MICROSOFT INTERNAL STATEMENT
OF DIRECTION[1]
CONFIDENTIAL
subject to NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT
Redmond WA 1 April 1
WARNING THIS TEXT IS PURELY FICTIONAL AND WAS
INITIALLY PRODUCED APR 1st AS A FOOL'S DAY PAPER
AS AN EXERCIZE FOR
ATTEMPTING TO GUESSTIMATE THE STRATEGY FROM THE INDUSTRY'S LEADER.
It may be interesting to compare this fiction with the offering of the software industry almost 10 years later.
POUR
UNE APPRECIATION 2003 de ce texte écrit ne 1994, on se reportera au
texte ci-joint
Subject: Project Seattle
Seattle is a code name for Microsoft operating
system is planning to introduce about April 1st, 2000.
It incorporates and magnifies the achievements made in
the successive releases of Microsoft products like Windows / NT[2],
Windows95 (alias Chicago)[3], Microsoft Windows CE (alias AtWork),[4]
and Cairo[5]. It integrates, within a seamless world, many applications that
users believe they should be part of
everybody's computer systems. Those applications are being developed by Microsoft and other companies.
Since the initial pre-announcement, Microsoft has oriented
the development of its networking products towards the public network Internet. The project Seattle
stills address the compatibility requirements, but proposes to users
a main stream orientation called ubiquitous
group computing.
The availability of high end technologies at an
affordable price for personal computers allows Microsoft to offer a convergence
release for "single
user"s
PCs and high-end workstations and servers. That means that programming and maintenance tools, that applications are common to the
whole line of Microsoft products. Microsoft recognizes, however, the difficulty
of migrations to a convergence
release, so Seattle includes
a large amount of coexistence features for the previous releases of Windows.
With this
release, Microsoft has a goal to offer to its customers the capability to
build their automated model of a globalizedgeneralized
world. Everything that can be represented on the form of a computer model, can now be
integrated with all the other computerizable entities. This model may also allow to implement world globalworld-wide
systems integrating computers and communications that have the potential of
overlapping the countries'countries's
frontiers. It
should allowing individuals, families, small
business enterprises, large corporations, utilities, governmental or United
Nations administrations, charitable and / or church organizations to fulfill
their mission with a better efficiency.
We, at Microsoft, believe that the information technology (IT) industryindustry bearsbear
some responsibility in the problems and deficiencies of our society. The IT
industry and its customers had attempted to impose computerized solutions that
did not match the expectations of our citizens. The advance of the computer
hardware now allows progressively to progressively "re-humanize"
the information technology at an affordable cost. Software had to be developed
to operate those hardware devices. Microsoft people believe that their new
operating system should offer a significant contribution to that humanization.
Figure 1 A model of World
activity
f Warning
1-Microsoft is fully committed to the development of
software only. Microsoft does not intend to become a total supplier of solutions.
That does not exclude the design or the marketing of some hardware components that Microsoft findsfind
desirable to introduce to fit the objectives of its customers. Microsoft
intends to keep its software completely open by associating users and the rest
of industry to the functional specifications of its future products. However,
Microsoft believes that the interest of the users of its products is better
served by the rules of the market served by Microsoft and the associated
companies, than by regulating committees. Committees are too often the battlefields
of competing interests instead of the forum to listen the needs of the
market.
2-Although Seattle may allow a complete automation of the society, but system and
application designers should not assumemake the assumption that all components and members of our environment
respect the rules of their system they model. In particular, they have to take
in account wild objects that may interfere with the behavior of their systems,
such as wild life animals, outlaws, runaway vehicles, stolen computers and such
underworld activities. Microsoft denies any responsibility on any
misinterpretation of legal regulations, laws of nature and acts of God thatwhich
could let a Seattle based
system behave illegally, wrongly, criminally, or being harmful to property. It
is the responsibility of the owner to avoid setting up a Seattle based system such that it could runaway from its
owner control or interfere negatively with other systems.
Figure 3 A world of Computers everywhere
Seattle is a distributed system with the capability of linking together all the Microsoft
based systems and the majority of other computers. The initial first
release has an internal limit of up to 4 billions systems per network. However,
the total number of registerable computer-ids is 1 trillion (1012) to take care of severalmany
computers per user and to include devices stored in closets and computers
belonging to several networks with different identifications. This numbers are
able to satisfy the largest part of the world needs.
In addition, Seattle systems may extend and
coexist with other computer systems
using the recognized Internet and Intranet standards on local, regional and international
intercommunications'intercommunications
links. In particular, you willmay use
all Internet Explorer facilities whenby
connecting your Seattle system to the rest of the world either directly or through an
Internet Service Provider, such as Microsoft
Network.
In
addition, proprietary networks facilities justified by legacy applications or cost
reasons will also be supported by Seattle
Seattle extends
the concept of work-group, initially introduced
with Windows for WorkGroups and Windows / NT ServersNT Advanced Servers,
to groups of human activities that are
not only those related
to work but also those relevantrelated to
miscellaneous human activities (e.g., administrative, family and leisure).
It introduces a concept of
personal domain which associates one
or several personal mailboxes and the set of all fixed or mobile devices on
which a person may permanently[6]
or temporarily log-on. Although persons are the most important members of a
group, members may also be non-inhuman
processes. Typical
examples of 'non-human processes' are those that collect data from physical
sensors, those that handle the output of other physical sensors, the computerized appliances
or those that receiverecieve
messages from other members. This removes a previous barrier between the world
of the personal computer and that of process control activities. The
application of this concept will allow a wider automation of many traditional human processes.
Members of the same group may be
interconnected through more than a single network. For example, devices
associated with pets, cattle and young
children may belong to a personal domain, while a shared home workstation may
belong to several domains. It is also possible, but not mandatory, to pool the
whole family devices in a single personal domain.
A person generally belongs to several groups : such as work,
financial, federal, local, church, leisure, hobbyists, family, friends or
special interest. Groups may be kept fully independent from each other or they
may overlap.
The topology of groups and their administration have to be independent from the topology of networks.
The only requirement is that members of a group have to be interconnected
within some period of time depending on the internal laws and means of the
group . The interconnection may be direct
(members of group belonging to the same network permanently or not) or indirect
(a private or shared mailbox allows the connection of members belonging to
different networks).
Your connection to Internet may be used as a communication link to the other
members of the group, even if you exclude the connection to the outside world[7].
The basic functionalities available inside a group include the Eexchange
of mMail,
the sharing of files and documents and s well asthe composition of
compound OLE[8] documents.
Compound documents are sets of objects thatwhich can
be updated independently by various members of the group, including possibly
some non human processes. Mail Exchange allows the asynchronous transmission of
compound documents from a person to another. The responsibility for storing it
and translating in the receiver format resides inside the receiver station. The receiver, from this is station, may request
storage and/or translation[9]
service (such as text to voice) from the mail server.
Other Workgroups functionalities have been enhanced. A
computer, such a mobile, many use shared resources not permanently connected to it.
The shared resource itself may be only momentarily connected to the network.
On previous versions of Windows, users were given full control of object
synchronization only in the case of a simple client / server organization of
the updating processes. With Seattle,
OLE technology has been improved : several
users may now update compound documents "simultaneously" according
protocols set by the document designer.
Figure 4 Networks & Groups
Seattle is the normal successor of Windows/NT. All Windows/NT stations and
Windows/NT Advanced
Sservers satisfying the minimum hardware requirements
may be upgraded to Seattle for only a
nominal charge.
|
Seattle is available in three versions: mobile, personal system and shared server, differing only
by their operational environment.
The functional difference between a shared server and
personal system is the fact that a shared server
is, normally,
unattended and is also assumed to be permanently[10]
hooked in the Nnetwork(s). A shared
server cancould
be private to an individual, or owned by a company or
education institution, or public servers operated by a service provider.
Because
computers are still subject to faults, servers are by default duplicated[11]:,
i.e., a back-up server, not necessarily identical to the primary
server system,
is registeredknown
inside the network and is able to replace the primary
system if and when the
primarythis
one becomes unavailable.
Those serversey
have the responsibility of supporting the networking functions (storing &
forwarding messages, network gateways ...). Servers mayare
also hosting a part or the totality of
applications programmed by software suppliers or by owners.
RemarkRem. Some
servers may not be part of any groups and are
called public servers,
even if their aspect is restricted, because
their access is only available through Internet or similar public Networks. (particularly Internet) . The public servers may discriminate their access according security
rules set by their owners. Public servers use only a subset of Seattle servers'servers
functions. Public
servers include a firewall capability that prohibits to implant undesired programs
into the server. You may configure any Seattle
server as a public server. You just have to obtain an Internet address or any other way to
have your server known to the external world.
The versions of Seattle correspond
to physical configurations and to different prices (to be published).
Seattle is based
on a client-server model where each individual owns at least one specific personal
server, which may be hosted inside his (or her) station, or is designated
to a collective shared server. Such a model is mandatory for users wishing to
take full benefit of Seattle. However,
a subset of its functionalities is available for any personal computer
workgroup configuration, and even on a single isolated computer.
Stations offer the interactive
capability to interface interactively with human beings. A station,
typically a traditional personal
computer, includes generally a display and a keyboard and optionally a pointing
device and a local secondary storage. Stations may operate also as a personal
or collective server within the rules set for the group definition. Stations
may be successively used by several persons. A person session begins when he
(or she) logs-in and stops when he (or she) logs-out. Stations may or may not
be permanently powered on. They can be on-line or off-line.
%Networking
Seattle has a
native network capabilitiesy. However it uses public or private
networks strictly as communications pipes. It takes advantages of the available
bandwidth, it uses the
communications facilities addressing
methods and alternate routings of the communications facilities. It recognizes the
store and forward function as well as any buffering facilities offered by
public networks.
Figure 45 Network Environment of
Seattle
This behavior allows Seattle based groups of computers to operate within miscellaneous telecommunications
environments and to be used in a mix of networks. The use of private specific
communications facilities is not precluded., but Ttheir
owners are warned that a misbehavior of their communications facilities
may misbehave if they not follow the standard protocols of by
some exotic processing of Seattle messages.
may limit
or alter the functionalities and possibly impact the reliability of the system.
The
deregulation of telecommunications[12]
in the major part of the world and the overall availability of digital
telephone networks has allowed a change in networks philosophy. Tthe
designers of Seattle to consider
that servers (including domestic home servers) are (almost) permanently
on-line.
Computers are
attached to one or several value-added networks.
TheOne main
network available to most ofmany Seattle users is the ubiquitous Internet network now available in the majority of the countries on this
planet. Seattle servers may obtain an Internet
address and be accessible by other Internet
servers on a pair-to-pair basis.
It is
however not expected that the majority of home and small users'users
servers will be Internet servers. Rather, thoseand
that
these computers will see the ouside world through on-line
connection will be to services networks.
Considering the importance of those services,
Microsoft is committed to develop and
to improve Microsoft Network (MSNet
née Marven). Some users may be
permanently hooked to MSNet, while mostother
users will be connected only momentarily.
The Microsoft Network is based
on some basic business principles:
The pricing strategy is up to
the responsibility of the Information Provider. Microsoft acts as an
Information Contents Provider for the items described in the present document
and its own strategy is to price those items at a non predatory level. The
price for hosting aan
Contents Provider on MSNet servers is adapted to the revenues collected for the
Contents Provider. Individuals and small business may participate as Contents
Providers at special low fees.
The price of access to the Network will be as low as possible ;
Microsoft will make all possible efforts by negotiating with telephone
companies, by building (or helping to build) the required pieces of
infrastructure. Microsoft believes that in the very short term, non mobile
computers will stay permanently on-line and that facility should be provided at
marginal cost for the consumer.
Microsoft is committed to assist the Microsoft
Network Contents Providers to improve their professionalism and the quality
of their offers.
Microsoft is committed to offer Microsoft
Network on a world-wide basis. It will offer a variety of tools allowing
users to access all Contents Providers servers, independently of their
nationality, language, place of residence, gender, race, or religion. Thereligion.The
only restrictions are those imposed by legal constraints[13].
To facilitate the work of Contents Providers and to allow them to focus
on the contents of data they expose to the user, Microsoft is introducing a new
version of the Information Producer Kit (IPK), (née Blackbird). IPK provides an enhanced common front-end that is
located in the client user computer that is part of Seattle. This front-end now uses Unicode data, that allows a
world-wide usage of native data. MSNet uses data communication compression that
reduces the Unicode penalty at less than 1%. IPK allows the Contents Providers
to distribute all types of data files from .RTF[14]
to .VRFMMF[15].
Multimedia (voice, music, animation, movies) indexing is added to the new IPK
release. IPK takes care of all constraints of "On demand" data
(encryption, billing…). With IPK, Contents providing no more requires any
programming responsibility nor any burden related to software problems in the
server as in the client is passed to the Contents Provider. As no programming
specific to the application is needed, the contents dodoes
not require maintenance for the future evolution of IPK and/or the client
software.
Among the new Contents
Providers offering their services directly on MSNet, Microsoft is pleasedhappy
to welcome the STCI
Hubble Space Telescope(HST)
that allow you access to the space satellite
scope images at the same moment[16]
as they become available to scientist. HST also is able to collect requests for
spare time available on the telescope. Using your favorite astronomy software
and a front-end available on MSNet, HST you may request HST1 or 2 or another
available telescope to provide you a picture of a sky object. You may
post-process the image on your own computer or compare the new image with
archives retrieved from MSNet or other networks.
MSNet is hosting a world-wide accessible of human
fingerprints that can be used for identity checking from a large diversity of
terminals. This database is established from data made accessible by
law-enforcement or administrations across the world. It does not include any personal
characteristics except the identity record and the coded fingerprints.
Another InfoProvider on MSNet is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that exposes, for the first
time to the worlwide
public,
the mass of information it collected between 1950 and 1989. Users are warned
that some part of the material may belong to athe disinformation program set up in case of penetration
by foreign agents. The CIA material is offered on an 'as is' basis, as it
was available to the
government authorized people in the last century. It is available with
the browsing tools available at that time. You may explore the same data with new tools ofavailable
to day to see if the world would have been different if methods and tools of
the Information Society have been available 30 years earlier.
The Universal Society
for the Human Genome is also offering its data base to MSNet users. You may
request them to compare DNA fragments that you have collected with their
archived genes. You have to accept that the data you upload will become available
to other users and to the Society.
