This week’s show should be really great as we welcome back Lee Holmes from the Microsoft PowerShell team to talk about his book: Windows PowerShell Cookbook, Second Edition, from O’Reilly!

We will have several copies of the ebook to give away, so be sure to show up for the live stream this Thursday at 9:30 PM EDT on ustream. Once the recorded show hits the blog we will announce how you can win a copy if you can’t catch us this week.

Facebook is in what’s called a recruiting sweet spot right now. Out of control growth in users and revenue and a nearly certain IPO run in the near future. That’s when employee growth expands at the greatest rate for a company as it grows from hundreds to thousands and then tens of thousands of employees. And with low priced private stock as currency, companies in that position can generally get anyone they want.

Yahoo of course does more than its fair share of feeding the beast, but they’re everyone’s favorite recruiting pool right now. But plenty of Googler’s are heading to Facebook, too – LinkedIn is tracking 118 of them to date. For some Googlers, it’s paying off just to go get an offer from Facebook and then tell their employer – a counter offer is almost sure to come, and it may be stratospheric.

One recent Googler, we’ve confirmed, was recently offered a counter offer he couldn’t refuse (except he did). He was offered a 15% raise on his $150,000 mid level developer salary, quadruple the stock benefits and…wait for it…a $500,000 cash bonus to stay for a year. He took the Facebook offer anyway.

Sources close to Google tell us that about 80% of people stay when they’re offered a counter to a Facebook offer. But some still leave. Part of that may be that Facebook is quietly telling people, never in writing, that there’s no reason their stock won’t hit $100 billion in total valuation over the next couple of years. No guarantees, yadda yadda, but hey if you get 1/10 of 1%, that’s $100 million in stock. Now it’s a party.

Google isn’t making these kind of counter offers to everyone, but it’s not a one off, either. It seems to me that every Google engineer at least should be taking a personal day to go collect a Facebook offer. Even if it’s just to get a counter offer from their current employer.

Art: Audrey Fukuman

Gallery: Twitter for iPad review

Continue reading Twitter for iPad review

Twitter for iPad review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Are you addicted to Twitter? Do you have an iPad? Even if the answer to both is “no” right now, after you see Twitter for iPad, those answers are going to change — quickly.

Yes, the wait is over. Launching tonight in the App Store is Twitter for iPad — the first official native iPad app from the company. We all knew it was coming (Twitter even said so a few months ago), but it has been a long wait. It was definitely worth it.

Like most people, I wander into hyperbole from time to time. But it has now been a few days since I first played with Twitter for iPad, and I still think it is hands-down the best iPad app out there. It’s that good. With all due respect to Reeder, Instapaper, Flipboard, and Pulse, this is now going to be my go-to app for just about everything related to reading news. It’s simply such a great experience for reading tweets — and more importantly, reading the links your friends share.

What Twitter has done is create an amazing user experience for reading information. This is thanks to an intuitive user interface that layers on top of itself. So, for example, if I click on a link in my tweet stream, I’ll have a new layer that rolls over to show that webpage in a customized browser window. If you’ve used Flipboard, it’s somewhat similar, but better because it’s much easier to go back to where ever you previously were before you clicked the link. You simply swipe something to the side to move it temporarily or swipe it again to get it off the screen (in portrait mode anyway, where there’s less space).

Something else that’s awesome: when you highlight a tweet by clicking on it, it’s now pinned to the top or bottom of the screen as you scroll through your stream. This is great if it’s something you want to reference. A lot of thought has been put into these type of saving state actions within this app. It’s simple to save a draft and go back to it, for example (much easier than with Twitter for iPhone). Or to reference one of these pinned tweets in your own tweet.

There are also some great new gestures that Twitter came up with for this app. For example, if you pinch-outward on a tweet, it will unfold to show you more information about the Twitter user. Better may be the way you can swipe down with two fingers on any tweet to see a full conversation in context. It’s the little things like this that make the app great — Apple-like, even.

Overall, the app looks and feels quite a bit different from Twitter for iPhone (which Twitter built from Tweetie — developer Loren Brichter’s client that they acquired earlier this year). But Twitter’s Leland Rechis assures me it’s using all the same stuff on the backend. In fact, Twitter is now a universal app — meaning it’s one app that will work on both the iPhone and iPad, it will just look different depending on which device you’re using it on.

