is Sun's response...(OK, a Sun employee - the Ombudsman)

http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/the_morning_after

As I've mentioned before, I do a lot of work with Life Science/Pharma companies in the area.  Over the summer I noticed that very few vendors provide a .NET viewer for chemical structures and visualization.  Probably because Microsoft has not dedicated a bunch of bodies vertically into drug discovery like IBM did in the last 10 years. 

So, I decided to download some data from the PDB database and see what I could do with some visualization in DirectX and Oculus (more on them later)...

Here's a visual with just atoms shown (visualized in color: Gray = Carbon, Red = Oxygen, Yellow = Sulfur, Green = Nitrogen).

They look neat lit in 3D, huh?

So then the area of bonds became important.  Interestingly, the PDB bond connections are implicit.  So, I had to do a little math (line distance in 3D and tolerances) to tease the bonds out...

Pretty cool - right?  So then the next step is to visualize these bad boys as ball and stick diagrams - that means that the lines need to be cylinders and rotated in 3D between two 3D points (the atoms).

I've tried this a few times on my own and had some real issues, but luckily I know a guy.  Michael Peters works for Oculus Info in Toronto and I've known him since my Merck Days.  He is a sharp guy and works on all kinds of cool visualizations.  Anyway, he provided a really neat and elegant algorithm to handle the transformation and rotations and has agreed to allow me to post that code (coming soon).

If you are doing any kind of visualization, it would be worth your time to visit www.oculusinfo.com - they have some great tools and skills that will make a mediocre visualization a home run.

Here's the end result with hydrogen bonds marked with blue/white textures...

Microsoft can and should give the simple Java Chemistry applets a run for their money...