The World Wide
Geophysical Society, a newly association of Geodesic Bureaus across the
planet is starting to provide on the MSNet in real time the output of 123,000
seismographs located in different sites of the planet and also on the Moon,
Mars and Phobos. You may request to receive the output of those seismometers in
your computer either in real or deferred time. You may collect data from
man-produced events (such as explosions) or events due to natural causes
(geological plates drift, colliding asteroids, volcano eruptions, or any
oscillations due to tides in atmosphere, water or geological layers). You
select time and location of seismographs and you receive in return on your
computer the amplitude of the signal as well as a possible relocation of the
seismometer[17].
However, Microsoft recognizes the need for some customers
to develop their own network system with different requirements than Microsoft Network or Internet.
Since some
years, new networks'networks
media, collectively called Information Networks Infrastructure, are available
or are being built in several countries by Telecom companies and / or by more specialized Network
companies. Seattle is also designed
to take advantages of the presently known features of those networks. It
includes even a few features not present in the announced network plans, because their economic
justification has yet to be confirmed, but Microsoft
believes that they will be implemented in the next years to come.
As those
"infobahns" are being built, they have to coexist with many 90’s and
even 80’s communication media, and information groups must spread across
countries and consequently different types of communication media.
Seattle supports many types of communication interface, from
antique modems (300 to 1200 bds) to LAN adapters and ISDN or wide-band modems.
A multi-mode digital
adapter, adapted
to such as CATV andor
ISDN, and demultiplexed
by your PC software, and your PC may
be used simultaneously as a phone
answering device, as a video recorder and as a fax receiver.
Supported mobiles
include several types of appliances such as those controlled by Windws CEAtWork
family of operating systems: notebooks, communications PDA[18],
electronic wallets, home appliances (television, VCR…), automotive appliances
(such as car navigation systems or remote monitoring systems), cellular GMS[19]
telephones, video-cameras (attended and non-attended), watches, remote
commanders of appliances and more generally non-permanently attended devices
(including communication devices worn by pets and cattle ).
Seattle supports the X-10 control systems for domestic
appliances that become supported in Windows CEAtWork.
Programmers of applications dealing with mobiles should be aware that no assumption about connection, power
availability or life of the thing to which they are attached, should be made
when trying to establish connections. Communications with mobiles should
initially be established in asynchronous
mode and all synchronous communications should be able to revert to asynchronous
mode. Owners of existing programmable mobile should upgrade their systems to
the Seattle-mobile version.[20]
It is highly recommended to use MDVB[21]
for updating non-human operated devices such as the mobiles worn by cattle and
wild life animals.
In a parallel announcement, Microsoft announces in association with Bell
Tyrolean AG™ the availability of an electronic bell CowBell™ for the
cattle market adding to the traditional bell a position sensing device. Two
models are presently available: an ARGOS model with a precision of 300 yards and
a GPS[22]
with a precision reaching 3 meters in good conditions and giving also the
altitude. While more expensive, the latter allows, for instance, a better
monitoring of the grass consumption.
A lighter model of the GPS bell adapted to domestic felines and small
pets is in under
preparation. The same model will be available for children and other types of
animals, although their usage in the Z-dimension is more limited. Contrarily to
ordinary bells, the
sound intensity and tune can be modulated according the application
programs. Those
electronic bells may be used as pagers receiving and messages
received
from other members of the group.
If your mobile computer is equipped with
a motion detector[23]
in addition to GPS, you can record at predefined intervals the location of your computer. You may instruct it to
send you a message either at a time or at a distance interval. You may be able
to track your computer for one day or more depending of the frequency of calls
and the power management of your battery. If your mobile computer does not recordis
subject to zero acceleration, such as during a very smooth flight,
the GPS recording is done at frequency intervals. You can use this feature for tracking afollowing
sensible shipment or simply to track your children going by themselves to
school, church or playing grounds.
Microsoft expressed recently its interest to acquire from the US
Government the DoD network of Global Position
Satellites
presently operated by USAF BMDO. ItMicrosoft
proposes to remove, under normal conditions, the security jitters that had limited the precision. Such a measure is
expected to be a significant improvement to the security of persons and property
allowing a localization of GPS devices within one meter. Microsoft proposes a
plan to let US Defense authorities to control the jitters in selected areas
while keeping GPS precise in the majority of the world areas. If the Department
of Defense is unable to accept
Microsoft proposals, the Teledesic network will be expanded to support a
GPS-compatible localization system in addition to its telecommunications
facilities. The precision to be expected from GPS technology in open field,
without auxiliary stations (differential GPS), is about 3 meters (10 ft) in horizontal and
vertical position. The availability of differential GPS ground stations
may tighten the precision up to less than onea few inches.
However, the
use of GPS inside buildings (under certain
conditions),and tunnels and underwater may be
almost impossible and applications that may be exposed to such circumstances
have to rely on other sources to complement GPS.
In some instances, such as inside terior of
a building, in a tunnels,
mines, in subaquatic
positions, the GPS or the differential GPS repeaters may not be permanently
operative. Seattle users may complement
their GPS positioner by other devices such as inertia actuated positioner, such
as civil or military models produced by Honeywell™. Positioning software in Seattle is able to handle the
transitions between several positioners methods, taking in account the most accurate
position according to the positioner type (ideally differential GPS is the
best), but also the characteristics of a particular environment (elapsed time
decay for inertia device, failure of satellites or failure of a part of a
redundant positioner).
In addition to the various networking facilities thatwhich have been available until now,
with Seattle, Microsoft introduces
Microsoft Datavideo-broadcasting (MDVB) services which allow registered servers to
use television broadcasting channels to update OLE documents all over the
world. Servers using MDVB are either public servers broadcasting (such as
financial market quotations, newspapers, sport news) or private servers with
only one or a few addressees. Retransmission of data is broadcast at the minimum
on ana
hourly basis until asynchronous acknowledgment is made by the addressee or
until the server time-out. This
facility completes the asynchronous network facilities introduced with Cairo and the support of mobiles. MDVB
are available through direct satellite channels, Astra (Astra 2ED
channel 147 for Europe), Teledesic™ the new Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite network,
and miscellaneous cable services. Details of conditions according to the
geographical zones will be provided later.
MDVB supports all types of OLE
documents including video. MDVB insures encryption of broadcast objectsfiles
and privacy of the addressees. The same message may be broadcast simultaneously
to a list of addressees.
Figure 6 Microsoft Data Video
Broadcasting
MDVB reception is achieved through digital
TV tuners available as external devices or as PC-Cards (PCMCIA) cards. With
the assistance of Microsoft Seattle
software, the tuners perform address recognition on a way similar way asto
that
of Ethernet adaptersdevices in
addition to their
capability of displaying TV images from TV channelschannels on the
computer display.
Microsoft provided tuners incorporate a built-in address that allows a
free reception of MDVB. Users of third parties provided tuners may subscribe to MDVB services for a
nominal fee.
Uplink connections to a MDVB server and acknowledgments are routed
through standard networking facilities (including Teledesic wireless channels).
When fitted with the appropriate adapter, Seattle
will allow the receptioniving of
digital or analog television programs in a window mode or in a full screen
mode. Digital television can be
stored in the PC storage in MPEG2[24]
mode without a need for intermediary analog transforming, allowing a
significant decrease of the complexity and price of a digital TV adapter.
Replaying of digital television does not require a special hardware and MPEG2 can be viewed
on the same configurations as .AVIas .AVI[25].
MCI interface allowsallow
the control of simple VCR or complex professional VTR, but the VCR and VTR
functionality areis
also fully
emulated by the computer file system,
given an appropriate storage capacity (typically a few GB).
The support of analog TV by Video for Windows is
essentially identical to the support to that of by
the Video for Windows previous releases.
In addition, Seattle now
offers to support of
PC centric television, in
which the CATV (cable television) adapter functions areis
under the PC software. Under this scheme, one or several windows of the computer
display (and the other computer displays of the same group) are used as TV displays.
This system is optimized for digital MPEG3 video where hundreds of channels are
available on a single TV cable. After many discussions and experiments,
operators and Microsoft have established a MPEG3 television standard (fully upward compatible
with MPEG2) that includes a frame header adding informations such as the type
of image (definition, stereoscopic option), the origin of the image source
(location, time, copyright,) and of the frame characteristics
(encoding, distributor-id usage restrictions[27]).
MPEG3 will authorize a pay-by-frame[28]
for viewing only some part of programs. An interesting feature of MPEG3 is the capability
to merge frames distributed on several channels to avoid to store (and to view)
redundant data. Video software is
capable to watch up to 16 different news or news-like channels and to
sort/merge frames from the same origin. TV centric users will continue to see
and may prefer to see redundant news, but time conscious professionals may
prefer to watch a recorded version of the original data, while having the
capability to "fast forward" their program. MPEG3 allows also the
on-line distribution of the program schedules updated in real time, allowing a
precise rescheduling of the monitoring by the PC. Seattle Video software allows you to filter and monitor the
programs you wish to redistribute in the different monitors (computers or TV
set) in your home.
Your group network may include programs that you produce yourself such
as alarm cameras or infant watching cameras or private programs (video
communications) that appear as windows on your display. You have the control of
the size of those windows (on each display). The sound mixer allows a muting programmable priority .
Seattle implements not only stereophonic sound (from
TV, .WAV recording and other sound sources), but it also defines a
multi-directional sound that,
implemented by a spherical surround system (8-loudspeakers[29]
or a sound helmet[30])
immersesimmerse
the user in total sound virtual reality. The direction of multi-directional
sound is generally synthesized from the relative position of the listener (set
up in at application initialization and
possibly modified at run time) and from the positions of the sound source. So,
MIDI applications may define the positions of the musicians and, given the
appropriate reproduction equipment, you may select your seat in the orchestra
and immerse you in the music. Multidirectional sound is part of the new .VRMMF
format for animating applications.
For compatibility with many existing communication
facilities, Seattle includes
Microsoft At Work fax
transmission[31]
software. Fax sending is still considered as a case of printing. You may force
the document to be transmitted as an image and / or you may add a digital
signature to avoid alteration at the receiving sites. Receiving faxes is
equivalent of using a scanner. However, if the total fax session is encrypted (,
including controls),
the sender you has the option tomay prohibitnot
be able the storing of theto store the faxit
for subsequent decoding. The Microsoft philosophy is not to not maintain
the point to point synchronous capabilities of a fax, but to while
offering asynchronous facilities that willdoes
not alter the confidentiality enjoyed by old facsimile users.
Graphical
Interface
A major achievement of Seattle is the extension of
the system of Graphics
coordinates of Windows/NT thatwhich was,
from the origin, limited to two dimensions.
Windows/NT, using OpenGL licensed from Silicon Graphics Inc. had already
included a third dimension but limited to graphics. Seattle is able to reference objects in a four dimensions (X, Y, Z
and Time coordinates) reference space.
Date-Time dimension uses for compatibility reason the
same reference (1 January 1900) as previous versions of Windows. However, Seattle
maintains multiple calendars, the calendars applying to the context (country
and date). The daylight savings time history is also maintained from
may places, so that historical dates and hours are always consistent. When
present and enabled, the windows "title bars" display the contextual
date and time, the Day and Hours consistency is not guaranteed for
pre-historical times nor for extrapolation in the future. Practically,
geological dates are qualified as a range of years from the present time.
In addition, the color
system introduced
withof Windows95 has been improved by the
addition of attributes
of transparency and,
texture reflectibility attributes
thatwhich
provide a more realistic representation of objects when they are illuminated by
application or system light sources.
Light sources are defined by their 3D position and by their color temperature. Color temperature of a
source may be defined within the total electromagnetic spectrum. The visibility of an object under
light sources (radar, infra-red or X-ray) can be specified within a single object
description. Default lighting assumes a uniform light source located
behind the user[32] with a
color temperature of 5000°K. These default conditions give a representation of
color close to the visible
nature of the objects. They do not correspond to a realistic view of the
object that requires an appropriate set-up of the lighting
sources. The lighting characteristics of a document are document specific :
they are not carried with OLE objects[33].
Lighting sources are objects that may be moved and color temperature may be
modulated[34].
Windows are still rectangular, but the concept of curtains has been introduced. Curtains
are implemented as a window superimposed
and masking another, it contains graphic objects of user determined shape, some
of them being transparent to let appear
the subjacent window. Masks and windows are bound together for resizing and
moving. The programmer has control of the level of transparency.
The
precision of GDI[35] was
previously limited 32-bits for each coordinate. It has been extended to 48 bits
for the mobile version and to 64bits for the server and station versions.
With OLE4.0[36],
Microsoft introduces quad-dimensional « documents » which can be
updated from any computer in the network.
The 4-D space is local to a group, but as some objects, particularly
real objects, may exist for all groups, they have to be allocated a common name
and a common position in all groups in which they are known.
OLE 4 standardizes the representation of spatial (tri-dimensional) objects.
It also handlesConversion
utilities are available objects from for the most OLE[37] popular 3D programs.
The native Seattle OLE4 representation is used in Micrografx Sculpture Plus 1.0™ program that
uses CAD-type techniques as well as manual input and stereo-like photography
(assembling of pictures taken from several pointspoint of
views) to generate a 3D object.
Other programs will use 4D representations to represent the growing of
plants[38],
the manufacturing of objects and buildings, the assembly of parts.
The mapping between the new coordinates and the graphic display(s) is
handled by a new DIB (device independent bitmap) engine of Seattle. This engine handles stereoscopic viewing devices (helmets,
goggles) respecting STAPI (Stereoscopic API) specifications.
The maximum size of display devices supported by Seattle is presently 16384 x 16384[39],
one order of magnitude larger than the size of the currently advanced graphic
devices. But, it is possible to map this logical display on several SVGA
standard devices to satisfy the needs of control rooms, offices or private
entertainment. All the functions available in Windows, such as point &
drag, move objects through windows, are
available between screens. Plug &
Play video adapters may be simply plugged-in in your computer and Seattle software gives you a new view on
the world. You may mix different types of adapters (AT, VESA or PCI) to design
such a multi-screen system.
Another improvement of the graphic interface is the concepts of gates. Gates are objects that appear
inside a window or outside windows. They fulfill the concept of teleport
initially introduced in adventure games :i.e., they establish a new 4D context
(technically, a new window appearsappear in
a new process that inherits static objects from the process opening the gate).
Gates may be two-ways or one-way[40].
Gates may stay open (i.e., static objects modified in the new process can be accessed
from the opening process) or they may close automatically. This concept of
gates is very useful in education software and in adventure gates. The use of
gates may lead to an easier human interface of multi-windows'multi-windows
applications, reducing display cluttering and the number of controls. Gates are
represented by buttons of any size and shape. Gates are expected to be important components of
adventure and role gates, as well as in educational products.
