Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!! - Microsoft Hero December Newsletter

Issue 2           Welcome to another edition of the Hero Newsletter. Through this, we hope to bring you anything and everything IT-related happening around the region. This time's newsletter is not only about IT Pro news on all the latest in Microsoft products and services but also about ideas, innovations, excellence, cool new tools, releases, announcements, exciting sessions and much more. Prepare yourself for a deep-dive into this exciting and rewarding world of information. Enjoy! The Hero Team     Meet Nour El-Dien Hussein, a smart Egyptian student who developed a Windows Phone 7 application which got selected as the "App of the Month" for September competing with developers all over Middle East & Africa. He was awarded a Windows Phone device, Samsung Omnia. You can do the same and even make money with the help of 'Yalla Apps'. Get started now, download the tools and start developing for Windows Phone. Top recent mobile apps: Etfarag is an online TV guide that provides the schedule of the main Middle Eastern satellite channels both English and Arabic on your favorite Windows Phone, download and enjoy! https://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/0f7ae090-e15f-4be3-add5-b0f35ad83e11     TOOLS FORDEVELOPERS ANDIT PROS • Web App Gallery – create websites the easier way • Windows Phone SDK link – all you need to write world-class mobile apps • Azure SDK - get the tools and learn how to develop Cloud apps RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPERS AND IT PROS • Microsoft virtual academy – free e-courses on Virtualization and Management • TechNet Portal – the essential portal for IT Professionals • TechNet Wiki – collective knowledge from Microsoft experts and your peers • TechNet Downloads – download free trials and betas of the latest Microsoft software • IT Skills for the cloud – all you need to set the sky as the limit for your career in a cloud IT environment • MSDN link – the key portal to knowledge base and free tools • MSDN Virtual Labs – it's like a big full scale data-center but for your experiments and creativity only • MSDN News Flash – subscribe for key news and special offers     Bey2ollak, Egypt's most popular and widely-used Traffic Advisor Application NOW available on Windows Phone 7.         Latest in Microsoft Visual Studio - Watch this demo This is a session that offers early insights into the future of Application Lifecycle Management and agile development that are incorporated in the next release of Visual Studio. See the Future of Microsoft Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management, here: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/FDN03 Discover how to streamline test case management, carry out manual test executions, and file rich, actionable bugs using Microsoft Test Manager 2010. Find out how successful testing relies on the ability to report and fix actionable bugs. Microsoft Test Manager 2010, the key testing tool in Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, ensures that actionable, rich-context bugs are generated and that they can be tracked to resolution. It provides powerful and intuitive tools that enable teams to manage test plans, run tests, file actionable bugs, and verify that bugs are fixed. https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/try/test-professional-2010-tour/get-started/lightbox        Microsoft Afkar finally released for the public Afkar is an Arabic word that means 'ideas'. Microsoft Afkar gives Arabic users from all over the world the chance to play with cool new tools and ideas coming out of Cairo Microsoft Innovation Lab. New tools and ideas can pop up any time, so stay tuned! https://afkar.microsoft.com/en/ We at Advanced Technology Labs Cairo (ATLC), have the pleasure to share with the world the public release of Microsoft Afkar, which showcases the latest technologies and innovations developed in our lab. 'Afkar' is an Arabic word that means 'ideas'! The site is targeted for internet users in the Middle East and Arabic regions, introducing smart tools and solutions to enrich Arabic internet content and user-experience in multiple domains like: • Multi-language content authoring      • Web browsing • Translation services                        • Arabic language experience Read more>>     Cloud & Azure Watch the 'Go Cloud with Azure' series explaining the Cloud Computing Concept and Windows Azure in Arabic. Stay tuned for the up-coming episodes, as we await your feedback, comments, and questions. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150994053200251 What's new from Windows Azure Hey, check and see the improved Developer Experience, Interoperability, and Scalability on Windows Azure, here: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/12/12/improved-developer-experience-interoperability-and-scalability-on-windows-azure.aspx               As part of its ongoing community outreach, ATLs Cairo launched a Graduation Project Sponsorship Program. This year's theme revolves around Kinect, where applicants unleash their imagination and submit innovative ideas for using the Kinect sensor in their graduation projects. The program includes both mentoring and financial sponsorship for projects selected from various Egyptian Universities. Last November, ATLs Cairo hosted 26 members of the five selected projects from AUC, Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez Canal Universities. The event included: • An Opening Session about Kinect and the program by Mohammad Al Sherbiny • Introductory meetings between members of each project and their mentor(s) • The distribution of the Kinect sensors and all required software • Granting each project a 2,000 EGP award At the end of the year, the best project will be awarded a 10,000 EGP prize.           