April 2007 - Posts

Silverlight Streaming

Microsoft Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live

Scott Guthrie in his Keynote this morning at MIX07 talked about how developers can do amazing things with Siverlight Streaming and you don't need to be running Windows.

Getting started with Silverlight Streaming

posted Monday, April 30, 2007 6:17 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Ready to MIX07

Live from Mix    MIX Mashup Events are underway. Join in the fun!

MIX07: Phil Haack and Open Source

A conversation with John Lam about the dynamic language runtime, Silverlight, and Ruby

Watch the Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie Keynote live!  The keynote starts at 9:30AM PDT.  You can play live in your browser, or click to stream to windows media player in:



Lot's of big announcements today, go to Codeplex to get the bits.

Scott Guthrie: Silverlight and the Cross-Platform CLR
posted Monday, April 30, 2007 12:29 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Data Access Strategy

ADO.NET Entity Framework Update

Right on the heals of the .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 release comes this news:

Microsoft is deepening its investment in the ADO.NET Entity Framework as a critical piece of Microsoft’s Data Platform vision. Based on the need to align with requirements from key internal partners that are building on the Entity Framework, along with the need for a better tool experience, we have decided to ship the ADO.NET Entity Framework and Tools during the first half of 2008 as an update to the Orcas release of the .NET Framework and Visual Studio. We will continue to ship CTPs and Betas of the ADO.NET Entity Framework that align with Orcas throughout the remainder of this year.

Over the last 12 months, Microsoft has been talking a lot about two major innovations related to representing and querying data.  The first is the new Entity Data Model exposed as part of the ADO.NET Entity Framework, and the second is a set of extensions to the .NET Framework for integrating queries into the programming language known as LINQ.

Does Microsoft have a Data Access Strategy?
posted Sunday, April 29, 2007 8:39 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Virtual Earth API V5

Virtual Earth API V5 is released

Just in time for your weekend coding pleasure, version 5 of the Virtual Earth Software Development Kit is live today. There's a boatload of new features and enhancements, among my favorites are mouse events for polygons and polylines and great layering support.

Welcome to version 5.0 of the Virtual Earth API.

  • import polylines and polygons using GeoRSS feeds.
  • bird’s eye panning experience from Live Search Maps that you know and love.
  • programmatic control of the mini map: show it, hide it, and move it around.
  • center a bird’s eye scene on a latlong more accurately.
  • a map control code base that is approximately 25% of its original size (from around 500kb to around 130kb).
  • we stopped fetching an extra ring of invisible tiles around the map view.  Want to turn it back on to improve initial panning?  No worries, we give you the choice.
  • two smaller navigation dashboards.
  • remove any or all of the Find method side effects, like the automatic map view change and the automatic display of pushpins.
  • The tile layer API is now more straightforward and easier to use.

    • A big pre-MIX07 surprise, like opening up a Christmas present a few days early....

    Now the best mapping API is better for the developer to find new ways to make mash-ups all over the world.
    posted Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:17 PM by paul with 0 Comments

    .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1

    Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Beta 1

    The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 is a preview release of the latest version of the .NET Framework.

    Many ISV’s, enterprises and Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has a minimal number of breaking changes. So that existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 should continue to run without requiring changes.

  • Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness
  • ASP.NET AJAX for quickly creating more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers
  • New web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM and several new WS-* standards
  • Full tooling support for WF, WCF and WPF including the new workflow-enabled services technology

    DOWNLOAD NOW

    • posted Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:22 AM by paul with 1 Comments

    Community Server Themes Contest

    Announcing Community Server 2007 Theming Extravaganza

    Community Server 2007 has made it easier than ever to design, modify, and manage custom themes. If that wasn’t enough incentive, we are going to hold the first ever Community Server Theming contest with some killer prizes.

    1. Best Theme Export  – Use the new dynamic theming functionality in Community Server 2007 to build a new theme. Most important part of this track is that you must be able to import/export the theme using the control panel. All files, CSS, and changes much be embedded in the single xml file generated by Community Server. The second rule of this contest is the theme must be based on one of the two default site themes Community Server 2007 ships out of the box.

    2. Best Damn Theme You Can Create – Track 2 removes all the rules from Track 1. This theme can be based on one of the two we ship, it can be a custom theme from the ground up and anything in between. You are free to add/edit any inline code as well as include any kind of custom code you like. The only restriction is you can NOT change any of the core Community Server code. These themes must work with the out of the box Community Server 2007 download.  You do NOT have to theme the control panel.