A new pointing device, code named StarTreck, allowing pointing in a
4-dimensions space will be delivered at
the same time as Seattle. StarTreck uses the concept of
« gravity well »[41] to
navigate easily in all dimensions. The space navigation paradigm introduces the concept of navigating speed for easy
navigation in a 4D workspace.
Objects Dragging & Dropping objects in
the same or other « documents » in 4D will be available.
The movement of objects
across the time dimension may be restricted by their creator or their owner.
However, Microsoft recognizes that Seattle
remains limited to Cartesian coordinates and is not yet able to operate in
worlds where the laws of general relativity cause results significantly
departing from those implied by Euclidean laws. As a consequence, Microsoft
does not guarantee that the standard synchronization of networks is also
applicable to space based computers.
An
extensive The usagee of the
time dimension is expectedpredicted
infor
business applications so that the archive files can be exploited to answer a question:search
like « who
was in
charge when some
condition happens? ».
Of course, law enforcement and history research applications can also benefit
of the stamping of all events in the time dimension.
The system references to "future time" are always made
conditional. The confirmation of a future time reference is asked to the
process including this reference after the time is reached for potential
recording or deletion. If the related process does not act on a reference
(i.e., confirm the referenced act or canceling it), it will be kept « conditional » or
« shadowed » by the system.
In addition to the date / time functions supported by MS/DOS
and Windows, Seattle supports the location function returning the
"earth coordinates" of
a system. The location is defined at installation time for the server (moving a
server requires a re-installation to performestablishing
anthe
update and possibly
to recalculate network and licenses billing rates). The position
is defined by the operator for stations and mobiles. Advanced prediction of the
position, such as defined in the Scheduler++
agenda, is available to the members of
the group. Optionally, Seattle
includes Plug&Play GPS drivers for
mobiles equipped with Ground Positioning PCMCIA adapter. In addition
to Global Position adapters, radio transmission of time and radio-beaconing for
position (either on beaconing on ground stations to auto-determine the position
or request for beaconing by ground stations) are also supported. Toll gates and
customs gates may also be used to transmit mobile position.
Maps
Maps are becoming an important type of computers'computers
objects. The 4D characteristics of Seattle
make maps a type of object supported at basic level.
The merge with NextBase[42]
thatwhich
pioneered travel planning system with road maps allows Microsoft to provide a
new release of AutoMaps thatwhich uses
GPS positioning in the maps and the updates of maps via MVDB satellite broadcasting system. Progressively, the AutoMap collection of
electronic maps will cover all the regions of the planet on a standard format,
on several metric scales and various terrain details.
Aeronautical and marine charts are now being edited in similar formats
for air and sea navigation. FAA low-altitude maps are now stored in 3D format
to be used in head-up displays for low altitude navigation at night and low
visibility (http://maps.faa.gov). They
can be used in conjunction with flight simulation programs.
Video
Video for Windows has been dramatically enhanced by the addition of an interpreter of
video sequences that is able to extract from a movie a synthetic interpretation
of the scene. VidInterpret uses a
library of templates, some being standard 3D objects other being character
templates. Templates describe persons, animals or mobiles. The same templates
are used in WinToon a cartoon
generator application. Human templates are very sophisticated and are derived
from Mannequin®_Designer technology with added 4D features (such as the range of
speed of movements and balance control for instance). VidInterpret attempts to match the contents of the movie frame with
objects and characters from the template library and eventually create a movie
metafile containing all the elements of the scene.
Vidinterpret for all but
very simple well-lightedwell
lighted scenes requires a very powerful configuration to operate
in real time video. However, it uses a learning process to personalize the
library to progressively focus the updated template to a single character. Having
progressively learn about the identified characters, VidInterpret is able to focus on movements and eventually record them
in real time.
The video source is not necessary static. VidInterpret analyses the background objects to identify the cameras'cameras
movements, zooming and some optic effects.
VidInterpret technology is a pattern matching one similar to that
used in OCR recognition, speech recognition, sound interpretation. It does not
always identify characters and requires some manual help to enhance the
contents of its template library.
A particular problem generally encountered in the synthesis of
characters is the problem of clothing. The template library includes a variety
of clothes that may be worn by characters. VidInterpret
attempts to match a type of cloth with the character template preselected.
Some rules help the pattern recognition : an evening dress is unlikely but
imaginable in a beach scene, pets are less likely to wear clothes.
Matching voice or noise with the characters is also a difficult process.
VidInterpret uses a library of
template noises and voice accents to identify their origin. Sometimes, it is
not able to isolate a voice from the background noise. Users have to be prevented
that discarding background noise or objects from the target file may cause loss
of necessary informations.
The Vidinterpret virtual realitymovie
metafile (.VRMMF)
contains all informations able to resynthetise the movie but not limited to the
original point of view. .VRFMMF files
use OLE4 embedding of objects and allowallows a
personalization of the movie using other templates than the original
identified by VidIntepret.[43]
One of the backgrounds behind processing movies by VidInterpret is to create learning tools for education in the
creation of movies. In changing the point of view, the angle of field, the
colors of clothing, the lighting conditions, you may study your rushes and
correct your movies.
You may also merge several VRFMMF files
and have scenes displaying characters who never encounter each other, you may
mix real characters with purely artificial ones. The new version of WinToon makes extensive usage of VRFMMF
files[44].
The Video capabilities of Seattle can
also be used for applications of person recognition and tracking. Using the VidInterpret API library, and given and
the appropriate computing power, you may process the output of a video camera
to identify a person in a scene and to record in a compact format, suitable for
network transmission, his (or her) displacements and moves. Several sources of
video output may be processed
simultaneously for a better precision of the record or alternatively to
lengthen the duration of the record. Intelligence and law enforcement
applications may take advantage of those capabilities. Users should be warned
that a VRFMMF
file is relatively easy to alter and that movie synthesis may easily lead to
the inclusion or to a removal of virtual characters in a movie. The Seattle enhanced security features
should be used when trying to use computer processed video for mission critical
operations.
Applications
Microsoft Applications have been enhanced to take benefit of the new functionalities of Seattle. Excel and Word are now merged
into a single product called Document where tables include all
the spreadsheet functionalities. The specialized computing facilities of Excel
such as Solver, Statistical Analyzer … are packaged within micro-applications thatwhich
were previously available for Word (Grammar, Spelling checkers[45]…).
Document is built around OLE4 OLE 4 functionalities
thatwhich
allow the production of a document by a
collection of persons.
Microsoft applications are also available under MacOS. Some restrictions
in functions may appear when they rely on functionalities not available in the
underlying version of the operating system.
Excel remains available as a separate product and will be supporting
OLE4.
Document supports
popular mathematical packages such as MathCad™,
Mapple™ or Mathematica™. The OLE versions of those products may be used for
alternative to the Equation Editor of World and as extensions to the
mathematical functions of Excel.
Document includes
an enforcement of intellectual property
and copyrights through OLE4. An OLE4 server is maintaining copyrights and
access rights specifications of a document, such as defined by the author. OLE4
enforces the fact that a protected object (document or portion thereof) cannot be
pasted in another document without transmission of the copyright notice and restrictions
of distribution (Secret, Company Confidential, National Eyes Only,…). The
protected portions of a document are stored in a specific encrypted format thatwhich
is recognized as such by the OLE 4 mechanism as well as the Clipboard. Protected text may be
reformatted, but cannot be altered outside the original server. In addition to
the protection of intellectual property rights in literature and software, this
Document functionality finds
applications in the automation of all form-driven administrative documents thatwhich
cannot be altered when transmitted across distributed networks. It should be
noted, however, that the application designer retains the responsibility of
avoiding the manufacture of forged documents and that of implementing the
appropriate controls of authenticity.
The macro-language for Document is Visaural Basic
for Application, an extended superset of Visual Basic for Applications, the Microsoft language introduced
with Excel 5 and Word for Windows v77.x. Specific
Macrolanguages (such as Winword v6)
is supported only for importinged files butand
not for editing.
Document also includes the hyper-text
facilities previously available exclusively in
.HLP format and hyper-text links such as defined in HTML4 WWW
specifications. You may define in your documents links to text, voice, sound
and video data located inside your group or available from Internet. You can also insert Java applets[46] in documents. Hyper-text links are OLE 4 links allowing a full control of the referenced object by
their owner.
.
Microsoft announces an agreement with Gamma Productions and
other specialized companies to incorporates in Document
a complete multi-lingual facility. Unicode
is the internal encoding of text into Document,
and writing text in right-to-left or left-to-right as well as top-to-bottom or
bottom-to-top is achieved as a basic function of Document.
Document is able
to import non-Unicoded documents, and to export them in 8-bit or double-byte
format when the languages used in the document do not require the Unicode
encoding (e.g., combinations of western European languages might be stored in extended
ASCII, a combination of English and Japanese may be stored in DBCS, a
combination of French and Chinese has to use Unicode)
TrueType
fonts distributed as partspart of Seattle include a collection of at least
one font type for all languages present or past of the world, allowing many
human sciences applications to operate cooperatively.
Multilingual
documents can be composed and read on all versions of Seattle. It is no more required
to use a localized version of the operating system nor of the hardware. A library of IMP for
Far-Eastern languages is delivered as components of Microsoft Office.
As part of Seattle,
Microsoft delivers Document_Viewer[47]
a utility able to view and to output all types produced by Document, Word, Excel, Word for MacIntosh, AmiPro , PageMaker and WordPerfect.
With Document_Viewer you cannot edit
or reformat documents.
Internet
Assistant
& Server
Microsoft Internet
Assistant is a set of programs allowing to prepare data for distribution on the
Internet according th Net standards. It allows to convert the majority of Seattle applications data formats into HTML (hypertext), Java (animations and
other applets), graphics, video and sound formats.
It maintains and formats by default the copyrights information from Document and other Viewers. Informations in Far-eastern languages
is normally maintained as Unicode, but may be also made available in DBCS
formats.
Internet Server is the program operating under Seattle that handle Internet
requests. It includes the collection of Forms and statistics. The new edition
of Internet Server includes significant improvement in performances by
taking advantage of larger memories and new fast communications links. It uses
an adaptative packet size (up to 64Kbytes)
depending of the capabilities of routers and the reliability of communications liinks. The telephone and video capabilities, allowing a local
application using TAPI or video API to communicate with a person using phone or video over Internet, of Internet Server have also been improved.
Internet Server implements "output on demand" that
transmits encrypted data that can be unscrambled by special viewers such as Document viewers (see later in chapter on
Privacy). Internet Server has the capability to
interface with billing applications for "pay per view" or other financial
transactions. Note that Viewers may also interface with Money at the receiving side of the
Internet link.
Intellect
Microsoft introduces an ambitious experimental program, named Intellect to bring the capability to
integrate knowledge gathered from miscellaneous computerized sources.
Users are warned that to take befit of such a project,
they have to expect delays to build a knowledge base able to bring superior
results. The present release of Intellect
is proposed at a symbolic fee to the Seattle
users in conjunction with Microsoft
Network.
The sources of knowledge used by Intellect
are either local to a group, global to several groups or public. Local
knowledge includes non guaranteed sources (such as deduction rules invented by
the user) and private data sources. As persons may be attached to several
groups, they may offer some of their knowledge (data and rules) as available to
other members of a group. The "Public" knowledge is what is available on
public networks (such as Microsoft
Network or specific trusted[48]
servers on Internet).
Intellect handles
data and rules in a specific encoding (using 128 bits128bits
GUID[49]
- global unique identifiers-) that allows to store knowledge in a way
independent from all
natural language. However, the first release of Intellect is only able to handle a large part of the English
written language, business Japanese written language, legal written French and
German. No guarantee is given to have Intellect "understanding" all
texts such as,
specially
poetry, transcripts of
verbal language, synthesized scripts generated by VidInterpret.
The first applications of Intellect
areis
expected to be in the legal domain. You may check the legal statements of your
draft contracts and agreements against current laws and courts'courts
decisions of several countries. You can also check numbers you intend to put in
your documents against available statistics. You may use your computer to
answer typical "why?" questions the children are asking[50].
Intellect may also
be able to generate "Why?" requests to other computers in addition to
more typical data requests (SQL-requests). You may request that many computers
loaded with Intellect work to generate an answer to your
questions.
Intellect handles a cache of the knowledge rules and data it
has collected. Such a cache will uses almost
all the idle storage capacity in your system. As idle capacity disappears, the
knowledge remains cached in servers available to you and eventually is flushed
out, requiring that a new search from basic is performed, when (if) the flushed
request is reiterated later.
The Intellect technology is also used by the Pelican search engine available through Internet and MSNet to help users not to be submerged by
the amount of information available on the
Internet. Pelican is a search engine
reading pages on the Internet and attempting to digest them. The user uses a Pelican client to its Internet
Browser as an add-on applet. This client builds a user profile, that you may update,
correct or censure before it is transmitted to the Pelican server, when you decide to
make a search request to the MSNet server (http://pelican.msnet.com). The main characteristics of Pelican is that it presents by order of priority: the changes to the Net pages matching your request that you have linked to your private
data or programs, then changes to pages you have already browsed seriously, then
the new pages corresponding to your profile discarding pages with redundant
informations and lately the pages simply matching the criteria.[51] The user profiles are
not remembered by the search servers and have to be
validated as part of the search request. The filtering of redundant pages is done by the Pelican server by sorting correlated pages by increasing useful content of information,
using Intellect technology. In addition to the
MSNet availability of Pelican, this technology is offered
as part of Internet server for Seattle for processing group private information and merging it with
public data.
CAD-CAM
The extension of GDI and the use of OLE4 will allow a
seamless communication between various CAD
programs, and Seattle users will
have the capability to gather object of many sources in their applications
programs.
An important usage of this feature is the capability to extend CAD-CAM
facilities to the domestic usage. The documentation of domestic appliances and
furniture will be available in OLE4 compatible format from many manufacturers.
This is particularly interesting for appliances and furniture delivered in
parts and that have to be assembled (glued, screwed, wired, ..) by the purchaser.
The purchasers of those products will be able to assemble the parts in a
virtual form, to check their compatibility with floors and walls and with
already existing devices, in a similar way as professional users of CAD/CAM.
Assembling of parts coming from different suppliers without a preliminary
gathering at a distributor site will become available and will contribute to
decrease the end-user costs. Microsoft
Network will offer on-line access to the documentation for small,
inexpensive parts available at small retailers that will have only to carry the
part reference.