يقوم برنامج Microsoft® Office 365 بتسهيل التعاون مع البرامج Microsoft® Office 2010 و Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 و Microsoft® SharePoint 2010 ومؤتمرات الفيديو التي يوفّرها برنامج Microsoft® Lync™ 2010 من أي مكان وبواسطة الأجهزة الأكثر استعمالاً من قبل موظفيك. إنها مجموعة أدوات من مايكروسوفت، ولا ضرورة لأي بنية تحتية. ساهم في أن تجعل فريق عملك أكثر إنتاجيةً والتعاون بينهم أسهل. ألقِ نظرة على برنامج Microsoft Office 365 واكتشف بنفسك كيف تعمل كلّ هذه البرامج معاً. يتوفّر الآن موقع إلكتروني خاص بمصر. للمزيد من المعلومات، انقر هنا.         Microsoft Security Intelligence Report warns business of social network phishing attacks ComputerWeekly Business should be concerned about an increase of more than 1,000% in phishing activity using social networking as a lure in 2010, says Microsoft. Cybercriminals are using more social networking and gaming sites to target ordinary users, according to the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report based on data from 600m systems worldwide. This activity runs parallel to highly sophisticated, targeted attacks aimed at high-value targets with large payoffs.   Hide Your Children, It's a Zero Day! PCWorld The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 11 is filled with valuable information about the current state and general trends of information security threats. This report focuses special attention on one particular aspect of security, though the dreaded 'zero-day'. Zero-days aren't nearly as big a threat as they seem these days. Zero-day threats make for great headlines and evoke a sense of urgency among users and IT admins. Case study: UK-based firm adopts Azure cloud platform for critical cash security application ComputerWeekly UK-based security firm G4S is moving its mission-critical cash management division's E-Viper application onto Microsoft's Azure platform for greater independence and agility. In preparation for the move, G4S assessed Azure against the security firm's list of 170 security checks and rewrote the application code to enable it to run on Microsoft's .Net framework. Microsoft releases Fix-it tool for DUQU Computerworld Microsoft has released a Fix-it tool to allow Windows users to manually patch their systems to thwart the Duqu Trojan, Duqu, or 'son of Stuxnet' as some call it. It is worrisome because it installs a keystroke logger and then can replicate itself, even across secure networks, using the passwords obtained. It communicates with other servers across the Internet, giving hackers access. The malware will remove itself after 30 days. Fuzzing Tools Added - On Purpose - to Microsoft SDL Toolkit Read Write For large software development teams, Microsoft Visual Studio has one feature whose functionality actually resembles that of Outlook in one regard: The addition of workflow templates gives team members manageable lists of tasks to be done. The Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) is a set of best practices originally developed by Microsoft for Microsoft, to compel its own engineers to start incorporating better security practices as far back as the architecture stage. Microsoft Survey Computes Safety Index SecurityWatch The survey asks respondents about what steps they routinely take to protect their security online. Then it provides a series of steps to empirically verify each answer. It explains how to verify that Automatic Updates are turned on, for example, and that Windows Firewall is active. After gathering all the answers it presents the respondent with a computing safety score from 0 to 100. The average score is 33, meaning most people should be doing more.                       Announcing SQL Server 2012Release Candidate     Building on our announcement at the PASS Summit 2011 in early October, today we are excited to announce the SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC). SQL Server 2012 RC is the first release which is feature complete and represents an exciting milestone for customers and partners looking to experience the full value of SQL Server 2012. Over 100K customers have downloaded the SQL Server 2012 Community Technology Previews to date which, through customer feedback, has helped Microsoft deliver a high-quality Release Candidate. Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 Release Candidate Now Available To help IT professionals address identity and access requirements, Microsoft is pleased to announce the availability of the release candidate of Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2. FIM empowers users with a comprehensive solution for managing identities, credentials and identity-based access policies across heterogeneous environments. The solution changes the current state of identity management by providing powerful end user self-service capabilities, combined with increased agility, security and compliance. Call to Action: If customers already joined the FIM 2010 Community Evaluation Program or downloaded the beta, they can obtain FIM 2010 R2 RC from the FIM 2010 Connect website. To join the program and download the software, customers can go here. New Software SKUs Available for All SQL Server Appliances. As we grow our portfolio of SQL Server Appliances, we continue to explore ways to enhance the 'appliance experience'. To help achieve that vision, starting Nov 1st, all the SQL Server Appliances, including the new Database Consolidation Appliance, will have a simplified licensing model. This model does not change price or features; the goal is to facilitate customer purchasing, improve the support experience, and simplify how partners sell the appliance. The new SKUs below will be offered under Volume Licensing and fall under the SQL Premium RevSum Division. These SKUs also count into your attainment against quota/scorecard metrics. Summary of all appliance SKUs:     APPLIANCE NOV 1st VL SOFTWARE NOTES HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance 2 x proc of "SQL Server 2008 R2 Data Warehouse Appliance" software Pricing of the new SKU is the same as the pricing for SQL Server 2008 R2 EE. No server/CAL pricing available, only Proc.  HP Business Decision Appliance 1 x server of "Business Intelligence Appliance 2012" software + SQL CAL + SP Ent. CAL + SP Std. CAL Pricing of the new SKU is the same as the pricing for one server of SQL Server 2008 R2 EE and one server of SharePoint 2010. All CALs are still required, separate license. No proc pricing available, only server/CAL.  HP Enterprise Database Consolidation Appliance 16 x procs of "Database Consolidation Appliance 2012" software + 16 x SQL Server EE proc + SA 16 procs needed per full rack (8 for ½ rack) Requires SA. Attend the Database Consolidation webcasts first week of Oct for more details.  HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance Dell Parallel Data Warehouse Appliance  "SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse" software (no changes) Requires SA.                 Create Jump lists For Internet Explorer 9: When users pin your site, they visit more often, spend more time and go deeper. That means you get more site impact, like ad revenue, purchases, paid subscriptions or whatever you want your users to do more of. Start with the best parts of your site and then use pinning capabilities to grab attention and pull your users in. Add pinning to your site today in just a few minutes. https://buildmypinnedsite.com/ar-EG https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg491743(v=vs.85).aspx                 Windows 7 test drive for IT-Professionals: Experience Genuine Windows 7 running live on our servers in a test-drive environment. One click lets you test and assess Windows 7 from your browser through a collection of fully-featured virtual labs. Supporting videos provide a step-by-step walkthrough of the features & deeper product information can be found in the Learn More resources. https://www.microsoft.com/click/WindowsTestDrive/ITPro/ Tasks.Show - A Windows 7 Developers Resource: Are you still using yellow sticky notes to remember tasks on your to-do list? Did you ever need an easy, light and quick way to manage your to-do list? Well we have a solution for you. Tasks.Show is a simple Windows application that lets you manage your to-do list in an easy and intuitive manner. Simply create a new task, assign it to a project, give it a deadline, and you are set. https://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/developers/archive/2011/02/24/tasks-show-a-windows-7-developers-resource.aspx                 IT PRO SESSIONS     Don't miss this month's technical events. Remember to book your seat in advance on https://www.hero-eg.com Session dates and details     Date Topic Presenter December 25 System Center DPM Islam Ghanem December 27 SQL Server Denali Wagdy Ishac December 28 Virtualization Mahmoud Abdallah December 29 IT Service Management Ahmed Al-Hadidi           On October 26, 2011 In cooperation with Microsoft and the American Culture Center in Alexandria, a session by Dr. Taher ElGamal was delivered on “Entrepreneurship and IT”. Dr. Taher ElGamal is an international figure in the field of cryptography. About Dr. El Gamal In 1985, Elgamal published a paper titled A Public key Cryptosystem and A Signature Scheme based on discrete Logarithms in which he proposed the design of the ElGamal discrete log cryptosystem and of the ElGamal signature scheme. The latter scheme became the basis for Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) adopted by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the Digital Signature Standard (DSS). He also participated in the 'SET' credit card payment protocol, plus a number of Internet payment schemes.                 Microsoft respects your privacy. Please read our online Privacy Statement. If you would prefer not to receive future promotional emails from Microsoft Corporation please click here. These settings will not affect any newsletters you've requested or any mandatory service communications that are considered part of certain Microsoft services.