Rechis also says Twitter started experimenting with some newer things on the iPad version that haven’t yet been brought to the iPhone version, but undoubtedly will. A great example here is that when you click through to a user’s profile page, you’ll see at the bottom a list of users similar to that user that you may like to follow.

Rechis also notes the importance of the logged-out view — something Twitter worked on before the iPhone version launch. Twitter wants to make the service as useful as possible to people even if they don’t have an account. The idea, of course, is that they’ll hopefully sign up for one — and this app may give them the most reason to yet. When logged out, you’ll be able to see tweet streams based on hot topics.

“Tweets in general are not just what I’m doing, they have an incredible amount of metadata,” Rechis says speaking to why they created this layering idea for the app. Almost 25 percent of all tweets now have a link in them, he says. This app is perfect for those tweets, and content consumption and exploration in general.

Rechis notes that one of his favorite things about tablets is how they eliminate window management. At the same time, you need some way to manage all this information. He notes that Brichter’s original concept was stacks of sheets of paper that you quickly shuffle through. Other members of Twitter including Rechis refined that idea and the end result is Twitter for iPad.

That’s roughly 750 words about the app — but you really just need to see it, and use it. It will definitely be my go-to way to browse Twitter from now on. It’s that good.

Look for it in the App Store shortly. It will be a free download.

Update: I should note that for some of these more advanced gestures, there is a slight learning curve. That said, you can do everything without using those gestures, so it’s not a big deal — it’s just icing on the cake. And yes, Twitter is trying to come up with the best way to teach users about these new gestures.

Apple announced on Wednesday a cornucopia of new hardware and software: sleek iPods, a brand new Internet-enabled video streaming device and new versions of its iOS software and iTunes 10. However, the most impressive to me by far was Ping, the music-only social network that Apple is opening up its 160 million existing iTunes users.

No, I’m not blown away by the 160 million number. What I’m impressed by is the thinking behind Ping.

Ping may function like a cross between Facebook and Twitter for iTunes by allowing you to follow celebrities, create social cliques and get artist updates via an activity stream. I think it could have tremendous impact on social sharing and commerce.

From a content perspective, there are three different types of media we love to talk about: movies we see, music we listen to and books we are reading. These are accepted social norms. In fact, many relationships are made on the basis of collective love of a movie and many friendships have started with mixed tapes.

It makes perfect sense for a music service to be social. I’m not alone: The popularity YouTube, the fast-growing MOG and the sadly defunct iLike and Imeem show that people gravitate towards music as a common, collective experience. A recommendation from friends on Last.fm often resulted in me buying many-a-few music tracks. My friends who listened to Thievery Corporation turned me on to The Broadway Project and Chris Joss, which I ended up buying on the iTunes store or via Amazon’s MP3 store.

This click-and-go-somewhere-to-download model of affiliate links can never match a unified experience. Amazon, for example, encourages bloggers and others to link to things they like and then get a piece of the action. This separates social from commerce and treats them as two discrete activities. On the post-Facebook Internet, I don’t think anyone can afford to keep these two actions distinct.

Ping, from what little I saw during Steve Jobs’ demo, allows a similar level of social interaction. It can tell me who my friends think are cool and the top 10 favorites of people in my social graph. Some of my friends are famous deejays. Others just have eclectic musical tastes. They can collectively sift through over 10 million songs and help with the discovery of music. This social-powered discovery is part of the biggest theme of our times: serendipity. About two years ago, when I wrote about serendipity, I said:

The problem is that there’s too much data coming online too quickly, and the traditional method of search that involves first finding and then consuming the information is not going to work for much longer. There just won’t be enough time for us to do that and still have a life. It’s a problem, and therefore solving it is an opportunity — a very big opportunity.