The production of Output
should not be confused with the production of messages. Output is generally
produced as committed actions and can be directed to addresses outside the
group. And as such, they should be performed with extreme caution, while the
system has the facility to back up messages to other members of the group if
they are not expressly committed. Operators'Operators
panels are, by default, message devices. Operator panels may be specified as
output by the application, after a positive identification of the attendee,
when their reading implies a commitment attendee for unrecoverable action.
Additional output sinks are
available in Seattle:
While direct printing from Windows (At
Work printers) is now the most common
way of printing, non-At Work PC or LAN compatible printers are still supported
by Seattle, in particular, PostScript
and LaTeX processors are supported for asynchronous off-line printing on
stations that are potentially isolated from computing group.
Different models of Braille printers are fully supported including in
low-resolution graphic mode.
Video output allows to direct data to video tape recorder like devices.
The user has control of the time duration of fixed images before output.
Several formats are available : digital and analog (NTSC or PAL). The output
driver includes the control of VCR, VTR and digital recorders.
3M developed 3D-clay model generating device with distant color-ink jet
impression facility is presently one of the best way to project a compound
document in 3-dimensions.
Many other output devices may operate nicely under Seattle like computer generated tattooing, automated garden
sprinklers or selective defoliating devices, medical surgical devices and any kind of military warfare devices.
However, Microsoft has not tested those devices for all potential cases of
utilization and shall not be liable for any effect of their operation.
The synergy between Microsoft and its recent
acquisition of Pierre Cardin haute
couture and perfume laboratories will allow new opportunities for developing new kinds of computer-generated
outputs in the area of clothing and of odor generators. This project
contributed to the creation of the Couture
project used in WinToon processing of
clothing for virtual characters.
Another fall-out of the merger with Pierre Cardin
haute couture is the announcement of a line of clothes and jewelry specially designed for incorporating
mobile Microsoft based technology. Masculine clothes will incorporateincorporated
pockets and pre-wiring for cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, and
batteries. Specially designed jewels
will also incorporate Seattle based
pager, watch and message transmitter that can be worn even with formal evening
dresses or the tiniest of swim suits.
In addition, Microsoft announces the publication of the Sewing Machine Application Programming
Interface (SMAPI) which has been
developed in coordination with Singer and Pfaff. SMAPI allows PC owners to
develop embroidery or any sewing machine applications on their Windows PC.
SMAPI allows also to connect cutting devices (such as scissors) and insures the
possibility to synchronize cutting and sewing, allowing the owner to home
manufacture automatically dresses, shirts or suits from a model and alters it
to his (or hers) taste or morphology.
Presentation
The integration in Seattle of
visual and audio capabilities will allow the developments of virtual reality
applications thatwhich
will encompass the domain of games and education. Powerpoint v5 has already been extended to provide time
dependent features inside a slide of the presentation as well as audio and
video effects.
The new release of Powerpoint
is now customizable using Visaural BA.
It displays 3D objects thatwhich can
be looked around from several angles by
the viewer at show time. Display options include stereoscopic images with colored or polarized glasses.
The most innovative feature of Powerpoint is a virtual teleconference facility where the image
of the presenter is a character artifact generated by a 3D modeling program
under license of Mannequin®, combined
with presenter photographic pictures. The image of the face of the virtual presenter
is modulated according to the modulation of the speech. Questions from
assistance are recognized by the Seattle
speech recognition mechanism and handled by Powerpoint
through pre-recorded Q&A or they are stored for an asynchronous
"real" answerback. Powerpoint will allow teleconferences to be held
24h a day inside multi-national companies or between governments, and the
asynchronous interactivity will allow a person to attend simultaneously several
conferences.
Powerpoint may also be a server for Internet videoconferencing programs, such
as CU-Seeme or its derivatives.
Powerpoint may operate as a OLE4 client for including
compound documents in the presentation and as a server to expose the audience
reactions to other applications. The audience reactions can be automatically
dispatched to other instances of Powerpoint within the group which can
themselves update the original compound document. The group will obtain finally
not only an updated presentation but also will have decisions taken and actions
triggered, while the original author of the presentation is still sleeping in
his (or her) bed or playing golf in a resort. The results of the conference
impacting his (or her) job, or requiring some action from him (or her) will be
signified through his(or her) personal group mobile devices.
Document and Powerpoint
are available at conditions and at a price tag unchanged from those
of Microsoft Office version 7.
Project
Management
Microsoft Project has been enhanced for Seattle
with version 6.0. It is no more a tool exclusively for a project
manager, but is a distributed tool for all the participants of the project and
it can be completely integrated with other groups'groups
applications such as accounting, ordering …
Previous versions of Project
were not able to track directly objects, such as blueprints, models and
programs that were however computer objects. Version 6.0 now has the option to
retrieve the state of computers'computers
objects located in any computer belonging to the groups and to update the
project plan accordingly. Programs testing and models'models
simulations are directly handled by Project.
The majority of non-computer tasks is also described in computers in some way
or another and can be reflected in Project through OLE4.0, decreasing the burden of
tracking the state task manually.
Contrarily to previous versions of Project
that were essentially devoted to
non-recurrent projects, Version 6.0 allows a full parameterization of
tasks, allowing to define tasks'tasks
duration and cost as functions of quantitative or conditional parameters.
Essentially, all the functions available in Document
are available in Project.
With Project v6.o,
users may define some tasks or groups of tasks as iterative, the number of
iterations being fixed or a function, and the duration of task occurrences
being constant or a function.
Project uses internally the 4 dimensions of the Seattle GDI, and more specifically
the time dimension. The concept of hypersphere of uncertainty was introduced in
Seattle for other purposes, but the
concept fits nicely to address a specific problem in Project .The duration of some tasks may be defined in terms of
probability, the probability law differing between tasks. As a project may
contain several thousands of tasks, some of them having a non-null probability
of ever finish, the computation of a scheduled or planned project has to be
expressed in terms of probability. So to take advantage of Seattle GDI, the traditional Gantt diagram is displayed in three
dimensions and the resulting date is expressed in terms of probabilities. However, Project may express milestones in terms of time and
cost exposure'sexposures
vis à vis the planned schedule. The persons responsible of the tasks
may alter the probability parameters and laws related to those tasks. When actual
values are entered, it is possible to store the history of scheduled values and
to display the history of knowledge about the project.
The distributed capability of Project
allows to integrate several projects, possibly developed by other companies.
The user of Project may specify
external milestones and specific access rights for those milestones allowing to
reprocess automatically plans'plans
changes caused by suppliers. This feature allows to update dynamically the
conditions of schedule and price thatwhich can
be offered to customers. An add-on
product Vendor available from
Microsoft handles the negotiation with a customer to settle an order taking in
account customer specification and project planning. Vendor uses the capability
to parameterize the duration and the cost of tasks according to the customer
specifications. A symmetrical program called Purchaser allows to alter specifications to decrease the cost of a
project without altering the output. Purchaser
has the capability to poll all Vendors to find the best conditions. The
user of Project with Purchaser has an option to commit directly the purchase order or to request
either a human (electronic) signature or another program authorization to issue
the order.
The task updates may be filled by the task responsible persons and Seattle
uses its commit functionality to transfer of a task state from planned
to actual. Another enhancement incorporates a currency function to track cost.
It is possible to specify the currency in which resource costscost
are estimated and to consolidated the estimated profit according to the
currency fluctuations. A further enhancement is the possibility of setting
alternate strategies for the project. This feature computescompute
a decision milestone and computes the value of each strategy. When a decision
has been committed, it is always possible to recalculate the alternative
strategies and to estimate the cost of a write-off when backing out to the
other alternative. This feature makes Project
a significant CAM (Computer Aided Management) tool.
Project is able to incorporate not only the time
dimension but also the position and it may do an evaluation of the duration of
location related tasks by making an automatic recalculation of transportation
time and cost. It can query
automatically the OAG server or
other locally available servers to automatically schedule public transportation
related tasks. Private transportation may also be recalculated taking in
accordance the GPS position transmitted by transported object (including persons).
Another feature of Project is the capability to identify spheres of
responsibility allowing a sub-responsible to reconfigure the project in real
time without waiting the project manager to be on control. For instance, a
truck driver experimenting a breakdown during a night shift may reschedule an
alternate truck without waiting the next morning ; he can evaluate
the cost of the alternative solutions and can make decisions using his (or her)
PDA or the truck computer or even a voice actuated server, according the
situation of the truck crash. It is even possible to use a heart-beat mechanism
that may be implemented in the group network
to externally detect the crash and to make decisions without any human
interventions. Decisions may integrate the insurance cost and the schedule
impact on the overall project.
While modern companies now use flexible budgeting and flexible resources
allocation, many users and administrations still rely on unlimited contract
resources and annual budgeting. So Project
has been improved to include periodic budgeting in the plans. When delays of
critical tasks may not allow whole planned budgeted expenditures, Project reschedules non-critical tasks
to be as close as possible to the planned budget and not to lead to overhead
costs due to underemployment of resources. Another fall-out of this feature is
to allow the charging of the overhead cost as overrun cost to projects thatwhich
were really responsible of them and to avoid to base the plan on a higher cost
of resources. In consequence, Project
is an incomparable tool for companies envisioning restructuring and
re-engineering.
While the project manager has entire rights about scheduled and planned
information, he (or she) has not the right to alter or delete actual facts.
Microsoft offersoffer
to its customers at no additional charge to maintain the recording of actual
facts in its Repository of Facts data
base. The privacy of those facts is guaranteed
to be maintained in accordance with the legislation.
The price of Project 6.0 is
unchanged from version 5.0. However, the distributed part, not allowing task
redefinition, is available for $49.95 per member of the group, without
limitation of the number of projects and groups to which it is connected.
Accounting
Since the integration in 1995 of Intuit corporation
inside Applications Division that has brought a lot of home accounting
experience, Microsoft is now
ready to announce MoneyQuicken
Pro v1.0 as a high end companion to the domestic MoneyQuicken
v5.0 introduced in At Home series as a domestic finances'finances
applicationapplications.
With MoneyQuickenPro,
you will be able to handle your accounts in different currencies and to
manage your money on a world wide basis.
MoneyQuickenPro also targets small businesses and Home business
and to will be able to provide a
complete data processing system for those companies. Due to many differences in
business practices in different countries of the world, its first release will be limited to a certain number of
countries following business practices based on USA practices, what is now
covering the major countries in the world including European Union and
off-shore places of business. Using MoneyQuickenPro
Inc.
add-on and the related services offered on Microsoft
Network by several financial companies, you will be able to manage a
multinational company staffed by yourself as the only employee. Inc. Is a front-end program that is an
extension to MoneyQuicken
Pro. It is only usable in conjunction with a MSNet server. This server is an interface program to the other
financial companies'companies
servers allowing you to access similarly to those facilities. Using Inc. after selecting the financial
institution of your choice, you may incorporate a company in the state or
country of your choice, you may visualize the results of your companies, you
may transfer money by EFT between the accounts of your companies. Microsoft
makes its best effort to insure that Inc.
(client and server) is perfectly conform to the current regulations of the
countries you are able to incorporate your company. However, Microsoft cannot
be taken as responsible for any fraud or any losses due to the use of funds
transfer. You must have your transactions checked with your bank or financial
authority through which you have
incorporated. In most cases, those checks can be controlled on-line between the
Inc. server and the bank server. The Inc. server prepares the appropriate
legal forms and the relevant tax
declarations to the country tax or custom authorities. You cannot use Inc. to generate transactions in
contradiction with laws and regulations accepted by the financial community.
You can use Inc. to maximize your
profit by taking advantage of the differences of regulations and/or taxes
between states and countries.
MSNet provides
also legal services that can check the contracts you are negotiating through MoneyQuicken
Pro.
MoneyQuickenPro is able to handle all your relations with
your banks, investment funds, credit loans, saving banks and audits cabinets.
As its predecessor, it can record your money movements, write checks and
prepare tax filings.
In addition, MoneyQuickenPro
can be your own accountant or your own finance officer, in arbitrating between
your accounts, purchasing or selling securities, buying or selling foreign
currencies…Most operations are performed automatically by MoneyQuickenPro
taking in account all computerized world wide informations that you specify,
and according the goals you preset. Opening a new account in any place of the
world is done electronically. However,
in some countries, electronic signatures are not sufficient and account
opening requires a confirmation by fax or mail. MoneyQuickenPro
provides forms for written confirmations.
Direct operations on securities
market and many derivative products can be made by MoneyQuickenPro,
but some may be submitted to regulations, such as to a deposit on a banking
account agreed upon by the regulating authority. Localized versions of MoneyQuickenPro
include local regulations. Foreign regulations, known at release time to
Microsoft Financial
ProductsIntuit division are included. Updates
of those regulations are distributed through Microsoft Network or MSDN . In providing an understanding as
precise as available of the monetary mechanisms, MoneyQuickenPro
now puts complex derivative financial products at the fingertips of the
non-professional and makes exotic or foreign products available to everybody.
During beta testing of MoneyQuickenPro,
that has been performed with the participation of the San Francisco stock
exchange, Crédit Lyonnais, ING Groep NV and the Chemical Citybank of New York, it has been
observed that the usage of MoneyQuickenPro
by about one fourth of US investors would be able to induce oscillations in stocks'stocks
prices that could potentially impact the solidity of the currency and alter the
faith into financial institutions. At the request of the Federal Reserve Bank,
Microsoft Financial
ProductsIntuit Division put in MoneyQuickenPro
a damping mechanism to delay somewhat the reaction time of operators (in reverse
proportion to the level of their accounts) and to introduce a random factor in
the reaction time. To comply with a request of international regulating authorities,
MoneyQuickenPro
incorporates up to 16 modules to handle regulations for domestic and off-shore
markets. Those regulation modules can be down loaded using MDVB by regulating
authorities. They are encrypted and cannot be modified by users nor by Microsoft.
In addition, regulating authorities may upload an audit trail of MoneyQuickenPro
transactions. The integrity of the audit trail is verified by the regulation
modules. The owner is fully responsible for any fraudulent action done using MoneyQuickenPro.
For international transactions, MoneyQuickenPro uses the SWIFT network through your bank
gateway. Owners of MoneyQuickenPro
have also the option to use a SWIFT gateway owned by Microsoft Credit Bank
(MCB) and located in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Use of MCB gateway by MoneyQuickenPro
licensed users is submitted to the approval of MCB that has to be requested
separately.