    For prizes and the rules check here, good luck!
    posted Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:16 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Santa Rosa Coming Soon

    Santa Rosa Coming Soon to a Notebook Near You – In May Intel will launch next generation Intel Centrino processor technology codenamed "Santa Rosa." It is comprised of a next generation Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the Mobile Intel 965 Express chipset family, Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N network connection, Intel 82566MM and 82566MC Gigabit Network Connection, and optional Intel Turbo memory. Perlmutter demonstrated the decreased resume time from a notebook with Intel Turbo memory in hibernation increasing productivity and reducing system power consumption.

    Overcoming Disk Drive Access Bottlenecks with Intel Robson Technology

    My two year old 1.7mhz Centrino now has two broken hinges and power issues. With a 1.0 Windows Experience Index it's time for a refresh, how long after the Santa Rosa Launch before we'll see a 64bit Tablet PC?
    posted Friday, April 27, 2007 6:28 PM by paul with 0 Comments

    Flex Open Source

    Adobe opensources Flex (Exclusive Videos with Adobe)

    Adobe is announcing plans to open source Flex under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). This includes not only the source to the ActionScript components from the Flex SDK, which have been available in source code form with the SDK since Flex 2 was released, but also includes the Java source code for the ActionScript and MXML compilers, the ActionScript debugger and the core ActionScript libraries from the SDK. The Flex SDK includes all of the components needed to create Flex applications that run in any browser - on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux and on now on the desktop using “Apollo”.

    Developers can use the Flex SDK to freely develop and deploy Flex applications using either Adobe Flex Builder or an IDE of their choice.

    This should shine the spotlight onto MIX07 and Silverlight, nice timing.

    posted Thursday, April 26, 2007 4:52 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Longhorn Server Beta

    Windows Server Code Name Longhorn


    Build your business on a solid foundation
    The next generation of the Windows Server operating system helps organizations maximize control over their server infrastructure with new management and configuration tools, task automation, and enhanced diagnostics. Security and reliability are also improved with hardened services and policy-based network access protection.


    Download Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" Public Beta
    I've been part of the early beta program and now everybody gets to test it out and give the Team feedback.

    posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 9:06 PM by paul with 0 Comments

    Windows Vista Gadgets Winner

    Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project - final results

    Last month the Windows Vista blog posted an update to the Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project.  Now that the competition is complete, the team behind it would like to thank everyone who entered.  The goal of the contest was to deliver 20 quality Sidebar Gadgets; we surpassed our goal considerably with a total of 29 gadget entries.  The source code for the top 10 gadgets was downloaded by about 159,000 developers.

    Check-out the winners -

    Soapbox Video Gadget

    NET Interop for Gadgets – A C# GMail Inbox Reader Example

    A Virtual Earth slide show Gadget for Windows Vista
    posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 6:55 PM by paul with 0 Comments

    A List Apart Survey

    The Web Design Survey, 2007

    Designers, developers, project managers. Writers and editors. Information architects and usability specialists. People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?

    I'd like to know what A List Apart comes up with, let's help them out. These guys have been doing web design before we knew what web design was.

                                    

    posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:41 PM by paul with 0 Comments

    Live From Redmond

    The Visual Basic team has put together a Live from Redmond webcast series aimed at the next version of Visual Basic and Visual Studio code named "Orcas". The live series starts April 24th and will continue into June. Come join us for this exciting series direct from the Visual Basic team.
    Sign-up here.
    posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 11:37 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Games for Windows - LIVE

    PC Games, Once Down, Show Signs of Rebound

    This just in from the lame files, PC games are back? PC games never went away!

    The writer of this article sites retail sales figures, somebody better tell him that gamers live to Download Now.

    As a Games for Windows - LIVE beta tester I can attest to the fact that PC Gaming is thriving and is more fun then ever!

    With XNA development now open for everybody to write games with Visual Studio Express this space is going to boom!

    posted Monday, April 23, 2007 9:57 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Agile on MSDN

    Agile Development Center

    Agile methods are a set of development processes intended to create software in a lighter, faster, more people-centric way.

    Agile Alliance           Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

    At the last NYC CodeCamp we had a memorable session on The Gentle Art of Pair Programming by Wendy Friedlander and Oksana Udovitska, and now their doing an encore performance in Montreal.
    posted Monday, April 23, 2007 6:34 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Twitterville

    From Many Tweets, One Loud Voice on the Internet

    I've avoided blogging about Twitter because it hasn't added any value to my life.

    I joined just before SXSW the same way I sign-up for everything the Web has to offer. Cries into the wilderness was my first impression, it was useless as a tool to find people, parties and good content at SXSW.
    I have four friends on Twitter and the NYT's article mentions two of them. Follow me now - MOON.
    Twitter is IM that's horizontal as well as vertical, you have your friends, but you can easily join a new group.