My belief has only been affirmed by growth in the amount of data available. With 12 million songs and 250,000 apps, the best way for Apple to enhance the iTunes store – aka its shopping experience — is through the use of social. Back in 2007, I argued that social networking was merely a feature that had to be embedded into applications to enhance their value. Apple has done a great job of that, but it’s also gone one step further, not only by adding a social networking layer to iTunes, but by meshing it with its commerce engine, the iTunes Store. And it’s made this experience available on both the desktop and its devices.

Apple received much of this social capability with the acquisition of Lala, an online music service, which as a standalone company used sharing of social objects to drive folks towards paid music downloads. Now Apple is only closing the loop by further sharing what users bought. I wouldn’t be least bit surprised if sales of music on the iTunes store rocket upwards, thanks to social discovery.

Amazon, which recently started experimenting with Facebook Connect, has similar ideas, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. On Amazon, I’m reduced to reading reviews from absolute strangers for music. I have a handful of friends who have impeccable taste in non-fiction business books, are all members of Amazon, and they already use email to share new book suggestions with me.

What if they too could share their likes and dislikes via a social layer inside Amazon.com? Or what if I could follow my favorite authors and get updates on their books? Much like Apple, Amazon owns book-based social service, Shelfari, and should find ways to embed the social layer inside of all Amazon products and connect its tens of millions of users.

Like Apple, Amazon too has a lot more data about its customers and their behaviors and could create a compelling discovery experience. I believe with tens of thousands of products in its store, the retail giant needs to figure out ways to surface content and other offerings smartly.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Why Google Should Fear the Social Web

Microsoft has released to manufacturing (RTM’d) the Windows Phone OS 7.0, company officials announced on September 1.

…as I said, “more to come”.

You may have heard of the Double Rainbow Video. The guy who filmed this, Paul “Bear” Vasquez, lives in Yosemite and in the past month has gotten huge traffic for his ‘vivid’ reaction to that double rainbow. We hooked up with Bear to learn more about him & show him how to capture a full on double rainbow with Windows Live Photo Gallery using our panorama stitch feature. It’s so intense!

Some more background…

When I first showed the Windows Live team the famous “Double Rainbow” video back in July they thought it was hilarious. But when I said I wanted him to come and do a video with us, they looked at me as if I had been seeing rainbows all day…they thought I was kidding. I e-mailed Bear that night and sure enough, he responded, and with great enthusiasm.

I called him and gave him the lowdown on the project and asked if he would do a “Double Rainbow” redux. He was ecstatic! So we jumped right on it. He flew to Seattle and we had an absolute blast. After a 10 hour shoot we shared stories, ate delicious Vietnamese food (his favorite), and hung out with the crew.

Photo Caption: Bear and our crew. From left to right: Connor Lanman, Max Lanman, Adam Collins, Matt Garrett, Bear, Austin Chick, Michael Fishman, Andrew Sobey, & Shawn Anderson not pictured: Tommy Yacoe & Brendan Schlagel

We did a second video called “Meet Bear” where talks about his experience posting “Double Rainbow” and his love for sharing photos and videos with the world using Windows Live Essentials – video coming soon (will update post when its up). UPDATE: You can check out the second video called “Meet Bear” by clicking here!

Bear is something special. He’s entered the world of social media in hopes to share laughs, smiles, and insights. It’s not about the product, it’s about the people. It’s about the viewers, the users, it’s about you. And more importantly this project also shows how powerful sharing photos and videos can be. If tools like Photo Gallery and Movie Maker didn’t exist, Bear and I wouldn’t have met.

People can now share their lives with everyone and anyone, and can influence each other’s lives in a positive way. That’s what is so cool about Bear’s story.

Till next time,

-Connor

The plot thickens!

While two official Apple pages tout an ability to use Facebook to find friends on its new social music offering in ITunes called Ping, which would be very useful, the feature is now not available on the service.

CEO Steve Jobs, in fact, told me at the Apple (AAPL) event where Ping and more was unveiled yesterday that the lack of Facebook integration was due to unspecified “onerous terms” that the social networking giant had sought and Apple declined.

Which is why it is odd that Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller said in the interview below that I also did at the confab minutes apart that “you can use your Facebook contacts to find friends who are also on Ping and hook up to them.”

So what happened? A last-minute yanking of Facebook, it appears.