For the moment, transactions made between foreign accounts are not
regulated, except in some cases when they cannot be handled but through bank or
financial institutions. Direct operations on US securities are not allowed from
foreign locations. MoneyQuickenPro
incorporates in the messages the position of your computer, such as that
reported by the GPS feature of your computer. You may install your MoneyQuickenPro
computer in a domestic location and control it through your personal network
through a notebook or a PDA from your plane or your yacht.
In addition to financial products from the major places of the world, MoneyQuickenPro
allows you to operate in some commodities market such as raw materials markets.
However, There isare
built-in restrictions in MoneyQuickenPro
for operating from the continental United States on some specific markets such
as Yakoutsk for minerals, Groznyi and Peshawar for specific hardware, Myanmar, Medellin,
Cali or Chiang Rai for some agricultural products.
MoneyQuickenPro cannot be used for entering cash in any of your
accounts. You have also to use banks ATM to cash your accounts. It can only
record and monitor your cash transactions in dollars or in any foreign
currency. Microsoft denies any responsibility if you use MoneyQuickenPro
in illegal traffic or money laundering. Microsoft retains the right to
immediately terminate the MoneyQuickenPro
license and the related services if asked to do so by the competent regulating
authorities.
MoneyQuickenPro can operate as a OLE4.0 server for Excel, Document
and Project. It can be used as a OLE4.0 client for other instances of MoneyQuickenPro.
You can simulate a business competition inside your private network by
observing the behavior of a virtual market where operators are several
instances of MoneyQuickenPro.
You may even interconnect your private market with the real securities and currencies'currencies
market, using one or several instances of MoneyQuickenPro
acting as gateway with the real(s) market(s). Such a feature can be used by
savvy investors to coordinate theoretically independent and isolated markets.
Microsoft does not carry any responsibility nor can be taken liable to
any losses or damages for the use of MoneyQuickenPro
in front of changes in regulations, failures of any financial
institutions, initiatives of foreign
governments, legal or illegal actions performed by other actors, or for any
misrepresentation of financial products.
The price of MoneyQuickenPro
is $495 for the basic services. The upgrade from MoneyQuicken
is $195. Competitive upgrades are available for $205. The Fed regulation module
is automatically charged at $75/month. Other regulation modules'modules
fees are still to be defined.
Leisure
and Entertainment
Microsoft recognizes this still growing segment of the
personal computer market and how it contributed to the acceptance for that
technology. Microsoft wishes to continue to improve the ubiquity of the
personal computer and wishes that Seattle
contributes to expand its influence on the game'sgames
market.
With Seattle, Microsoft expands the SDK with a new and extended version of WinG allowing Games designers to take advantage of the advanced 4D
facilities of the system. All new
applications introduced by Microsoft have been developed under extended WinG.
WinToon, a
development tool originally intended to create cartoons in .AVI multimedia
format, has been extended to the third dimension, allowing authors to move
characters in 3-D landscape, while offering better play performances than
created with standard functionalities. WinToon
v3.0 now produces scenarios in virtual realitymovie
meta-file format (.VRFMMF)
as well as AVI or MPEG format. The use of .VRFMMF format
is particularly suitable to interactive cartoons,
because you can determine the point of view and change some features of
characters at play time. Because .VRFMMF is
significantly more compact than MPG, it is also more suitable to network
interactive games. Using OLE4 with WinToon,
you may morph one each charactercharacters
with each player of the game and for instance to play realistic roles'roles
games in a network.
VRFMMF
format WinToon characters may be
dressed in a variety of clothes. The cloth library offers a wide range of
colors and characteristics of textiles and shapes. Realistic drapés can be
realized on characters as well as dynamic aspect due to movements of wind or
water. The cloth library used in WinToon
is a subset of the Couture library
also available in Seattle. All the Couture
generated clothes can be made worn by VRFMMF
characters.
In a VRFMMF
WinToon environment, Dolls
are specific objects of the character libraries and can be created,
dressed and undressed, made moving, speaking and acting on the way you want.
Dolls are objects you may morph from existing characters. They may have a movingng
scenario that can be interactively modified by the player. All games played
with dolls may now be played in a virtual world controlled by the user.
Specific interface devicesdevice
are available from third parties for infants and young children wishing to play
with Virtual Dolls.
WinTool technology has been developed in collaboration with
DreamWorks SKG thatwhich
has used it noticeably in Triassic Park
IV and in Dinos successful
interactive game. Microsoft announces that it has bought half of Paul Allen's share'sshareholding
part in DreamWorks SKG, having now 49% of the capital.
Among the new Microsoft products updated for Seattle, Flight Simulator for Windows v6.0 is able to take benefit of
the 4-dimensional GDI. Airplanes can navigate in a world fully integrated with
the other GDI Windows applications such as maps, virtual reality and other
simulation programs. ODBC access to the OAG server (CompuServe, DJN...) or
similar servers (in France 3615 HORAV) and OLE functionalities may be used to
generate simulated external traffic inside FSW. Similarly weather information
and prediction servers already available as an add-on for Flight Simulator 5 isare
integrated in FSW.
FSW is programmable with Visaural Basic for Applications and application programmers
can develop their own specific simulations'simulations
games and adventures using their own aircraft parameters and the 4-D GDI
capabilities of Seattle. FSW aircraft definition can be imported
from Autocad for Windows™ or CATIA™ using ODBC facilities.
FSW can be used for airplane training by interconnecting
real airplane instruments through a radio
link to a personal computer, allowing a ground based instructor to operateoperates
as a co-pilot of the real plane. Beta Testing of FSW6 has already been successfully
done by USNavy at various classified locations. Use of FSW on board of
commercial aircrafts is subject to FAA restrictions differing according with
the risk of interference with the planes. Use of upward link towards commercial liners is prohibited by a security
feature embedded within FSW.
Price of FSW6.0 is unchanged from that FS5.
In the collection AtHome, Microsoft is introducing Racing Car Simulator (RCS). This simulator differs from
arcade simulators by being based on the actual CAD model of mid-1990s F1 racing
car. Real vehicles have been prohibited in 1997 after many circuit accidents.
Microsoft has obtained the CAD models of Ford, Benneton and Williams. Lotus
models are not yet available in RCS car library due to ana
intellectual property dispute. Pre-1990 cars present in the RCS library are
simulated from their description. Owners
of Racing Car Simulator are
able to drive virtual F1 with the real characteristics of those famous antique cars. All circuits used
during the early 90s are simulated in RCS.
Owners are able to compete on famous circuits such as Monte-Carlo, Silverstone
or Monza using RCS on private or public networks. Access to public networks
requires successful training and virtual accidents may lead to a removal of
license to use RCS on public networks.
The use of 4D Seattle
software is well demonstrated by Microsoft Train Simulator that allows the
simulation of railroad tracks, stations and a variety of steam and electric
engines, of various freight and passengers cars in landscape chosen by the user
among real or fantasy landscapes. Train
Simulator uses the same basic 3D landscape'slandscapes
library as Flight Simulator. You may
add new tracks to the existing landscape, the cost of construction is computed
according the track construction progress ; you may select an accelerated time
and you also simulate financial costs as well as costs of acquisition of land
for your network. You can let Train
Simulator establish for you signals and traffic lights or you may specify
them. Then you acquire a fleet of engines and cars and establish schedules for
your trains. You may select different scales and point of views to contemplate
your network. You may even select a mechanics point of view or a passenger
seat. Noises are reproduced according your point of view. You may appreciate
the environmental troubles caused to the neighbors before really running your
trains.
Although trains dynamic characteristics (acceleration, speed,
braking) areis
normally specified in the library, you may redefine the specification of engines and cars (size, weight, power, rail
adherence …) and / or take the driver
seat in a specific train.
Train Simulator economics may be simulated by specifying the passengers and freight
transportation requirement in all stations. You may enter your own data and /
or use real statistics from the Microsoft Network.
As the other simulations offered by Microsoft, Trains may operate in a network environment, gathering the
functions of financial management on one PC, engineering management in another
and letting different mechanics driving specific trains in their own PCs.
Microsoft
is updating its collection of Museums at FingerTips, inaugurated with the
British National Gallery in 1973, to fit into the new 4D environment. A new
front-end, compatible with previously edited paintings and sculptures, will
allow virtual visits of museums and monuments. Microsoft expresses its intent
to cooperate with UNESCO[52]
in the reconstruction of ancient cities, buildings and monuments within the 4D
space of Seattle. Monuments'Monuments
representations will be used not only as visits, but in education games,
publications and wargames.
All data collected in this collection are stored in Repository of Facts from which they become public after 10 years or
owner rights whatever is the larger. For artistic works no more covered by
artists or their heirs'heirs
rights, Microsoft abandons the standard copyrighting of publications to allow a
global and faster distribution of the patrimony of the humanity.
In
addition, Microsoft introduces the Virtual_Travel
program in conjunction with the Microsoft
Network. Virtual_Travel gathers a collection of interactive animations (.VRFMMF
files), pictures, music landscapes, 3D monuments, characters that you may
personalize to you and your friends. The purpose of Virtual_Travel is to allow you to visit a country, a city, a
monument, a museum, at a time you
select. So, you may visit Mongolia at the time of Chingis Khan or you may visit
New Orleans during the 1930's. Virtual_Travel
is actually a synthesis of the world such as it has been presently
collected in the Network.
If you choose to view youryour (or
your friends') character in Virtual_Travel
, you may select to wear local clothes or apparel that makes you appear for
instance as a pharaoh's scribe in Egypt or wearing chador whileen
visiting contemporary Iran. You may 'borrow' costumes and jewelry from 'virtual' museums
for those wearings.
Virtual_Travel program is part of Seattle.
You may acquire data from several media of distribution. Media are distributed
either by Microsoft or by third parties committed to Virtual_Travel compatibility. The license scheme recommended by
Microsoft is to grant to a group ( a person or a group of persons such as a
school class or a family) a 10 years license to get access to all Travel files (those published at licensing time existing
and all those to be publishedavailable
during the next ten years) Travel
files concerning a region or a country of the world. This scheme
will contribute to sponsor the collection and the digitization of facts
throughout the world. The individual pricing of each collection will be
published later, but it is the intent of Microsoft to be priced at a level as low asabout
one tenth of a real trip in a country (excluding transportation). Microsoft
recognizes that the available technology is presently unavailable to provide
virtual travelers such sensations as odors, weather, taste of meals, jet lag
and other things that real travelers enjoy. However, it makes many cultural
objects at the fingertips of millions of persons who would never consider and /
or afford traveling in remote countries. As Virtual_Travel
includes monuments and objects of the past that have presently disappeared,
it gives opportunities to real travelers to be exposed to past events.
A very usualinteresting
occupation, when traveling, is to bring back souvenirs and send post cards to
your friends. In Virtual_Travel, you
have the capabilities to get free souvenirs by Edit-Copy objects in your bag[53].
You are only entitled to capture removable virtual objects, such as jewelry, cloth, animals,
persons, art treasures and removable documents. Later, you will be able to
paste them in your fantasy landscape. Removed objects lose their Time dimension
and can be transported in a completely (and possibly anachronic world). You may
bring Cleopatra in downtown Manhattan trying to seduce Napoleon by offering him
gifts from your own design. Actually, by visiting the world with Virtual_Travel you may envision to become a movie producer. You (or
more exactly the character that represents you) may also send post-cards to
your real friends (using their real e-mail address) or to some virtual friends, such as your
dolls. Post cards are Document files
including text, photographs and movies (not screen captures, but the 2D image
seen from the virtual point of view[54]).
By sending postcards to your friends you encourage them to pay themselves
visits to the world of Virtual_Travel.
You can organize a travel group, in which different real people from
different computers (of the same group) control different animated characters. So, in a group visit, postcards
from different characters have a good chance to reflect the sensibility of the
sender. The tour leader establish the general framework of the visit, all the
members have to stay in the same scene, but they may wandering at their
convenience or they may stay close together (one character is taking control
but the other keeps the freedom of the view direction and some movements). In a
travel group, objects collected by the members of the party are transported by
the tour leader and the same instance of an object cannot be collected twice.
You may wish to add to the Virtual
Travel data base your own documentation about a place of travel. It may
include photographs, maps and movies (either in video mode or in animation .VRFMMF
processed mode. You may also include in a Virtual
Travel group real travelers who are
on-line in real time. Those travelers can send you real time movies (in
extended ..MPG (or AVI) format[55]
). Those virtual trips in proxy will be enhanced by the capability of real time
incorporation of cameras able to record directly in .VRFMMF
format[56].
You may store files in your computer (or network) or you may retrieve
them from Microsoft Network. You may
request via the Network that files related to the region you
selected be sent to you on a personalized CD-ROM to cut communication time (and
charges). All the files used in Virtual_Travel
are encoded with your name, so they cannot be used outside your group.
+Strategic Simulations Inc. announces the publication
of its first title Japan V-Day. They use a combination of Microsoft 4D technology
for a virtual representation of pre-war Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other
cities and of SSI own warfare objects and methods. Players may select roles of
USAF crew or those of generals or
Japanese ordinary citizens. Some methods
used by SSI are developed under
some classified US services contracts are specially encrypted and are not
available in any source or intermediary form for export. Microsoft denies any
responsibility and any liability for those methods and consequences thatwhich
may result from their application to any object.
}Microsoft announces an agreement with Sony recordings
to extend its collection of music.
Sony records will be republished in CD-ROM in Microsoft format. Microsoft and
Sony will use the MPEG-3 format that will allow multivision[57]
concert and opera movies, images of the score to be displayed on screen in
synchronization with the music, as well as pictures and descriptive of the
titles. Music may be included in compound documents. OLE4 Facilities will have
the capability of enforcing intellectual property and copyright rights of
musical works through group operations.
Seattle
multimedia manager supports the encapsulated MIDI format which allows
transmission of MIDI coded signals on LAN or RLAN (radio-LAN) networks. Each
MIDI output data message is encapsulated into an IEEE 802-like frame containing
the address of the originator and the time information. The limits to the
throughput and the number of channels implied by the 31.5 Kbps of the original
MIDI standard are overcome, allowing musicians to play together without
wiring (using RLAN), distance and
number of players'players
constraints. Virtual orchestra becomes possible through this feature, assuming
a sufficient bandwidth to allow a natural feedback from the sound of other
players.
Previously, there was no relation between MIDI coded music and digitally
sampled sounds (e.g. .WAV data). In conjunction with Passport Designs Inc. ,
Microsoft provides an interactive conversion program SoundScore that attempts to translate a sound recorded from analog
instruments, from singing voice, birds or various sources of
"music", MIDI and music score
representations of those sounds. Independently from their contribution to music
learning, this utility has manysome advantages for music data
compression.