    Garbage in and garbage out
    all noise and no signal
    How about some quality over quantity?
    For a society that's suffering from information overload this is the overdose.

    Questions that must be asked - is the twitter buzz from free oxygen in the atmosphere or a PR oxygen tank?
    How long before we'll be bombarded by spam, spam and more spam? 

    I foresee the last whimper of the Web 2.0 bubble will be a twittered - OMG
    posted Sunday, April 22, 2007 9:13 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Orcus Beta 1

    Visual Studio Code Name Orcas Available!

    Orcas Beta 1 is now available for download. 

    One thing to be aware of is that they have not yet released the upgrade tools to upgrade from TFS 2005 - those will come with Beta 2.  You can read here for more info on what's included (and not) in the TFS Orcas Beta 1 release.

    Before installing a release, review the prerequisites as some releases may require additional software prior to installation. As with all prerelease software, we encourage you only to install these on a secondary machine, or in a virtual machine, as they are not supported by Microsoft Services support teams. As the goal of these previews is to gather feedback from the developer community, please use Microsoft Connect to report any issues, or to suggest improvements.
    posted Sunday, April 22, 2007 7:06 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Open Source At MIX07


    Panel at Microsoft's Mix 07

    An Open Sourse panel with Joshua Allen,  Miguel Mono de Icaza, Mike Schroepfer from Mozilla and Port 25's Sam Ranji.

    Everything said and done at MIX07 will be blogged and vlogged for all the world to see.

    14 Sleeps Until Mix07

    All the MIX07 sessions are now posted over on VisitMix.
    posted Saturday, April 21, 2007 9:08 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    MIX07 Sessions

    What to Expect from IE at MIX07?

    Last year at MIX06, Microsoft placed a lot of emphasis on Internet Explorer 7, showing off improvements in the rendering engine, the new RSS platform, and the new security features like Protected Mode and ActiveX opt-in.  Internet Explorer 7 has now been in the market for approximately 6 months, doing great, and we’re hard at work on the next release. This year, the focus of MIX07 is Silverlight, and creating rich interactive applications and media experiences for your customers.

    Making Money With RSS with Walter VonKoch

    Thinking In CSS: How To Build Great Looking Websites with Molly Holzschlag

    How To Make AJAX Applications Scream On The Client with Cyra Richardson

    IE7: Past, Present and Future with Chris Wilson

    Windows CardSpace and the Visual Studio ToolBox for Windows CardSpace

    Nice to see there will be a BlogHaus 2.0 - The Mix BlogZone, it's all about bandwidth.
    posted Friday, April 20, 2007 6:20 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Interfacing Hardware Using Robotics Studio

    Interfacing External Hardware Using Managed Code and Microsoft Robotics Studio

    While developers write code to build software every day, not often are they exposed to code that drives and interfaces hardware. This session will attempt to bridge that gap and show how .NET can be used to effectively interface several hardware devices, including an RFID reader and tags, Phidget control boards with a variety of sensors, and a servo controller. Additionally, Microsoft Robotics Studio will be introduced along with a demonstration showing how one can control some of the hardware previously listed in an environment where concurrency and performance are key.

    Tonights meeting of NYCDOTNETDEV 6 PM, sign-up and I'll see you there!

    Speaker - Brian Peek, a recognized .NET expert with over 6 years experience developing .NET solutions, and over 9 years of professional experience architecting and developing solutions using Microsoft technologies and platforms. 


     Robotics Studio and The Sumo Competition.
    posted Thursday, April 19, 2007 9:54 AM by paul with 0 Comments

    Achieving Full Potential

    Microsoft Announces Commitment to Promote Sustained Social and Economic Opportunity for the Next 5 Billion People

    All human beings deserve a chance to achieve their full potential - Bill Gates

    Microsoft today unveiled a new commitment to help close the digital divide by creating new products and programs that will help bring social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion people who are not yet realizing the benefits of technology.

    Through the expansion of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the company is renewing and accelerating its long-term commitment to use technology, training and partnerships to transform education, foster local innovation, and enable jobs and opportunities to sustain a continuous cycle of social and economic growth for everyone.

    Orlando Ayala, Microsoft's VP for emerging markets is heading up the program. I've met Orlando several times and we've shared a few laughs. He's a native Colombian who exudes passion and ambition.

    We all know you can pick-up a copy of Windows or Office on the street in China for a dollar, now Orlando is going to take on the pirates by offering the real deal for three bucks

    posted Thursday, April 19, 2007 8:55 AM by paul with 0 Comments