BoomTown has inquiries into all the parties, but until then, here my video interview of Schiller talking about Ping’s Facebook love before it was spurned in a Silicon Valley mystery and more yesterday:

Vlingo today added voice support to Foursquare on Android handsets, allowing Foursquare users to check in, find friends and send shouts through speech-to-text. The updated version of Vlingo, available in the Android Market, can also be used to update a user’s social status on Facebook, Twitter or both at the same time.

The implementation of the new voice feature is well done and takes advantage of Android’s ability to use home screen widgets. From a hands-free perspective, Vlingo requires a minimum of button presses, although in the future, I’d love to see the app simply stop listening once it detects silence for a second or two, much as Android’s native voice-to-text features work. All in all, the use of voice for even short bursts of texts often trumps pecking on a software keyboard, so the new Vlingo version will appeal to many. As mobile broadband latency decreases with next-generation networks, voice apps like Vlingo are sure to get faster.

Although the voice-integration with Foursquare is only for Android devices at present, Vlingo says that versions for Symbian S60, BlackBerry and iOS are coming soon. Vlingo is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has raised $26.5 million in funding since 2006 from Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners and Yahoo!

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Is Speech-Recognition Technology Finally Ready for Prime Time?

In a surprisingly quick and even stealthy move, AOL has renewed and expanded its search agreement with Google, even though many had expected there to be more competitive bidding throughout the fall to win the deal.

The five-year partnership to provide search technology and search advertising by powering AOL Search is more wide-ranging than the one it replaces, also including improved search products, global search, mobile search and also a video distribution arrangement with YouTube, which could evolve over time to include content partnerships.

“We have tried to make a deal that has 100 percent alignment on what we each do best,” said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in an interview last night with Boomtown. “At the end of the day, Google checked all the boxes.”

The search partnership between AOL (AOL) and Google (GOOG)–the third since 2002 actually–was set to run out December 19.

Thus, AOL had been talking for months with a number of new partner possibilities, especially with Microsoft (MSFT) about using its Bing search service for AOL.

Microsoft has been trying to improve its market share with the innovative Bing and it has made great strides.

But, despite a valiant effort so far, is still the No. 3 search engine with about 11 percent of the market share, according to the latest comScore (SCOR) report for July, compared to 66 percent for Google and 17 percent for Yahoo (YHOO).

Adding AOL would have been a plus for Microsoft, since it has a 2.3 percent share.

But Armstrong said a deal was worked out early once AOL got what it wanted from Google, which certainly had the inside track in terms of experience in working with AOL.

Nonetheless, AOL had started the process of reevaluating who it would pick to serve its search needs late last summer and had planned for a process to last closer to when the Google deal expired.

In April, Armstrong said, AOL reengaged with all potential partners worldwide, which he said numbered a half-dozen.

He declined to name them, but sources said the other companies included Yahoo, as well as China’s Baidu.

The talks with Google were turbocharged when Armstrong–who ironically was one of the key Google execs negotiating the first AOL deal, when he headed U.S. ad sales there–met with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at the Allen & Co. conference earlier this summer in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The deal moved quickly after that, with Armstrong wanting AOL to get access to the search innovation pipeline at Google, rather than just receive a more basic product.

He would not say if Google guaranteed search ad revenues in the deal, but sources said it has similar terms to the previous deal, which did include them.

The video part of the deal puts AOL content more prominently on YouTube and presumably it will be better programmed. AOL and Google will share ad revenue on the premium videos.

The mobile details are still being worked out, but will likely be served via Google’s mobile technology from its AdMob acquisition.

Armstrong admitted Google had the advantage from the start, especially since it knew how AOL Search performed, although early talks between the companies were initially rocky.

Perhaps that was due to the massive writedown in 2009 of the $1 billion investment Google–a key part of its previous search deal–had made in 2005 for a five percent stake in AOL, when it was still owned by Time Warner (TWX).

Armstrong also noted he wanted to avoid a lot of attention and uncertainty a bidding war would surely create.

“We had a no drama policy on this,” said Armstrong. “And, as it turned out, this was not a single, not a double, not a triple, but a home run for us.”