The representation of music sctores has
lead Microsoft to implement in Document
additional features[58]
required to process music scores as if they
were text.
You may also convert your .MID files into .WAV form without having to
output them through a sound card. Such a facility will allow you to apply
post-processing continuous algorithms not available on discrete representation
of music as .MID format.
In reverse, you may use the speech synthesizer of Seattle
to generate a synthetic song, with user definable accents and modulations.
So, musicians will be able to incorporate in their compositions'compositions
lyrics as well as musical instruments. Karaoke programs can also now be run completely unattended by the
singer.
Antiques
Microsoft announces the creation of
the William Gates Foundation for the History of Computer Science (WGFHCS). This
non-profit organization intends to keep memory of ancient computers offering to
schools, universities, technical museums and the general public a recreation of
the ancient computing environment on modern computers, more precisely in a Seattle Window environment. The
foundation will be funded on the base of $5m per year, and will employ retired
or unemployed software engineers and high school students in several places in
the world. It will buy back licenses rights of old programs and will republish
them in a CD-ROM form. Original platforms and devices will be emulated, and
original devices will be optional.
Initial publications ready for
publication are Pong, the original
version of CP/M 80, Windows V1, MS/DOS 1.0, UNIX 1971 version and Visicalc.
MULTICS, Amiga,
OS/2 Warp, AIX and Lotus 1-2-3 v1A are currently under development. The British chapter of WGFHCS is trying to
reconstruct a version of Atlas and
the French chapter is developing the 1950 Gamma
3 A/ET and GCOS64. In collaboration
with Boston Computer Museum, the porting of SAGE system and that of DEC
VMS v3.03 are being undertaken. Xerox PARC veterans are porting the
original version of Smalltalk 80.
WGFHCS is still trying to secure the acquisition of the original version of
OS/360 ; WGFHCS is for the moment facing difficulties in locating people
understanding the design of some operating system, people who, in some cases,
may have not ever existed. An
interesting facility of the WGFHCS environment is the possibility to
interconnect the ancient program to the new distributed world, the communication
being in general limited by the capabilities of ancient system. One example is
the possibility to integrate in a same war game Flight Simulator and a real
copy of the SAGE system, allowing historians to verify scenarios of a Third WW
envisioned in the 60s and 70s. Ported systems will keep all their software
development environment and retired programmers will be able to continue to exercizekeep
their creativity, for example in COBOL, without having to learn the new
Microsoft environment. WGFHCS estimates that the performances of anythe
emulated ancient system will be in general satisfied by any contemporary
workstation. However, real creation of original facilities like drum or band
printers, punched cards'cards
usage or open reel tape moving that may be desirable for shows and museums will
require a special hardware attachment. WGFHCS is planning to develop some on a
case by case basis and will develop the
drivers. They are available on a RPQ basis at a fee not exceeding the cost.
Personal
Usage
Seattle includes a built-in Microsoft
Personal
Assistant (MPA) application. Using the Personal Assistant from a
notebook (under Windows for WorkGroups4.2 or MacOS System8), a Personal Digital
Assistant (Apple, Sharp, or WinPads PDA) or a workstation, Seattle users may benefit from an assistant 24 hours a day,
365 days a year. MPA uses Scheduler++
to handle agendas. It includes Travel++
thatwhich
automatically communicates with Microsoft EasySabre
for train, airplanes, entertainment and hotel reservations. MPA Personal_Assistant communicates with
other groups'groups
members Schedulers to set up meetings and appointments.
Agenda tracking by Scheduler++
may determine the expected future position of the MPA bearer by computing the
time-to-destination. It proposes an automatic rescheduling of missed appointments.
Handling of time zones, a function rarely present in such programs, is fully
integrated in Personal_Assistant
A user of MPA may set rules to protect his (or her) privacy, while
enhancing his (or her) productivity. It handles hazards caused or miscellaneous
delays and reschedules activities. MPA Personal_Assistant
is distributed between the devices that are members of the personal group,
and includes private or Microsoft RDS back-up. Communication between user and
MPA is achieved either through a
PDA/subnotebook Keyboard/pen interface or directly through speech (direct or
telephone). Automation of low qualification assistants or secretariats'secretariats
tasks provided by Microsoft PA may lead to a significant increase of
productivity in business and other
activities. MPA Personal_Assistant is
included in next release of WinPad, MPA
Personal_Assistant for Windows for Workgroups is available at the price of
$39.95, MPA Personal_Assistant for
PowerBook/ System8 is available for $59.99.
Specific
Characteristics
;Privacy is enforced through the definition of groups. For
example, position information may be available to work groups during work hours
only and itsthe
precision of it can be filtered in each of the groupsgroup
(e.g., federal authority may be made aware of « present in the
country » only). Privacy conditions may be modified dynamically by each
user within the rules established for the group. For example, onea
family may adopt rules allowing some position fuzziness, another may adopt
maximum precision.
Default values for privacy are set by Microsoft according to the laws
and the Constitution of United States. Microsoft distributors may alter those
default rules for distribution in specific countries but should not alter the
capabilities for customers to set up their own privacy and securities rules, except when explicitly constrained by law.
Some groups can be set up to limit shared documents to specific formats.
For example, only official forms and their annexes can be made
« shared » within to
the IRS group. Informal notes cannot be "shared" in
some official groups. Obviously, specific access rights can be
established within a group.
When the reliability and the availability of data are considered
important by their owner, he (or she) may consider using the Microsoft service
called Repository of Facts
(ROF)[59].
Microsoft guarantees that the data (after the issue of a certificate of deposit)
are maintained in a safe place and are guaranteed against a large scope of mishaps improving by far
the guarantees offered by banks and insurance companies. This service is
provided by a combination of world and
space distributed computers. Although, Microsoft provides its best effort to
protect data in all circumstances, are not guaranteed the damages caused
by some cosmic catastrophes, by a deliberate destruction of ROF network or
significant part of it by government or criminal individuals acts and by any
act leading to the absence of survival and loss of integrity of Microsoft
Corporation. Charge for ROF includes a charge for data change and a charge for
data storage. Microsoft does not offer the deletion of data stored in ROF, but
suspends the storage charge when the owner signifies it. Data stored in ROF may
become public in accordance with the legislation of the country of their owner
(50 years after their death for private matters, the expiration of intellectual
property or similar rights for business matters). The geographical location of
the ROF data being essentially undefined, Microsoft cannot fulfill a subpoena
of the access of data issued by local or national authorities. Microsoft ROF
comply however with present and future international legislation on facilities
essentially similar to ROF.
Data stored in ROF can be made available to public
through networks. When copyrighted, they may be declared by their owner as
"on-demand only" and are
transmitted for a single occurrence of use. An occurrence of use is defined as
one single output.
"On demand" data remain encrypted and any temporary copy is
automatically destroyed when this
output has been successfully produced. Users of "on-demand" data are
billed at the time of the extraction from ROF. "On demand" data are
not necessarily outputted immediately, theirthey may be
embeddinged
within other
objects is allowed
and their output (printed, displayed, played) can be delayed according the
wishes of the client. Preview of files including "on demand" data is
allowed, but preview software filters the embedded "on-demand" data
to provide only the necessary information to formatting. While,
the output of "on-demand" objects or of data containing embedded
"on-demand" objects is not performed, they can be stored and
transmitted to another computer.
While "on-demand" data can be stored in non-Microsoft servers,
Microsoft cannot be held accountable for violation of copyrights and
intellectual property rights in other systems than Microsoft ROF.
Data
exchange between applications via Clipboard, DDE and OLE convey the copyright
information of documents transparently. Microsoft Document
and various Viewers available from Microsoft output systematically a
Copyright information paragraph in each output. This Copyright paragraph
includes copyright information coming from parts of other documents.
If the output media is subsequently reproduced by an analog
process, such as scanning, audio or video recording, Microsoft cannot be held
responsible of any violation of the
laws governing traditional copyright and intellectual property rights.
Seattle implements the Component Object Model when referencing imported objects (i.e., data
objects encapsulated through non-trusted methods) by creating a dedicated server for that object class. Seattle creates a
special process environment for executing non trusted procedures , environment that is
destroyed after the execution of the procedure. By default, the methods accompanying
all objects
imported through Internet or any public network are reputed non trusted.
Internationalization
From the location information, it is possible to determine the system
local time and the local language of the user of a system. This is used for
internationalization. In Seattle, a
group may be given the International attribute.
The international attribute implies that local language will be
automatically selected as the default option, but the user may also use
English.
The internal code of Seattle
is extended Unicode. Messages can be
in English and/or any language. The
system also supports vocal language with the option to select a locutor of the user choice.
The user of any native[60]
application of Seattle may specify
that his (or her) keyboard input is filtered by an Input Method Editor
(IME) that transforms the keyboard entry in a Unicode stream. The most
popular examples of IME are those allowing kana-kanji or Hangul translation as
well as pinyin-Han translation. An escape mechanism to directly type English is
available in IME. Specific IMEs are provided by Document to allow context recognized inputs. IME specific for
pen-input is also available for most popular
languages (presently, English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese).
Win64 API supports speech recognition and translation of Unicode from any language
into speech. Third parties may include their own speech recognition dictionary
and language translation. Microsoft delivers as part of Seattle English and Japanese dictionaries, and makes available
Cantonese for $69, Malay, Tagalong and Lao-Khmer for $49.95 each, European
Union English and Central American Spanish are also available on request for
$119.95 each. The support of other languages, like other European languages,
will be made available by Microsoft according to market requirements[61].
TAPI (Telecommunications API) is extended by including
speech recognition and an optional dynamic synchronous retransmisssion of the
recorded speech. Speech generation is improved to support optional regional
accents. Users should be aware that use of regional accents could impair future
speech recognition by computers located remotely and particularly in countries
where native language is not English. Users should be encouraged to have their
English speech automatically or manually translated into Filipino English thatwhich
happen to be the easiest accent for automatic recognition by foreigners. Using Seattle, the users should be able to
replace old PBX and answerbacks functions by inexpensive personal computers.
Storage Management.
Microsoft recognizes the limits reached by several
users of notebooks and owners of ancient personal computers on secondary
storage. With Seattle, applications
can stay compressed in .LZV format[62]
on secondary storage. At the moment of the initialization of the application,
it is decompressed (in virtual memory). Additionally, ACCESS and SQL servers
store their tables in .LZW format, a slight variant of Microsoft compacted .LZV
maintaining containers' indexes to
allow updates in place. Those improvements should decrease the usefulness of
third parties disk compacting utilities. Microsoft is working with Intel and
others on a hardware support of a .LZV format allowing the decompaction to be
performed inside the CPU itself[63].
This version of microprocessors will be announced later and will be
supported by an optional feature of the Seattle
application loader. In addition, those microprocessors will allow the use of encrypted
code that prohibit the deciphering of functions, algorithms'algorithms
methods and signatures[64].
As very small files can be stored as members of a
component library and that compression is supported as file level, it is less
necessary to use compression at volume level as provided by DoubleSpace, Stacker™ or similar
products. However, compatible interfaces for storage remapping between file
systems and device drivers are maintained in Seattle.
Seattle handles
various types of secondary storage including removable storage media. Access
restrictions are now being stored in the media and a combination of aan
key encryption of the table of contents of the removable media volume and of a
data striping protect disallow the use by unauthorized users on another type of
computer.
Automatic N-plication of data through the group network is also
available.
yAutomatic Power
Management ( APM) was already available for systems powered by chemical
rechargeable or not rechargeable batteries and nuclear fuel cells. APM is
extended to support UPS backed electrical network, solar cells powered devices
and mass inertia powered systems.
APM allows system to optimize not only their availability but also the
electricity cost making choices between different recharging strategiesy,
taking advantage of availability of free electricity such as hotel rooms (for battery powered
units), sundecks (for solar-cells units)…
Systems with radio type connection may use the power transmitted by
radio waves to maintain the charge of their back up battery. An application is
the remote resurrection of a solar powered station on the south pole at Spring
time or similar resurrection of some space based computers after a solar
eclipse. The Plug&Play strategy is also applicable to the power units of
any system allowing exchange of batteries or switching the type of power
without a major (if any) disturbance of the software. Remote power control of
appliances is fully supported.
Power management procedures obey
to the general security and privacy rules of the Seattle system. A practical application is to include in networks cars'cars
ignition control[65] devices. So, Seattle will bring a significant
improvement to the defense of property
ownership in troubled areas. Stables', private hHouses' and apartments'apartments
doors may also take advantage from such a feature.
Resource management has been a plague of the open system software for long. Microsoft
MS / DOS and Windows had often encountered system outages when
reaching secondary storage limits, time-outs could be reached when processor
requirements are not matched by the configuration. Recognizing this problem,
Microsoft has decided to offer a Network
Resource Service thatwhich
provides to all devices including
wireless mobiles additional File and Compute servers'servers
capability through a NRS pool of computing resources. NRS differs from
Microsoft Repository of Facts (ROF),
by the fact that NRS has no knowledge on the nature and the status of objects
that are stored in NRS. However, it uses common facilities with ROF and
provides the same availability services.
NRS can be used either for application or for system objects. NRS in Seattle v1.0 does not perform direct update
of OLE4.O distributed data. Back-up of NRS located data towards removable media
can be done using NRS. NRS services include the option of copying, storing or
retrieving NRS located objects into or from ROF.
This service is available for only $1.99 per month plus communications
and resources utilization charges. A continuous monitoring of NRS usage allows the user to decide between
investment into a private server or continuing to rely on NRS. Optionally, a
user may rely entirely on NRS, limiting
its own investment into mobile devices. Microsoft NRS are scattered between
several countries and daily backed-up in other locations. Initial locations of
NRS centers will be Zurich, Hamilton (Bermuda) and Singapore.
Hardware
The minimum configuration of servers and stations is based on Intel
processors starting from a single 486[66]
with a minimum memory size of 32MB of main memory and a single disc of 1GB capacity.
A reasonable configuration for servers and high-end workstations will be a
Heptium (P7) based quad-processor unit with 128MB of memory backed by a 4GB
disc and CD-ROM, with SoundBlaster32 or Microsoft compatible sound card.
Several peripheral connections are fully supported by Plug&Play
adapters: PCI directly attached connections, ATAPI IDE, X-IDE and E-IDE
adapters, SCSI devices.
Native support of CD (audio and/or data) juke-box or linear libraries
provided by Sony, Matsushita and other vendors is available in a mixable configuration of non-writable and
rewritable discs. Stations require in addition a color graphic device able to
display at least 1024x768 pixels.