Here is an detail-free–with promise of more to come–8-K filing AOL submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on its new deal with the Silicon Valley search behemoth:

Here is the official press release on the new Google-AOL deal:

AOL AND GOOGLE RENEW AND EXPAND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and NEW YORK, NY–September 2, 2010–Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) today announced a five-year renewal and expansion of one of the largest and longest-standing partnerships in Internet history. The global alliance, which has at its core Google’s provision of search services to AOL’s content network and properties, in exchange for a revenue-sharing arrangement between AOL and Google, will be expanded to include mobile search and YouTube.

“Today is another important step in the turnaround of AOL,” said Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “AOL users will be getting a better search and search ads experience from the best search company in the world–Google. After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, we’re looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal.”

“We’re excited to deepen our partnership. This agreement combines Google’s expertise in search and advertising with AOL’s strength in online content,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Google. “It’s particularly exciting to see our relationship expand into video and mobile. These areas are now at the heart of users’ online experiences and at the core of both of our businesses.”

The partnership includes a broad range of features that will improve and expand the products and services offered to consumers.

· Search Products: Google will provide AOL with additional features and enhancement to its leading Web search products that will improve the consumer search experience across AOL’s network of sites.

· Advertising Products: Google will provide AOL with best-in-class ad formats, giving AOL consumers a better, more relevant ad experience.

· Mobile Search: As AOL renews its focus on mobile apps and content, the companies will work together to expand the alliance to cover mobile search.

· YouTube: AOL and YouTube have agreed to a content partnership that will bring AOL’s video content to YouTube.

· Global Focus: The alliance is international in scope and will provide improved experiences to AOL’s worldwide audience.

The features are comparable to those found in Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam — online gaming services used by Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, respectively. Third parties have implemented similar features for iPhone games using their own networks, but the Apple Game Center will be built into the tools it gives to developers of iOS apps, securing an edge over the existing networks.

Game Center will be one of many new features included in iOS 4.1, a new version of the iPhone and iPod touch operating system. Apple unveiled that and several other entertainment-related products at a live event today, including an updated iPod touch with the same screen and processor found in the iPhone 4.

Video game developer Epic Games joined Steve Jobs on stage to demonstrate a graphically impressive 3D game tentatively titled Project Sword that utilizes both the new hardware and the Game Center service. When one player invited another to join him in a one-on-one battle, the invitee received a push notification informing him of the challenge. He tapped accept and moments later was squaring off against his friend over the network.

Game Center will be free on all iOS devices. iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch will launch sometime next week, but the iPad version (iOS 4.2) won’t arrive until November.

More About: achievements, apple, apple game center, game center, games, gaming, iOS, ios 4.1, ios 4.2, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, multiplayer, online gaming, social gaming, video games, XBox live

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Apple has queued up Akamai to power today’s highly anticipated live stream of of product announcements by CEO Steve Jobs in San Francisco (which Om will be covering live on GigaOM). Contrary to reports the company would use its new North Carolina data center for the event, the stream will in fact be outsourced to Apple’s long-time CDN partner.

I know this is a battle of various reporters claiming their sources are right, but if my reporting is correct you’ll actually be able to see it for yourself. Akamai displays a real-time visualization of its active streams, and breaks out live streams specifically. I’m expecting we’ll see a significant bump from the current total global live streams powered by Akamai — currently a bit under 600,000 — right at 10 a.m. PT.

A source familiar with Apple’s streaming plans said that not only is the North Carolina data center not yet online, but one single facility could likely not handle such an event; large, distributed global audiences are exactly what CDNs are built for. (As a side note, apparently one of Apple’s major concerns about executing the stream was the level of demand coming from its own employees watching from the network at its Cupertino headquarters.)

Though Apple isn’t geoblocking the stream, it is limited only to Apple devices. That’s because Apple has yet to port its HTTP streaming technology to QuickTime for Windows. The company considered using traditional RTSP streaming for Windows users, but according to the source, decided the quality wouldn’t be sufficient. I suppose they could have also enlisted Microsoft’s Silverlight HTTP streaming, but considering it’s Apple, that was probably out of the question.

This is Apple’s first live video feed of an announcement in a long time; Macworld keynotes used to be streamed, but for the last five years fans have had to rely on live-blogging from reporters attending the closed-door events.

Apple’s HTTP streaming is an adaptive bitrate technology, meaning it can detect a watcher’s bandwidth and CPU capabilities in real time and then adjust the quality of a video stream. This requires encoding a single video at multiple bitrates and switching to the most appropriate one on a moment-by-moment basis (something companies like Inlet Technologies have pioneered). The result is very little buffering, fast start time and a good experience for both high-end and low-end connections.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

The Next Big Thing in Online Video: Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

Gallery: Sonos and Spotify press pics

Continue reading Sonos and Spotify join hands to stream sweet sweet music, at last

Sonos and Spotify join hands to stream sweet sweet music, at last originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Summary: The Microsoft Scripting Guys show how to determine service launch order by using Windows PowerShell and WMI in this helpful step-by-step article.

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to find out the order in which services start on my computer. To properly shut down a computer, the services should stop in reverse order that they start. I can find service dependencies via the services.msc tool, but I cannot seem to find anywhere that tells me the actual order in which services start. Can you help me?

-- RY

Hello RY,

Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I was deep in thought working on a script to illustrate service load order when the landline rang. My landline almost never rings, and if it does, it is generally phone spam, which I ignore it. In fact, I do not even bother to look at the caller ID because I know the call will not be of interest to me. If people want to talk to me, they call my Windows Mobile 6.5 phone, catch me on Twitter, post something on Facebook, shoot me an email, or find me on Communicator. They do not call my landline. For me, the only reason I have a landline is so I can have ADSL. Now, Teresa, that is a different story.

Anyway, the call was from one of the organizers of the Raleigh, NC., SQL Saturday event, and I will now be speaking there on September 18, 2010. I am excited about the event, not only because I get to speak, but also because there will be some awesome sessions. And all the cool people within the tri-state region will be there. I will be talking about Windows PowerShell 2.0 best practices, and I will pull together information from the Microsoft Press book, Windows PowerShell 2.0 Best Practices, which I wrote. It will be very cool. By the way, Teresa will be there as well, and she is a lot more fun to talk to than I am. (Scripting Editor: They are both fun to talk to. Be sure to ask Ed about tea.)

RY, once I got off the phone, I completed the Get-ServiceLoadOrder.ps1 script. The complete script is shown here.

Get-ServiceLoadOrder.ps1

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers |
ForEach-Object {
New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property `
   @{
     "GroupOrder"=([wmi]$_.GroupComponent).GroupOrder
     "GroupName"=([wmi]$_.GroupComponent).Name
     "ServiceName"=([wmi]$_.PartComponent).Name
     "Started"=([wmi]$_.PartComponent).Started
    }
} |
Where-Object { $_.started } |
Sort-Object -Property grouporder -Descending

Services group load order is stored in the registry in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder registry key. This is shown in the following image.

You do not have to directly query the registry key if you do not wish to do so, because WMI can retrieve the information by querying the win32_loadOrderGroup WMI class. Output from this class is shown in the following image.

The Get-ServiceLoadOrder.ps1 script begins by using the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to query the Win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers WMI class, which is an association class. Association classes relate one WMI class to another WMI class. The two classes that are related are the Win32_BaseService and the Win32_LoadOrderGroup class. This relationship is shown in the following image.

When the Win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers WMI class is queried, the information that is returned does not look too exciting. An example of the kind of information that is returned is shown here:

PS C:\> Get-WmiObject -Class win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers
__GENUS                  : 2
__CLASS                   : Win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers
__SUPERCLASS         : CIM_Component
__DYNASTY                : CIM_Component
__RELPATH                : Win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers.GroupComponent="\\\\MRED1\\roo
                                    t\\cimv2:Win32_LoadOrderGroup.Name=\"Boot Bus Extender\"",PartCom
                                    ponent="\\\\MRED1\\root\\cimv2:Win32_SystemDriver.Name=\"ACPI\""
__PROPERTY_COUNT : 2
__DERIVATION           : {CIM_Component}
__SERVER                  : MRED1
__NAMESPACE           : root\cimv2
__PATH                      : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers.GroupCompon
                                     ent="\\\\MRED1\\root\\cimv2:Win32_LoadOrderGroup.Name=\"Boot Bus
                                     Extender\"",PartComponent="\\\\MRED1\\root\\cimv2:Win32_SystemDri
                                     ver.Name=\"ACPI\""
GroupComponent       : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_LoadOrderGroup.Name="Boot Bus Extender"
PartComponent          : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_SystemDriver.Name="ACPI"