To be able to displays several windows containing different color
Palettes, Seattle has enhanced DCI to support an extended palette. Extended
palette is supported by recent display graphics cards. With old cards, Seattle attempts to remap the extended
palette in 256 colors at the expense of the fidelity of colors.
Seattle generalizes the concept of docking-undocking that has
been pioneered with the first notebooks in the early 1990's. A computer or an
appliance running Seattle is able to
accept dynamically an extension of its configuration by docking it (physically
through a Plug&Play connector or through an infra-red or radio connection).
This concept is different from the dynamic connection to a network, because the
passive nature of the resources of the docking station. The docking station may
includeincludes computer basic resources such
as memory, additional processors and adapters but they are inactive between
docking sessions. It is possible to dock different computers at different times
in the same station. Security and privacy (password controlled access to files)
areis implemented on the same way as if
different persons were using alternatively the same workstation.
Distribution of versions based on NECµR4000 and 5000, DEC Alpha, Apple
PowerPC (PCI-bus models exclusively and Portable devices based on PowerPC) ,
and IBM ES9000 derivatives will be done
approximately at the same time as Intel version.
Seattle is able to operate on shared memory multi-processors (SMP) configuration up to 6032
processors. The performance obtained on a SMP system relative to the single
processor’s one depends upon the interference of shared data references between
the parallel threads and upon efficiency of the hardware. The 4 to 16 processors'processors configurations presently
available shows a negligible overhead in the operating system. The behavior of
applications depends generally of the multi-threading parallelism that was
implemented in their design.
In addition, Seattle supports cluster configurations (including such asDigital Equipment
Alpha clusters and IBM Parallel systems). Those systems may be used either as a
simple network of separate computers thatwhich may cooperate
in group(s) or part of group(s) or as a true parallel system[67].
Their manufacturers may provide hardware, firmware and (or) basic software
extensions improving the performances or the (local) reliability of the
group. Among the features available in
many parallel systems, Extended Shared memory is supported as a throughput
accelerator for distributed applications. It is specially useful for OLE
documents used by separate applications. While NRS (network resources services)
can have the same architecture properties of extended shared memory, it does
not presently support the full OLE4 functionality.
Seattle is also
an excellent choice as the operating system of highly parallel servers similar to
IBM SP3+ or Cray TS-5. Multi-threaded applications may operate
indifferently on massively parallel systems, on distributed servers, on
powerful SMP servers or on a combination of those. Microsoft offers a Performance Simulation Analyzer (PSA)
which helps users to specify their hardware needs based on the real application
code and/or formal design specifications extracted from the Visaural programs.
The mobiles'mobiles
configuration depends on the specific application. All mobile devices able to be members of a Seattle
system may carry a « MICROSOFT World »
green logo.
Applications Programming
Seattle includes
a Win64 API thatwhich
is fully upward compatible with Win32 introduced in 92 with Windows3.1 and NT.
Win32 support of the 4th dimension is limited to the relative time, applications
referencing pre-historical events in OLE4 should be rewritten in Win64.
Seattle was developed in Visaural C++++, an extension of Visual C++, Microsoft intends to distribute
Win64 development package with the next release of Microsoft Foundation Class
Library (MFC) 6.51. A particular care has been taken to optimize the x-huge[68]
model and the P-code model of object code. It is expected that out-of-cache
references of Intel and PowerPC code (P-code + interpreting code) may be
reduced to less than 5‰ on systems with a cache size of 16MB.[69]
The
Workstation model of Seattle supports
Visaural Basic for Applications 2.1 thatwhich is
also the normal programming language of Microsoft applications such as Word9.0, Excel87.0, Video
for Windows 1.97, Notes 6.0, Pagemaker 4 and X-Windows extended.
As an example, using Visaural Basic for Groups Applications
2.1(Visaural BA) , developers can write an application providing the appropriate
encouraging tune for a cow
pasturing in Iowa fields according to
the variation of the milk consumption in Kuala Lumpur supermarket and the production
output of a Nestle plant in Switzerland.
Other examples of possible applications might be remote baby sitting,
virtual teleconferencing and even remote sexual activities.
Visaural C++++ and Visaural BA debuggers
include 4D dockable windows to allow to
see source code, object code and 4D data simultaneously. Docking another copy
of Visaural allows the debugging of remote client/server applications not only
in the native station code but using Cross-Development run time in the machine
language of a foreign workstation. Using the audio and speech functionalities
of Visaural does not requirerequires
audio hardware facilities. A sound emulation in 4D visual may be used instead
or in addition to sound hardware.
Hosting applications development with Visaural C++ and Visaural BA
requires the workstation version of Seattle
with a minimum of 40MB of main memory and 985MB of secondary disc storage
or a 400MB capacity on a server. A non fully functional version of the Visaural development environment is
available under Windows95 (alias Chicago)
and Windows NT4.0.
Microsoft expressed its intent to supply products or to license rights forVisaural target platforms
for the following non Seattle server
platforms: IBM MVS370-ESA, IBM AIXv3.7 and v4.1, DEC VMS, NEC GCOS, and for the
generic UNIX System V.4.
In supporting distributed applications, Visaural Basic and Visaural C++++ allows the
programmer to take benefit of multi-threading capabilities of Seattle.
Many limits previously encountered in Visual Basic and
Visual C++ are removed from Visaural
products. In particular, the stack size is extended to a programmer set limit
set by the programmer up
to the size of virtual memory, and allows recursive procedures and event
procedures applications entirely based on event procedures.
Controls are now
definable inside and outside forms in the 4 dimensions of the workspace. New
controls are provided such as Time_navigation, Long_Lat_navigation, Altitude.
In addition, customs controls stored in a Custom Control_ Library can be shared
in OLE mode between applications. So an application may dynamically use and
manipulate a control located in a different application thatwhich
may run in a different computer. Specific access rights can be assigned to
controls. Audio (and voice[70])
controls are introduced allowing voice commands and answers to be used in Visaural applications; audio controls
may be used not only as alternate « short keys » for standard controls, but as specific controls
for voice directed applications. Rotating Tool bars controls are now part of
basic Seattle controls. They decrease
the clutter in the display. They can also rotate under the application control,
providing additional flexibility to your user interface.
You may embed controls, including audio controls as
part of compound documents.
The concept of environment objects is extended to distributed objects.
An application may have access to the environments objects of applications
located in a different computer. Specific access rights may be assigned to
environment objects. Such a facility allows the administration of any Seattle computer from a remote
site[71].
By specifying a method external
to the computer containing an object, an application programmer may specify
objects operating out of his (or her) domination.
Using OLE4,
the programmer may define a multi-computer application system composed of several App objects each exposing its own
objects to the view and the manipulation by other App objects located in the
same or in other computers. In the Visaural
system itself, such a process is
used for program preparation and compilation, a new program is being given
birth as the consequence of the relationship between the program editor and the
program generator.
Telephone objects, properties and statements defined in TAPI
specifications are fully supported in Visaural.
For example, it is possible to program a personal server not only to record
calls and faxes but to determine what is the closest way to reach the
addressee, among the mobiles of his (or her) personal group, taking in account
his(or her) appointments and eventually calling hospitals or police in case of
emergency calls. When rerouting messages (voice or faxes) outside the personal
group, messages can be selectively encrypted by a personal key (submitted
through a keypad or a phone message).
OLE4 also allows to paste in a "document" not only another
object, such as defined at the introduction of OLE technology, but also any
composite object. For instance, you may paste in a Document report an image which has been produced in a virtual
reality application such as Vistapro™ from
a DES map obtained from the US Geological Services server[72],
image to which you could have added a drawing of your house from a 3D package
such as Floorplan for Windows™, that
you have
both ray-traced taking in
account real-time local clock, taking in account sun position and reflections
on a glass window. You may guess that such a document may require quite an
amount of processing and elapse time (the latter specially when a remote
service is required). To improve the total response time, Seattle OLE4 implementation doesdo use
multiple threading processing in parallel as many parts of the document that is
achievable. Another consequence of the elapsed time required to process a
document would be that new changes might be required before the document
processing is complete. OLE4 includes a featurefeatures
to "freeze the time" dependent functions according to the processing
speed.
The user has the possibility to commit a document (i.e. to create an
object fixed in the "time" dimension) or to let it able to evolve
either on the next access or asynchronously during the spare time of the
computer.
The capability to define very complex objects could require a large
amount of storage resources (think to an image reflected into parallel
mirrors). Instead of relying on the storage capacity limit to abort the
computation, Seattle OLE4
implementation stops the recursion according to the object intrinsic property
(such as the reflection coefficient of the mirror or the characteristics of the
media intended for output the document).
The concept of transaction is
extended to long duration tasks thatwhich may
encompass several applications execution occurrences that may occur in
different computers possibly linked only by human activities. Rollback of files
updates in such long transaction is possible except when the results are
alteration of some system objects and non-reversible external operations, such
as denial of rights to access his (or her) group, termination of physical life
and similar operations. Rollback of messages and forms occurrences is done
directly when the message is still pending to be delivered. It is done through messagesmessages
cancellation notices when messages have not been delivered to an output device
or outside a group. To allow recovery of long transactions and more generally
speculative programs on future events or data thatwhich are
still uncertain, the concept of shadow applications
occurrences is introduced. A shadow application occurrence mimics the behavior
of real applications occurrences without making committed updates to files and
databases. This concept is used for business simulations, scientific
simulations, games interacting with reality, application debugging… It is the
application designer responsibility to use the shadowing concept, that may
imply a significant overhead, or not use it, taking a snapshot copy of files
and databases or taking the risk to interfere with the real world. Microsoft
denies any liability on property or health damages or loss, due to ana
improper behavior of applications.
More generally, in Seattle, objects have a 4D dimensions position, which
is specified within a certain hypersphere of uncertainty. Objects may be shadow
objects, with a conditional existence or they may be real or committed objects.
Object may exist only within a group or they may exist across the groups (i.e.,
their name, their state and their properties have static values are that may be
inherited by other groups if and when a remapping of the groups occur. Such
objects may sometimes named "absolute objects".
The diameter of the hypersphere of uncertainty is variable within a
group according to members.
Within a group, taking in account the position of the group accessible
objects and the position of absolute objects thatwhich has
been published, Seattle insures that
two distinct committed objects do not occupy the same 4D position. Shadow
objects are repositioned in accordance. When an absolute objectobjects
is made known inside a group, databases local to this group are verified for discrepancies and committed objects may have to be updated, reset in
shadow state and applications may have to be rerun for full database
consistency. MDVB is a convenient way for updating the values of absolute
objects (for example, prices, statistical data, legislation driven methods or
controls, address directories…). Business activities, such as financial models
and business practices can be permanently updated without any human
intervention.
Using OLE4 and MDVB, you may encompass the limitations
of previous OLE specs to limits of a workgroup (excluding servers). Now, you
may receive notices, through MDVB, from any server that some data you have been used in your document have been
changed and you may have your data updated automatically. There is obviously a
cost to broadcast those infos even by high speed satellite links. The server
you have used takes notice that you have used a given object (set of data or
program) and if data are modified[73],
it broadcast the change during some period (the period during which updated
data isare broadcasted depends on the nature of data).
Data Bases
Seattle internal database engine is that of Access 4.5 thatwhich is
used by System Management Server[74]
support. Visaural BA includes the
necessary procedures to handle system and user Visaural-defined objects.
Access 4 has been extended to support new data types such as the
extended precision of objects coordinates. FoxPro data bases and language areis
now supported by Access 4.5 and FoxPro performances are surpassed by Access JET
engine with extended cache option. Existing FoxPro users are now encouraged to
migrate to Access 4.5.
SQL Server has been extended to encompass the DB2 and Oracle
functionalities and is available for $999.95 for IBM and DEC mainframe
computers and for $99 for Seattle
servers. SQL Server provides full access to Access Data Bases as well as other
popular relational data bases.
Coexistence
Microsoft recognizes that many installations have some
ancient software sensitive to the year 2000 syndrome. Seattle includes a utility « check_date » that scans the
software to identify all suspected references to a 2-digit date and propose
changes for programs written in Microsoft Basic or VisualBasic, Excel macros
and FoxPro macros.
Seattle has
enhanced capabilities not only to interconnect to previous networks such as
Netware, SNA, DEC DNA, Unisys, Groupe Bull DSA, but also to provide a mapping
of existing terminals or client applications in view to reroute old
applications communications through Seattle
networking facilities. So, it will be possible to use a wireless connected
subnotebook anywhere in the world as a 3270 terminal of a specific application.
The recommended strategy is to add to the main frame operating system a gateway
application distributed by Microsoft (for IBM MVS ) or by third parties. This
gateway will allow the customer to start dismantling the passive part of its
old network before converting its applications. This gateway operates in
co-existence with the old network, however, Microsoft does not guaranteeguarantees
the synchronization of it with the modifications of the network facilities of
the main frame operating system. A sound customer strategy will be to freeze
all modifications of the OS and of application programs soon after the
incorporation of the main frame server into the Seattle network.
Old main frame programs[75]
may be converted to a Seattle
environment by recompiling them, using for instance Micro-Focus COBOL for Windows compiler that establishes a Visaural
compatible environment for encapsulating old programs in a rejuvenated system.
Several companies are developing similar reengineering processes for FORTRAN
and C applications designed for UNIX.
Licensing Policy
There is basically no major change in Microsoft licensing policy for
software products that are available either as a group license or as a single
user license.
However as a convenience for users of Microsoft Network, the license is
now represented on the form of a credit card smart card that is obtained from
Microsoft when it returns the registration form or shipped with direct orders.
This card can be also used as a telephone charge card. It allows the legitimate
owner who has forgotten to download its software products in its mobile computer
to request the download of it from Microsoft Network. Microsoft grants such
service to software editors who wish and to third parties add-ons providers.
Seattle products
do not presently use smart cards to enforce software protection, but the
security API has been enhanced to allow a limited usage of the software for
interested editors who require the card to be physically available on the
computer on which the licensed program is run. To allow the use of numbered
copies on a network, this requirement is usually cumbersome. The security API
allows to log informations about all the files produced by the usage of the
licensed programs. Files are stamped with the user-id and the begin time and
duration. OLE4 has been enhanced to convey such informations in embedding
objects.
Lost or stolen cards are replaced by Microsoft, however, the operating
system may deny the re-entry of objects that it suspects of a protection
violation and it reports the problem to the system administrator who has the
authority to override the denial.
Maintenance
To take benefit of free maintenance service by
Microsoft, all subnetworks have to be connected to MDVB through at least one of
their servers. Seattle includes a
software synchronization protocol as part of its network hand-shaking
facilities. Automatic updates of software configurations are provided not only
for Seattle but for all Microsoft
applications.
All updates including functionalities improvements are documented
through the Microsoft Development Network at the subscription rate of
$299/year. The documentation of bug Fixes and other corrections is available on CompuServe GO MICROSOFT.
Maintenance of software produced by Microsoft associated development
companies may be provided optionally according to those companies'companies
maintenance rules. Microsoft provides MDVB to those companies without charge.
The responsibility of Microsoft is not engaged by that service.
Support for Handicapped or Impaired Persons
With Seattle, Microsoft
improves its support for persons who are temporarily or permanently without not
fully operational capabilities.
Persons with visual limitations will take benefit of the speech
recognition and of speech synthesis facilities built in the system. StarTreck pointing device will have an
option to report an audio feedback on the pointing device position and speed.
Microsoft is working with a non disclosed manufacturer to provide a 3D sensing
device thatwhich
allows a person to « see » the
by his (or her) hand the output of a computer.
Persons with manual disability will be able to control all the functionalities of the System by
speech control. StarTreck will also
to be used by persons with limited usage of their hands.
Persons with auditive
limitations will be able to display music in a window using standard
score notation or wave form. They will also be able to transpose sound in a
different frequency band, for example the visible light band.
Minority people will be able to set up their system to transpose into
their native language English or whatever is the specific language of the
groups they happen to belong. Microsoft is also delivering primitives and
controls thatwhich
allow developers of applications to accept input from any present or past.
language
Although some personal mobile devices might be specific to the gender of
a person, Seattle system guarantees
that no gender or sexual discrimination is built in the code and in the system
data supplied by Microsoft. Microsoft denies however any responsibility thatwhich
may be due to specific rules or properties established by system administrators
or application programmers. Microsoft retainsretain all
rights to suspend services such as MDVB, ROF or NRS to customers violating US
or international treaties on human rights.
Documentation
Microsoft documentation
is available through the following numbers[76]:
HongKong 852-804-4234
Japan 03-5461-2617
Korea 82-2-531-400
Taiwan 886-2-504-3122
India 91-11-646-0694
Singapore (65)22207381
Argentina 54-1-814-5105
USA and NA (800)759-5474
Israel 972-3-275-7034
Arab countries 971-4-513888
European Union 31-10-258-8864
Russia 7-095-244-3474
Microsoft also
transmits continuously video programs on Astra (channel 147), AsiaSat (channel
325) and several cable programs (in the US : TCI 235 to 239, TBC 131) for
user education on Microsoft
products. Programs are available on Microsoft Network, CompuServe (GO
MICROSOFT).
Interactive demonstrations are available through all Microsoft
subsidiaries and distributors in the world. Those demonstrations are available
on Interactive TV (channel'schannels
information and rates available on Microsoft Network, Internet[77]
or CompuServe) and may involve participation of viewers personal computer in a
demonstration group.
[1]This was initially published as if it was a transcript of a
subliminal message transmitted Wednesday March 31st, 1994 on Channel 47 of
Astra Satellite at the Microsoft DevCast Conference from New Orleans, LA.
It has been updated in October 1994
and in March 1995.The changes reflect new statements of direction established
my Microsoft since March 1994 (specially in Multimedia) and a better appraisal
of the importance of public networking (such as Internet). Some editing to
clarify names of products introduced after 1994 has been done in may 1998.
The reader is assumed to have used
Windows and to have some understanding
of the internals of a Windows-like operating system.
Notwithstanding its form (its date
is on Fool's Day), it might be seen as a serious description anticipationng
of what
Information Technology could bring to us at the end of this century or at the
beginning of the next century. It has been assumed in this paper the company
created by William Henry Gates III might be the major contributor to the
evolution. If this would not be the case, because Companies share with human
beings the characteristic of not always satisfying their goals, then, the names
and the dates mentioned hereunder will have to be changed, but something
similar will be likely eventually to happen. Readers are also to be aware that
the first public display of vaporware
was introduced for the initial announcement of Windows …delays
[2]A complete redesign of the Microsoft
operating system. It was introduced in 1992, had the objective of being easily
adaptable to other architectures than Intel's. Due to its additional resources
requirements, only its server version, with Windows/NT 3.5 introduced in 1994,
was able to compete successfully with UNIX™.
[3]Its (premature)announcement impacted
negatively the success of IBM OS/2 —and Windows/NT Workstation—.It was
eventually delivered late in 1995.
[4]A set of Windows functionalities to
be used in controlling dedicated hardware: printers, telephones… targeted to
satisfy the Bill Gates objective set in 1992: "Windows everywhere !"
[5]An object-environment initially
introduced in 1996 for Windows/NT that pioneered distributed COM (Component
Object Model) a base for Seattle..
[6]The association between a person and
a station is not really permanent. A station may be owned (bought one day,
discarded another day) or rented for some period. With a rented station, person
and group programs and data have to be loaded from a server at check-out time
and returned to the server at the term of the rent. It is expected that the
business of renting computers will be some day as frequent as car rental and
has to be fully supported by the operating software.
[7]You may integrate, as part of your group, servers that perform
mail, voice telephone, videoconferencing between stations of your group, without using your
Internet link for external connection.
[8]OLE Object Linking and Embedding
[9]"Translation" includes
change of media and format. Increasingly, it also means translating a language
(such as Japanese) into another (the receiver native language).
[10]However, the system is able to operate if servers
are temporarily disconnected, while one or several
users may be disoriented during the server outage.
[11]The duplicate server may be normally
used as a work-station.
[12]Telephone traditional companies have
had to distribute ISDN adapters to compete efficiently with cable operators.
They suffer from a narrower bandwidth, but they are able to charge lower packet
transmission charges.
[13]Microsoft will make its best efforts
to provide networking capabilities available to many countries where states are
still reluctant to those facilities. However, persons disobeying local laws or
rules that prohibit access to the Network or to specific IP servers are not
entitled to include Microsoft as co-defendant.
[14]RTF Rich Text Format
[15]MMF Movie Meta File (new) (also Multimedia format)
[16]in addition to access to archive
available on Internet and also reachable through MS Net.
[17]Seismometers position may be
sometimes altered by the phenomenon you want to observe (landslides, tsunami…).
GPS position is retransmitted when available.
[18]PDA Personal Digital Assistant
[19]GSM Groupe Système Mobile (a
wireless telephone system)
[20]On line upgrading of pre-registered
systems is available for $19 using MDVB protocols or $79 for using standard
communications
[21]MDVB Microsoft Data Video
Broadcasting (new)
[22]GPS Global Positioning System
[23]An accelerometer accessory available
as a PCMCIA card available from third parties.
[24]MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group
[25]AVI Animated Video Interface
[26]MCI Multimedia Control Interface
[27]such as adult-reserved materials.
[28]Pay-per-frame requires a reverse channel
(CATV or telephone) and is not suitable for satellite broadcasting. However,
many satellite operators intend to support MPEG3.
[29]If your installation is limited,
multidirectional sound folds back in stereophonic reproduction.
[30]Initially developed for military
airborne pilots in mid-90's, since made available for civil use by several
manufacturers.
[31]A special version may have to be
acquired for use inside or from France at the price of $2.99 (payable in French
money) to inhibit the fax private encryption feature available in the standard
software and prohibited by French law. Special approvals may be granted the
French authorities and the encrypting / decrypting service is offered by
Microsoft using a special key known to the French regulation authorities.
Microsoft hopes that, at release date, France may align its own
regulations with those of European
Union that are now in accordance with the rest of the world.
[32]Such a lighting avoids shading the
objects.
[33]Except when the OLE object is a
complete image.
[34]Allowing, for instance, creation of
disco effects by modulating light sources by sound.
[35]GDI Graphic Display Interface
[36]OLE4.0 improves the extensions of
OLE for Design and Modeling licensed from Intergraph which was delivered as part
of Win32 API in the mid 90's. It includes also the Time dimension for objects.
[37]OLE 1, 2 or 3
[38]For instance, CIRAD a French
laboratory of Montpellier (http://trees.cirad.fr)
has converted its programs modeling trees and plants growing to OLE4, and
INTERNET users may acquire virtual trees and plants from them to complement
their landscape.
[39]The angular separation of the eye
being 1', 16000 pixels allow a better view than the unaided eye.
[40]There are Gates you cannot come back through after you have
crossed them !
[41] using the Force
Feedback
mechanism,
the joystick driver is able the navigation in the windows space.
[42]The merge between the companies
occurred in Oct. 94.
[43]Microsoft warns the user of .MMF
files of the possible infringements of authors copyrights when processing a
publicly distributed movie with VidInterpret.
[44]The personal computer gave in 1985
to a single user the functionalities of composition and typography of the
larger printing companies. It is not surprising that 20 years later, it gives
you the capabilities of Walt Disney or Steve Spillberg.
[45]Microsoft provided spellers may be
replaced by third parties products and / or additional languages spelling
checker following the specifications of CSAPI (Common Spelling API). Microsoft
distribute several spelling checkers (from the original Infosoft -Houghton Mifflin-
introduced with Word to Tamachek dictionary (compiled from Père de Foucauld).
The number of spelling checkers simultaneously available in one document is
256.
[46]Microsoft Internet
Viewer supports OLE4 both as server and client.
[47]Document_Viewer is an enhanced version of Microsoft Word
Viewer. To view .HLP files, you still need Microsoft Help. To view Internet hypertext files, you need the Microsoft Internet ViewerAssistant.
[48]As you are able to build new rules
or to correlate statistics in Intellect,
it would be extremely dangerous to use mix non-trusted sources with trusted
ones and later to offer that knowledge even inside a local group as trusted
knowledge.
[49]GUID are specified for the more
general Microsoft COM Component Object model available from Visual C++2.0.
[50]As an example to the question
"why my cat is black?" your computer will check if your cat is
effectively black, it will check the genealogy of your cat according the rule
of genetics, it will question by the Net the Pet Society server about the
statistics of color of cats and will give eventually an answer to your
question. It may not be always a definitive scientific answer, but it will be
as good as those given par knowledgeable
persons.
[51]The majority of other search engines only use the
request criteria and usually oblige the user to refine his(or her) r
equest before accessing the target page.
[52]The first of those projects
addressed the reconstruction of the old cities of Kabul, destroyed at the end
of the 1980's , of the Berlin of the 1980's prior the destruction of the Wall,
of the antique city of Ephesus (Turkey) and of the San Francisco of the 1880's
[53]Actually, the clipboard.
[54]This point of view may differ from
your screen view, if it is taken from the position of your character in the
virtual landscape.
[55]Sony has recently introduced cameras
that record the movies in compressed .AVI or .MPG2 format and incorporate the
point of view characteristics (position, angle of view) and that have a
satellite wireless communications option.
[56]This option requires for the moment
professional equipment with powerful Seattle
computer and remotely operated camera at the remote site.
[57]Multivision is a patented process
that present several camera points of view to be synchronized on the same
scene. It is used by Time-Warner and ABC for sports broadcast. The user may
select one specific cameras or display each camera in different windows. It is
also appropriate for concert and opera recording and viewing.
[58]Audio channels, staves, measures and
"systems" as well as notes are now entities accessible now to Visaural Basic and C++++ programmers.
[59]The data base system and procedures that handle the Repository of Facts can also be licensed (in object code form) from Microsoft. They
operate with Seattle operating system.
[60]Win32or Win64
[61]Microsoft is committed to support
eventually the following languages: mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Urdu,
Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Malay, Portuguese, Bengali, French, Japanese, German,
Italian, polish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Romanian, Serb, Croatian, Magyar, Czech,
Greek, Bulgarian, Swedish, Bielorussian, Catalan, Finnish, Estonian, Danish,
Norwegian, Slovakian, Armenian, Albanian, Georgian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hausa,
Swahili, Yoruba, Peulh, Amharic, Cantonese Yu-chinese, Turkish, Azeri, Uzbek,
Kazak, Tatar, Turkmenese, Kirgheze, Pandjabi, Korean, Telugu,
Marathese-konkani, Tamul, Vietnamese, Thai-lao, Persian, Gujrati, Burmese,
Pashtu, Tagalong, Singhalese, Nepalese, Khmer,
Tibetan, Uighur, Hebrew, Mongolese. Multiple written representations of
some of those languages are available (e.g. Japanese, Korean, central Asiatic
languages).
[62].LZV is an example. As previous versions since Windows NT3.51 a compress algorithm
may be defined by file. It is stored in the file system.
[63]Improving dramatically (almost
doubling) the memory bandwidth.
[64]While those encryption features are
available in software, Microsoft cannot be held accountable for unauthorized
modifications of the software.
[65]Cars are considered as members of a
personal group and follow power management rules of this group. Stealing the
car would require the update of the power controller tables!
[66]The most demanding applications such
as recording simultaneous programs may require the largest configurations in
terms of processing power, main memory and disk space.
[67]Some applications designed for
shared memory systems may show a degradation of performances when emulating
shared memory instead of relying on OLE client/server model.
[68]X-huge model allows pointers to
address directly objects in a virtual memory bigger than 212 Mbytes.
[69]This factor is extremely important
for WinG and WinToon applications relying extensively on P-code model.
[70]Voice controls or voice answers to
dialog boxes belong to three classes: generic, trained and personal. In generic
class, the system "makes all efforts" to understand the semantics of
the control. Generic controls are usually radio
buttons presenting a few alternatives. Trained controls usually require a
training session. Training sessions results are recorded by user, allowing
their reuse inside a group. Allocating a control to a personal class allows
imply that the system "makes its best efforts" to identify
"who" spoke, in addition to "what" he (or she) said.
[71]Installation of objects and
applications must have a "silent" mode that allows a remote
unattended installation of software on any computer of the group. Microsoft
Support Libraries have a list of set-up offending programs that should not
down-loaded to computers not easily reachable.
[72]Internet: http://maps.usgs.gov
[73]note that updated data means usually
a correction of erroneous data, not a new generation of data. OLE4 servers have
to take care of generic data, such as a request for "yearly revenues"
is qualified into "yearly revenues (ytd)" and has not to be updated
each year. It is the responsibility of the client to request an update.
[74]née Hermes
[75]Owners of programs that have been inactive
since the beginning of this century
should examine carefully all date related procedures to avoid catastrophic
behavior of those programs.
[76]Those numbers are available 24hours
a day, 7 days a week. Other toll-free Microsoft are available during work hours
(list available from Microsoft customers representatives)
[77]Internet: demos@ms.com