The two main properties that are returned are called GroupComponent and PartComponent—they do not even sound too exciting. However, as seen in the following image, these two properties point to the key property of their respective classes.

This is exciting! The reason is that the PartComponent and GroupComponent properties contain the path to a specific instance of a WMI class. Compare the __Path property from the query below with the value of the PartComponent property seen above. They are the same.

PS C:\> gwmi win32_baseservice -Filter "name = 'acpi'" | fl *

Status                           : OK
Name                            : ACPI
State                             : Running
ExitCode                       : 0
Started                          : True
ServiceSpecificExitCode : 0
__GENUS                       : 2
__CLASS                        : Win32_SystemDriver
__SUPERCLASS              : Win32_BaseService
__DYNASTY                    : CIM_ManagedSystemElement
__RELPATH                    : Win32_SystemDriver.Name="ACPI"
__PROPERTY_COUNT     : 22
__DERIVATION               : {Win32_BaseService, CIM_Service, CIM_LogicalElement, CIM_M
                                         anagedSystemElement}
__SERVER                      : MRED1
__NAMESPACE               : root\cimv2
__PATH                          : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_SystemDriver.Name="ACPI"
AcceptPause                  : False
AcceptStop                    : True
Caption                          : Microsoft ACPI Driver
CreationClassName       : Win32_SystemDriver
Description                     : Microsoft ACPI Driver
DesktopInteract             : False
DisplayName                  : Microsoft ACPI Driver
ErrorControl                   : Critical
InstallDate                     :
PathName                      : C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\ACPI.sys
ServiceType                    : Kernel Driver
StartMode                      : Boot
StartName                      :
SystemCreationClassName : Win32_ComputerSystem
SystemName                  : MRED1
TagId : 1
Scope                             : System.Management.ManagementScope
Path                               : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_SystemDriver.Name="ACPI"
Options                          : System.Management.ObjectGetOptions
ClassPath                       : \\MRED1\root\cimv2:Win32_SystemDriver
Properties                      : {AcceptPause, AcceptStop, Caption, CreationClassName...}
SystemProperties           : {__GENUS, __CLASS, __SUPERCLASS, __DYNASTY...}
Qualifiers                        : {dynamic, Locale, provider, UUID}
Site                                 :
Container                       :

PS C:\>

One of the things that makes using the [WMI] type accelerator difficult to use is that it requires a key to a specific instance of a WMI class. But the cool thing is we get keys to specific instances of classes for free when using a WMI association class. This makes working with association classes extremely flexible and easy when using Windows PowerShell.

The GroupComponent and the PartComponent properties are described as a reference to another class. The reference to the other class is the key to the class in path form, and when using the [WMI] type accelerator, we use the path to the other class to return an instance of that class. This means that all of the properties from the Win32_BaseService and Win32_LoadOrderGroup are available to us.

It is this reference to another WMI class concept that fakes students of WMI out at first glance. They see the property GroupOrder or Started being used in the script, and wonder from where it comes. The properties are coming from the referenced WMI classes. The results of the Get-WmiObject WMI query are piped to the ForEach-Object cmdlet to allow us to work with each object as it comes across the pipeline. This is shown here:

Get-WmiObject -Class win32_LoadOrderGroupServiceMembers |

ForEach-Object {

Because we want to return information from each of the two WMI classes that are referenced, I decided to use the New-Object cmdlet to create a new object, and then use a hash table to add four properties to the object. The properties are the group order number, the name of the group, the service name, and whether the service is started. This section of the script is shown here:

New-Object -TypeName psobject -Property `

   @{

     "GroupOrder"=([wmi]$_.GroupComponent).GroupOrder

     "GroupName"=([wmi]$_.GroupComponent).Name

     "ServiceName"=([wmi]$_.PartComponent).Name

     "Started"=([wmi]$_.PartComponent).Started

    }

The cool thing about creating a custom Windows PowerShell object is that regular Windows PowerShell cmdlets can be used to manipulate the results that come from the query. Therefore, the first thing I am interested in seeing is only the services that are started. The Where-Object cmdlet is used to filter out only services that are started. Because the started property is a Boolean value, we can use a shortcut method as shown here:

Where-Object { $_.started } |

The above command is the same as saying only return objects that have a value for the started property of $true. This command is shown here:

Where-Object { $_.started -eq $true }

After the started services have been filtered, they are piped to the Sort-Object cmdlet, which is used to sort the services into their start order group in a descending fashion. This portion of the command is shown here:

Sort-Object -Property grouporder –Descending

When the script runs, the output is displayed that is shown in the following image.

RY, that is all there is to using WMI to display the service load groups for running services. This also concludes WMI Week. Join us tomorrow for Quick-Hits Friday.

We would love for you to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to us at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum.. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer, Scripting Guys

Device:	AppleTV	Roku XR	Pop Box	LG BD550
Price:	$99	$99	$129	$130 - $150
Form Factor/Size:	3.9 x 0.9 x 3.9	5 x 5 x 1.75	8 x 1.4 x 6 inches	16.9 x 1.8 x 7.9
Available Content:	HD TV shows from ABC & Fox ($0.99), HD Movie rentals ($4.99/$3.99), Netflix, iTunes, YouTube	Netflix, Amazon VOD (now with $0.99 HD TV show purchases from Fox & ABC), MLB.tv, UFC, NBA GameTime, YouTube, Pandora	YouTube, Revision3, Blip.tv, h.264 / XviD / MPEG-4, MKV / AVI / WMV	Blu-ray discs, VUDU, Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora, Napster
Apps / SDK:	N/A	Roku Channel / SDK available	Popapps Store / SDK available	NetCast widgets
Connectivity:	WiFi N, Ethernet	WiFi N, Ethernet	Ethernet, optional WiFi adapter	Ethernet, Disc
Video Quality:	720p, 5.1 audio	720p (1080p upgrade coming soon), 5.1 audio	1080p, 5.1 audio	1080p, 7.1 audio, DTS-HD MA / Dolby TrueHD audio

Continue reading Apple TV vs. the competition -- how does it stack up?

Apple TV vs. the competition -- how does it stack up? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Twitter is launching the first native app it’s built from scratch tonight, Twitter for iPad. Aimed at fostering content consumption, the app is designed for new users and power users alike.

The iPad app indicates the direction all Twitter-designed apps will be heading, said Leland Rechis, Twitter’s mobile product manager, in an interview at Twitter headquarters on Wednesday. “It’s not about timelines, it’s about consuming information and encouraging exploration.” The iPad app, he added, “is a great place for us to show how important the content is in the tweets.”

Rechis created the app with Loren Brichter, who joined Twitter when it controversially purchased his iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie (which is now Twitter for iPhone, and is actually the same app as the one released tonight, but with different features expressed in the iPad environment).

Twitter for iPad makes use of the device’s touch interface and big-screen real estate by letting users see multiple cascading panels of information. So, for instance, you might click on a person’s twitter handle, open a panel of information about them, then click on one of their tweets, and open another panel that shows the full text of a linked article from the tweet. If users are new or not signed in, the first panel is a scrollable list of recommended users. There are also nice multitouch features, like pinching to see a user’s profile and swiping to see the rest of a thread of a conversation.

At launch, web pages are the only content format fully supported, but Rechis said to expect support for other inline media such as videos. He said Twitter’s mobile group is highly focused on the goal of connecting the Twitter experience to the real world in whatever ways it can. That could be something like location, but it could also be connected to helping a phone or iPad user who’s fiddling with the device on her sofa while watching television.

Twitter for iPad is free, it’s available in all regions, and it should be live tonight. At this point (like other Twitter apps) it does not contain Twitter’s version of advertising (Promoted Tweets).

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform