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The November update of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has been released. The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services. The November release includes new and updated labs in addition to information about Microsoft Codename “Dallas”.

To download go to: http://bit.ly/AzureTrainingKit

Microsoft launched WebsiteSpark today. WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others.  It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them.

For more info, click here.

MVP Chris Tacke has released the OpenNETCF.IoC Framework on CodePlex. The public-domain-licensed framework, provides both inversion of control and dependency injection for .NET Compact Framework applications (it can even be used on the desktop too).

The current release ships with a real-world sample application, called Wi-Fi Survey, that can be used to survey a Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) coverage of a site, and to monitor AP changes as well as network addressability of a device.

The WiFi Survey application has a single source base for all target platforms and has been tested on the following platforms:

• ARM-based CE 6.0 with a 320x240 (landscape) display.
• Pocket PC 2003 240x320 (portrait)
• Windows Mobile 5.0 240x320 (portrait and landscape)

The IoC framework has additionally been tested on x86-based Windows CE 5.0 and Windows CE 6.0 devices.

Download the code and learn more about the project here.

Developers with MSDN Subscriptions will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English on August 6th and remaining languages by October 1st.

What’s New in Silverlight 3?

Fully supported by Visual Studio and Expression Blend, highlights of new features and functionality of Silverlight 3 include: major media enhancements, out of browser support allowing Web applications to work on the desktop; significant graphics improvements including 3D graphics support, GPU acceleration and H.264 video support; and many features to improve RIA development productivity. Also, in order to fully integrate all the .NET developer tools, Visual Studio 2010 will support a fully editable and interactive designer for Silverlight. New features in Silverlight 3 include:

• Support for Higher Quality Video & Audio. With support for native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline, Silverlight 3 brings rich, full-screen, stutter-free media experiences to the desktop. New and enhanced media features in Silverlight 3 include:
  • Live and on-demand true HD (720p+) Smooth Streaming. IIS Media Services (formerly IIS Media Pack), an integrated HTTP media delivery platform, features Smooth Streaming which dynamically detects and seamlessly switches, in real time, the video quality of a media file delivered to Silverlight based on local bandwidth and CPU conditions.
  • More format choice. In addition to native support for VC-1/WMA, Silverlight 3 now offers users native support for MPEG-4-based H.264/AAC Audio, enabling content distributors to deliver high-quality content to a wide variety of computers and devices.
  • True HD playback in full-screen. Leveraging graphics processor unit (GPU) hardware acceleration, Silverlight experiences can now be delivered in true full-screen HD (720p+).
  • Extensible media format support. With the new Raw AV pipeline, Silverlight can easily support a wide variety of third-party codecs. Audio and video can be decoded outside the runtime and rendered in Silverlight, extending format support beyond the native codecs.
  • Industry leading content protection. Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady Content Protection enables protected in-browser experiences using AES encryption or Windows Media DRM.
• Empowering Richer Experiences. Silverlight 3 contains new 3D graphics, animation features, hardware accelerated effects and text improvements that enable designers and developers to create next generation Web visuals. Additional features include:
  • Perspective 3D Graphics. Silverlight 3 allows developers and designers to apply content to a 3D plane. Users can rotate or scale live content in space without writing any additional code. Other effects include creating a queue in 3D and transitions.
  • Pixel Shader effects. These software based effects include blur and drop shadow. In addition, you can also write your own effect. Effects can be applied to any graphical content. An example would be to make a button appear depressed on rollover you could use a drop shadow effect on the pressed visual state.
  • Bitmap Caching. Silverlight 3 dramatically improves the rendering performance of applications by allowing users to cache vector content, text and controls into bitmaps. This feature is useful for background content and for content which needs to scale without making changes to its internal appearance.
  • New Bitmap API. With Silverlight 3, developers can now write pixels to a bitmap. Thus, they can build a photo editor to do red eye correction, perform edits on scanned documents or create specials effects for cached bitmaps from elements on the screen.
  • Themed application support. Developers can now theme applications by applying styles to their Silverlight 3 applications and changing them at runtime. Additionally, developers can cascade styles by basing them on each other.
  • Animation Effects. Silverlight 3 provides new effects such as spring and bounce. These make animation more natural. Developers can also now develop their own mathematical functions to describe an animation.
  • Enhanced control skinning. Silverlight 3 provides easier skinning capabilities by keeping a common set of controls external from an application. This allows the sharing of styles and control skins between different applications.
  • Improved text rendering & font support. Silverlight 3 allows far more efficient rendering and rapid animation of text. Applications also load faster by enabling the use of local fonts.
• Improving Rich Internet Application Productivity. New features include:
  • 60+ controls with source code : Silverlight 3 is packed with over 60 high-quality, fully skinnable and customizable out-of-the-box controls such as charting and media, new layout containers such as dock and viewbox, and controls such as autocomplete, treeview and datagrid. The controls come with nine professional designed themes and the source code can be modified/recompiled or utilized as-is. Other additions include multiple selection in listbox controls, file save dialog making it easier to write files, and support for multiple page applications with navigation.
  • Deep Linking. Silverlight 3 includes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Silverlight 3 enables users to solve the SEO-related challenges posed by RIAs. By utilizing business objects on the server, together with ASP.NET controls and site maps, users can automatically mirror database-driven RIA content into HTML that is easily indexed by the leading search engines.
  • Enhanced Data Support Silverlight 3 delivers:
    • Element to Element binding : UI designers use binding between two UI properties to create compelling UI experiences. Silverlight now enables property binding to CLR objects and other UI components via XAML, for instance binding a slider value to the volume control of a media player.
    • Data Forms. The Data Form control provides support for layout of fields, validation, updating and paging through data.
    • New features for data validation which automatically catch incorrect input and warn the user with built-in validation controls.
    • Support for business objects on both client and server with n-Tier data support. Easily load, sort, filter and page data with added support for working with data. Includes a new built-in CollectionView to perform a set of complex operations against server side data. A new set of .NET RIA services supports these features on the server.
  • Improved performance, through:
    • Application library caching, which reduces the size of applications by caching framework on the client in order to improve rendering performance.
    • Enhanced Deep Zoom, allows users to fluidly navigate through larger image collections by zooming.
    • Binary XML allows communication with the server to be compressed, greatly increasing the speed at which data can be exchanged.
    • Local Connection This feature allows communication between two Silverlight applications on the client-side without incurring a server roundtrip: for instance a chart in one control can communicate with a datagrid in another.
• Advanced Accessibility Features. Silverlight 3 is the first browser plug-in to provide access to all system colors, allowing partially-sighted people to make changes such as high contrast color schemes for ease of readability by using familiar operating system controls.
• Out of Browser Capabilities. The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience. Features include:
  • Life outside the browser. Silverlight applications can now be installed to and run from the desktop as lightweight web companions. Thus, users can take their favorite Web applications with them, regardless of whether they are connected to the Internet or not.
  • Desktop shortcuts and start menu support. Silverlight applications can be stored on any PC or Mac computer’s desktop with links in the start menu and applications folder, and so are available with one-click access.
  • Safe and secure. Leveraging the security features of the .NET Framework, Silverlight applications run inside a secure sandbox with persistent isolated storage. These applications have most of the same security restrictions as traditional web apps and so can be trusted without security warnings or prompts, minimizing user interruptions.
  • Smooth installation. Because Silverlight applications are stored in a local cache and do not require extra privileges to run, the installation process is quick and efficient.
  • Auto-update. Upon launch, Silverlight applications can check for new versions on the server, and automatically update if one is found.
  • Internet connectivity detection. Silverlight applications can now detect whether they have Internet connectivity and can react intelligently including caching a users’ data until their connection is restored.

New Features in Expression Blend 3: The designer-developer workflow took another major step forward today with major innovations in Expression Blend 3 including: SketchFlow, a rapid prototyping capability that makes it easy to communicate design intent to stakeholders; design time sample data that enables the design and testing of applications without access to live data; direct import of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files; behaviors, extensible and reusable components that add interactivity to applications without writing code; a full code editor supporting C#, VB and XAML; and many more features that support an improved design and development experience. Features include:

• SketchFlow. SketchFlow introduces a new set of features designed to make it easier for you to experiment with dynamic user experiences and create compelling prototypes. SketchFlow also helps communicate design ideas to other stakeholders, and makes it easier to collect in-context annotated feedback. SketchFlow enables the navigation and composition of an application to be modeled in a very visual manner from a simple prototype that uses a series of sketches, to something much more evolved. A prototype can be made as real and interactive as it needs to be to communicate design intent and SketchFlow can leverage all the existing features of Expression Blend.
• Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator import. The powerful importers for both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator enable smooth integration with workflows the designer already has in place. The designer has freedom to view and import Photoshop files layer by layer. Layers can be easily regrouped and elements retain their original formats; layers, layer positions, editable text and vectors remain available for editing within Expression Blend.
• Behaviors. Add interactivity to your application, without having to write code. Behaviors can encapsulate complex design interactions into reusable components which can be directly applied to a user interface element in the application. Developers have access to a rich API that they can use to write their own triggers, actions, and behaviors for use in their Silverlight and WPF projects.
• Sample data. Design time sample data makes it easy to build data-connected applications without access to live data. You can generate sample data or import sample data from an XML file and is available to controls on the artboard at design-time. You can extensively customize your sample data details, and you can easily switch between using sample data and using live data at run-time.
• Improved design and development experience. Expression Blend 3 includes many features that improve the overall design experience including a brand new design surface making Blend more accessible to visual designers. Team Foundation Server support allows easier integration of the Blend user into Team System. Improved animation and easing functions, 3D transforms, visual effects and an improved visual state manager enable a great tooling experience.

New Classes

• EventLogTraceListener - Works much better than the one that comes with .NET!
• XmlTraceListener - Works much better than the one that comes with .NET!
• LogEntry - Provides tons more debugging information for exceptions and highly configurable!
• Extension classes!
• And More!

Improvements

• ActiveDirectoryHelper
• XmlHelper
• And More!

Microsoft® Silverlight™ 3 Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

ILMerge is a utility for merging multiple .NET assemblies into a single .NET assembly. It works on executables and DLLs alike and comes with several options for controlling the processing and format of the output. See the accompanying documentation for details.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=22914587-B4AD-4EAE-87CF-B14AE6A939B0&displaylang=en

The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Azure Services Platform.

Deep Zoom Composer is a tool to allow the preparation of images for use with the Deep Zoom feature currently being previewed in Silverlight 2. The new Deep Zoom technology in Silverlight allows users to see images on the Web like they never have before. The smooth in-place zooming and panning that Deep Zoom allows is a true advancement and raises the bar on what image viewing should be. High resolution images need to be prepared for use with Deep Zoom and this tool allows the user to create Deep Zoom composition files that control the zooming experience and then export all the necessary files for deployment with Silverlight 2.

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=457B17B7-52BF-4BDA-87A3-FA8A4673F8BF&displaylang=en

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 is a full cumulative update that contains many new features building incrementally upon .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, and includes cumulative servicing updates to the .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0 subcomponents.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en

Redmond, Wash. — Oct. 13, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.

Microsoft also announced further support of open source communities by funding advanced Silverlight development capabilities with the Eclipse Foundation’s integrated development environment (IDE) and by providing new controls to developers with the Silverlight Control Pack (SCP) under the Microsoft Permissive License.

“We launched Silverlight just over a year ago, and already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. “Silverlight represents a radical improvement in the way developers and designers build applications on the Web. This release will further accelerate our efforts to make Silverlight, Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Studio the preeminent solutions for the creation and delivery of media and rich Internet application experiences.”

Silverlight adoption continues to grow rapidly, with penetration in some countries approaching 50 percent and a growing ecosystem that includes more than 150 partners and tens of thousands of applications. During the 17 days of the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, NBCOlympics.com, powered by Silverlight, had more than 50 million unique visitors, resulting in 1.3 billion page views, 70 million video streams and 600 million minutes of video watched, increasing the average time on the site (from 3 minutes to 27 minutes) and Silverlight market penetration in the U.S. by more than 30 percent. Broadcasters in France (France Televisions SA), the Netherlands (NOS), Russia (Sportbox.ru) and Italy (RAI) also chose Silverlight to deliver Olympics coverage online. In addition, leading companies such as CBS College Sports, Blockbuster Inc., Hard Rock Cafe International Inc., Yahoo! Japan, AOL LLC, Toyota Motor Corp., HSN Inc. and Tencent Inc. are building their next-generation experiences using Silverlight.

“CBS College Sports Network streams more than 20,000 hours of live content annually for our 150-plus college and university official athletic partners, so we demand that our video player environment be both consumer friendly and robust,” said Tom Buffolano, general manager and vice president, Digital Programming and Subscription, CBS Interactive-Sports. “Silverlight was the perfect choice to help develop and power our new, exclusive online collegiate sports experience, as it features the best price and performance of any streaming media solution on the market today. Silverlight also gives us the most flexibility in expanding the product in the future as we develop embeddable players and mobile platforms and explore new advertising integration opportunities.”

Continued Commitment to Openness and Interoperability

Microsoft announced plans to support additional tools for developing Silverlight applications by providing funding to Soyatec, a France-based IT solutions provider and Eclipse Foundation member, to lead a project to integrate advanced Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse IDE. Soyatec plans to release the project under the Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 on SourceForge and submit it to the Eclipse Foundation as an open Eclipse project.

Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary. The SCP, which will augment the powerful built-in control set in Silverlight, will be released under the Microsoft Permissive License, an Open Source Initiative-approved license, and includes controls such as DockPanel, ViewBox, TreeView, Accordion and AutoComplete. The Silverlight XAML vocabulary specification, released under the Open Specification Promise (OSP), will better enable third-party ISVs to create products that can read and write XAML for Silverlight.

“The Silverlight Control Pack under the Microsoft Permissive License really addresses the needs of developers by enabling them to learn how advanced controls are authored directly from the high-quality Microsoft implementation,” said Miguel de Icaza, vice president, Engineering, Novell. “By using the OSP for the Silverlight vocabulary, they further solidify their commitment to interoperability. I am impressed with the progress Microsoft continues to make, and we are extremely satisfied with the support for Moonlight and the open source community.”

Beyond funding development in the free Eclipse IDE, Microsoft currently delivers state-of-the-art tools for Silverlight with Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio 2. In addition, support is now extended to Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, which is a free download.

“We wanted to build a cutting-edge, rich Internet application that enables our customers to search our vast database of content and metadata so they can access movie reviews, watch high-quality movie trailers, and either rent or buy movies from our new MovieLink application,” said Keith Morrow, chief information officer, Blockbuster. “Because Silverlight 2 now includes several new rich controls such as data grids and advanced skinning capabilities, as well as support for the .NET Framework, allowing us to access our existing Web services, we were able to easily maintain the high standards of the Blockbuster brand and bring the application to market in record time.”

Delivering Features for Next-Generation Web Experiences

Highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:

More information and details about Silverlight 2 are available by reading the Silverlight 2 fact sheet at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight/default.mspx.

Get Silverlight 2

Silverlight 2 will be available for download on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight. Customers already using a previous version of Silverlight will be automatically upgraded to Silverlight 2.

The SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) gathers data from Microsoft Windows and SQL Server configuration settings. BPA uses a predefined list of SQL Server 2005 recommendations and best practices to determine if there are potential issues in the database environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DA0531E4-E94C-4991-82FA-F0E3FBD05E63&displaylang=en

Available to MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

Everyone should check this out. Lots of info on the new version:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9369515

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit includes presentations,
hands-on labs, demos, and event materials.

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 6, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the new version of the company’s acclaimed data management and business intelligence platform. This version of SQL Server provides powerful new capabilities such as support for policy-based management, auditing, large-scale data warehousing, geospatial data, and advanced reporting and analysis services. SQL Server 2008 provides the trusted, productive and intelligent platform necessary for business-critical applications.

“Microsoft developed this release of SQL Server with the customer in mind,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft. “SQL Server 2008 is the only major database that includes comprehensive, tightly integrated functionality for data management as well as advanced business intelligence out of the box. By offering a complete solution, we save customers time and money and allow them to focus on deriving the most value from their data assets.”

With more than 450,000 customer and partner downloads of SQL Server 2008’s community technology previews (CTPs), more than 75 large-scale applications already in production and more than 1,350 applications being developed by nearly 1,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) on SQL Server 2008, it’s clear that customers and partners are excited about the capabilities now available in SQL Server 2008. Tim Whitehorn, founder and chief executive officer of event management software provider ServiceU Corp., said, “We selected SQL Server 2008 because we can entrust it with our critical business applications. SQL Server 2008 is highly secure and reliable, and offers the best value on the market today. In addition, it accelerates the time frame for deploying new features and enhancements, and that to us makes SQL Server a winner.”

A number of enterprise customers from various industries are testing SQL Server 2008 including Clear Channel Communications Inc., Fidelity Investments, Hilton Hotels Corp., Simon & Schuster Inc., Siemens AG and Xerox Corp., among many others.

SQL Server has been well-received in the analyst community. Noted Forrester Research Inc. analyst Noel Yuhanna wrote in a January 2008 report, “The Forrester Wave: Information-As-A-Service, Q1 2008,” “Microsoft is (one of) the only vendor(s) with top enterprise search and business intelligence reporting capabilities. It offers strong support for aggregation, summarization, search engine and dashboards. Transactions across distributed data sources and long-running transactions are also strengths for Microsoft.”

SQL Server is an industry leader in both scalability and performance. It is the first and only database management system to be proven capable of delivering scalable results on TPC-E, the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s (TPC) newest and most challenging online transaction processing (OLTP) benchmark, with 13 published benchmarks to date.¹ Seven benchmarks are published on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 by multiple hardware vendors, demonstrating strong price-performance and performance results, including IBM Corp.’s new No. 1 performance result using SQL Server 2008 on a 64-core System x3950 M2 server.² Also demonstrating the performance of SQL Server 2008, Unisys Corp. and Microsoft set a new extract, transform and load (ETL) performance record by loading 1 terabyte of data in less than 30 minutes using SQL Server 2008 Integration Services. In addition, SQL Server 2008 has proven its scalability in large-scale data warehousing, as demonstrated by its recent 10-terabyte TPC-H benchmark.³

“We saw a 35 percent improvement in throughput on the system that we upgraded to SQL Server 2008, with no code changes on our end,” said Gary Oberg, vice president of IT and development at Applied Discovery (a member of the LexisNexis group). “This translates straight to the bottom line for us, as the more documents we can upload, the more we can process.”

Microsoft is setting additional benchmark records with ISV solutions, including a world record on four-socket industry-standard blade servers in a three-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, and demonstrated the largest benchmark ever on the Siemens Teamcenter digital product life-cycle management solution, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics AX and the Camstar Manufacturing Execution System solution.

SQL Server is a key component of the Microsoft Application Platform, a suite of products and technologies designed to help customers build, run and manage dynamic business applications. SQL Server 2008 is available in the following editions:

Pricing and Availability

SQL Server 2008 is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers and will be available for evaluation download on Aug. 7, 2008. SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server Compact editions are available for free download today at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver. As previously announced, pricing for SQL Server will not increase with SQL Server 2008. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/sqlserver.

Wow, guess what... it's me (David McCarter). I am so excited and proud of this award because it recognizes all of the hard work I have been doing in the Microsoft community here in San Diego for over 14 years. This includes running the San Diego .NET Developers Group, teaching at the University of San Diego California, speaking and helping at conferences including Code Camp, running this web site and writing books and more! Ever since I have became a programmer I have always had a big need to help others in their career. Except for my full-time job (which pays the bills), everything else I do is geared to satisfy that need.

As most user group leaders know, we don't get a lot of gratitude for what we do, so this is a great award to let us know that we are appreciated. I've had a lot of help along they way and they know who they are. I hope to continue to give back to the community as I am a programmer.

Info on the Award:

The INETA Community Excellence Award is given to individuals for their extraordinary efforts and prolonged contributions to the developer community at both the local and national levels. Through their commitment and passion, these people have made profound impacts that will be sustained for years. In honor of their accomplishments, the Community Excellence Award is a one-time award of recognition that will last a lifetime.

You can also go here for more info and to nominate the next winner! http://www.ineta.org/Champions/CommunityChampionInfo.aspx?Section=2

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform for enabling collaboration and offline scenarios for applications, services and devices.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C88BA2D1-CEF3-4149-B301-9B056E7FB1E6&displaylang=en

The download that installs the Visual Studio Tools for the Office system 3.0 Runtime, which is required to run VSTO solutions for the 2007 Microsoft Office system built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 has been released.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=54EB3A5A-0E52-40F9-A2D1-EECD7A092DCB&displaylang=en

I hope everyone in southern California is planning to attend this years SoCal Code Camp up at University California San Diego on 6/28 - 6/29. It's always a great time and lots of free training! I will also be selling a limited number of my latest book "David McCarter's .NET Coding Standards" at my sessions for $11, cheaper than the web site (no tax and shipping), please bring exact change.

I will be presenting the following sessions and I hope you will attend.

dotNetDave's .NET Utility Assembly (My First CodePlex Project)

10:15 AM - Sunday, June 29, 2008 - Location: 141

 dotNetDaves .NET Utility Assembly1.zip (1.11 MB)

CodePlex site: http://www.codeplex.com/dotNetTipsUtility

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 1

8:45 AM - Saturday, June 28, 2008 - Location: 129

 Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX.zip (1.83 MB)

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 2 

 Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 2 - 20081.zip (1.82 MB)

Why You Need .NET Coding Standards (2008)

1:45 PM - Sunday, June 29, 2008 - Location: 127

 Why You Need .NET Coding Standards-20081.zip (2.86 MB)

Pictures and Video

Pictures from This Years Code Camp:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmccarter/tags/sandiegocodecamp2008/

Pictures from past SoCal Code Camps:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/socalcodecamp/

Video from past Code Camps:

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5746528613401358938&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3743731164665646189&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8296273637053089146&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8271841448294012140&hl=en

If you are a student at a university, you can get a free copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional and other Microsoft software. Got to this link: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Products/Visual_Studio_2008.aspx

I hope everyone in southern California is planning to attend this years SoCal Code Camp up at Cal State Fullerton on 1/26 -1/27. It's always a great time and lots of free training! My fav southern California band Killola will be playing again at the Geek dinner so make sure you arrive early on Saturday to grab one of the limited number of tickets available.

I will be doing the following sessions and I hope you will attend.

dotNetDave's .NET Utility Assembly (My First CodePlex Project)

 dotNetDaves .NET Utility Assembly.zip (614.15 KB)

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 1

 Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 1 - 2008.zip (1.39 MB)

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 2 

 Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX Part 2 - 2008.zip (1.11 MB)

Why You Need .NET Coding Standards (2008)

 Why You Need .NET Coding Standards-2008.zip (1.71 MB)

Pictures and Video

Pictures from This Years Code Camp:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmccarter/tags/fullertoncodecamp2008/

Pictures from past SoCal Code Camps:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/socalcodecamp/

Video from past Code Camps:

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5746528613401358938&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3743731164665646189&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8296273637053089146&hl=en
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8271841448294012140&hl=en

Microsoft announced that Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 were released to manufacturing (RTM). With more than 250 new features,Visual Studio 2008 includes significant enhancements in every edition, including Visual Studio Express and Visual Studio Team System. Developers of all levels – from hobbyists to enterprise development teams – now have a consistent, secure and reliable solution for developing applications for the latest platforms: the Web, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Office system, and beyond. Learn more about Visual Studio 2008.

MSDN Subscribers: Get Visual Studio 2008 Now

Today, during the keynote address at Microsoft TechEd Developers 2007, S. “Soma” Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp., announced that Microsoft will release Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 by the end of November 2007. Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 enable developers at all levels to rapidly create connected applications that offer compelling user experiences for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, mobile devices and the Web. Soma also unveiled plans to open new opportunities for Visual Studio partners, as well as to deliver new tools and resources for developers, including a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Microsoft Sync Framework and new capabilities for Popfly Explorer.

“The highly social and visual nature of the Web has fundamentally changed what users expect from all applications they interact with, regardless of whether it’s on a customer-facing Web site or Windows rich client application, or a desktop business application built using Microsoft Office,” said Somasegar. “Traditionally, organizations have been hard pressed to deliver the richer, more connected applications and services they need to boost productivity, drive revenue and stay ahead of the competition. With Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5, it is easy for developers to use the skills they already have to build compelling applications that take advantage of the latest platforms.”

FWBS Ltd., Xerox Corp., Dell Inc. and K2 are just a few of the early adopter customers that are already experiencing the benefits of these releases. FWBS used Visual Studio, the .NET Framework and the Microsoft Office system to build an Office Business Application (OBA) for the law field. The application enables users to work within Microsoft Office — the tools they use every day — while also dramatically improving productivity and helping users respond quickly to changing business needs.

Xerox has also had early success developing applications with the new tools. “We’ve already seen significant advantages from using Visual Studio Team System 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. With the first application we built, we easily saved 50 percent of the time and money it would have taken to create the same application with other tools,” said Eugene Shustef, feature design lead, Global Technology, Xerox. “That’s more than a savings to IT — it delivers a huge time-to-market advantage because it put the tool into the hands of our analysts six months sooner than they would have had it otherwise.”

Creating New Opportunities for Partners

Microsoft also announced plans to make additional investments in the Visual Studio partner ecosystem. In response to partner feedback and in order to provide better support for interoperability with other developer tools and cross-platform scenarios, Microsoft is today announcing plans to change licensing terms, no longer limiting partners to building solutions on top of Visual Studio for Windows and other Microsoft platforms only. This licensing change will be effective for the release of Visual Studio 2008 and the Visual Studio 2008 SDK.

“Integrating dynaTrace’s cross-platform application performance management and diagnostics product with Visual Studio has opened up additional commercial opportunities for our business and delivered a compelling solution for our customers. .NET and Visual Studio is a strategic platform for our business, and Microsoft’s additional investments in the partner ecosystem make it even more compelling,” said Klaus Fellner, senior director of product marketing at dynaTrace. “We’re looking forward to taking advantage of the new technology available with the launch of Visual Studio 2008 and the partner benefits available through the Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program.”

In addition, Microsoft announced plans to create a shared source licensing program for Premier-level partners in the VSIP program. The program will provide these partners with the ability to view Visual Studio IDE source code for debugging purposes, and simplify the process of integrating their products with Visual Studio 2008.

Tools for Today and Tomorrow

Microsoft also announced a number of additional resources for developers of all skill sets, enabling them to make the most out of their Microsoft tools investments to build great applications on the latest platforms:

These latest releases are part of the broader Microsoft Application Platform, a portfolio of technology capabilities and core products that help organizations develop, deploy and manage applications and IT infrastructure. They also mark another major milestone leading up to the global launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 on Feb. 27, 2008, in Los Angeles.

Product Information and Availability

Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 will be available by the end of November 2007. The .NET Framework 3.5 will also be available to end users via a free, optional download from Microsoft Update. A CTP of Microsoft Sync Framework is available today at http://msdn.microsoft.com/sync. Popfly Explorer is a hosted development environment available today at http://www.popfly.com/. More information about all of these releases is available at http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio.

Yes, you heard that right, they are releasing the source code for the 3.5 framework later this year. For more info, go to: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/10/03/releasing-the-source-code-for-the-net-framework-libraries.aspx

As you can see .NET clearly beats out Java when creating n-tier applications. Check out the entire story by going to: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/bb499684.aspx

The second edition of this book (formerly VSDN Tips & Tricks .NET Coding Standards), is a consolidation of many of the .NET coding standards available today in one easy to read and understand book. It will guide any level of programmer or development department to greater productivity by providing the tools needed to write consistent, maintainable code.

The core of the book focuses on naming standards, how to order elements in classes, declaring methods, properties and much, much more. Code tips are even included to help you write better, error free applications. All code examples are shown in C# and VB.NET. I use this book just about
every day and I hope you will too.
-David McCarter

"David McCarter once again demonstrates his knack for pulling best practices into one cohesive unit with his new book. This book includes everything from how to set up your project to how to declare variables to how to use exception handling. It is a great place to start to build your own set of coding standards."
- Deborah Kurata 5/5/05

To order, go to: http://www.cafepress.com/geekmusicart.165478704

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media^® Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”

Microsoft, Novell Respond to Shared Customer Demand for Silverlight and .NET

Microsoft is committed to ensuring that organizations have the best tools and resources to begin building Silverlight-based solutions with the broadest possible reach. The decision to work with Novell to offer Silverlight support for the Linux platform is in direct response to customer feedback, and both companies are optimistic about the impact this extended partnership will have in the industry.

“Silverlight is a popular new way to build and deliver cross-browser, cross-platform experiences on the Web,” said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of Developer Platforms and leader of the Mono project at Novell. “Novell is excited to work with Microsoft to extend Silverlight beyond Windows^® and Macintosh to Linux with Moonlight, so Linux users everywhere can enhance their rich media and interactive experiences on the Web.”

Leading Broadcast, Online Content Providers Light up the Web With Silverlight

“Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment as well as several Microsoft Web initiatives including the “Halo^® 3” preview, Tafiti.com and The Podium ’08 are just a few of the brands already demonstrating the power of Silverlight. “Entertainment Tonight,” the No. 1 entertainment newsmagazine, worked with interactive design agencies REZN8 and IdentityMine Inc. to build a complete minisite dedicated to Emmy Award coverage linked from ETOnline.com and TheInsiderOnline.com. This is the first phase in ET’s long-term commitment to build Silverlight-powered minisites to cover high-profile entertainment events.

“When ‘Entertainment Tonight’ was launched 27 years ago, we changed the way the world saw celebrity news. I’m thrilled to be partnering with Microsoft^® Silverlight to put ‘Entertainment Tonight’ on the leading edge again and give our viewers a virtual front-row seat at Hollywood’s biggest events,” said Linda Bell Blue, executive producer of Entertainment Tonight. “‘ET’ is the first stop for the stars at the 59th annual Emmy Awards, and with Microsoft’s revolutionary new technology we will create a truly unique interactive experience — from the red carpet for all the fashions and backstage with Mary Hart and the winners to going inside our exclusive after-party that all of Hollywood is talking about. This is going to be fun.”

To foster greater involvement and collaboration within the interactive media industry, Microsoft is rolling out the Silverlight Partner Initiative. More than 35 companies have already signed up to support Silverlight and take advantage of a broad range of marketing and technical benefits enabling them to be more successful. The current list of Silverlight Initiative partners by category follows:

• Content delivery networks, infrastructure providers: Advection, Akamai Technologies Inc., CacheLogic, Edgecast Networks Inc., Internap Network Services Corp., iStreamPlanet Co., Level3 and Limelight Networks
• Design agencies: Avenue A|Razorfish, BLITZ, Cynergy Systems Inc., frog design inc., IdentityMine Inc., Lightmaker Group Ltd., Metaliq, Resolute Solutions Corp., REZN8, Schematic and VML Inc.
• ISVs/IHVs: Anystream Inc., DayPort Inc., Electric Rain Inc., Inlet Technologies Inc., Pinnacle Systems Inc., Rhozet, Sonic Solutions, Tarari Inc., Telestream Inc. and Winnov LP
• Solution providers, systems integrators: BUYDRM, Liquid Compass, MPS Broadband AB, Narrowstep Inc., Skinkers, Swarmcast and Twofour Digital

With its portfolio of application platform technology capabilities and products, Microsoft is both a longtime leader in development tools and a pioneer in enhancing user experiences on the Web and desktop. The tight integration between Visual Studio^® and Expression Studio allows developers and designers to easily share projects, designs and code to create stunning, high-quality applications faster and in a more cost-effective manner.

In addition to the release of Silverlight 1.0, Microsoft released Expression Encoder 1.0 (formerly Expression Media Encoder), a tool that makes it simple for professionals to encode, enhance and publish rich media content to Silverlight. The intuitive interface allows users to rapidly encode a wide array of file-based media content formats into a Silverlight experience. Expression Encoder also eases production of live events using sought-after features such as multisource switching and publishing of content to services including Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live™.

Product Information and Availability

Those wanting more information or to download Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 and Expression Encoder should visit http://www.silverlight.net/. At IBC2007 in Amsterdam Sept. 7–11, Microsoft will provide demonstrations of Silverlight 1.0, and Expression Encoder at the Topaz stand. More details about today’s announcements can be found in the online press room at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/silverlight/default.mspx.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

Refactor! is freely available to all Visual Basic .NET 2005 developers and offers a comprehensive suite of tools that enable you and your team to simplify and shape complex code - making it easier to read and less costly to maintain.

Download by going to: http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/IDETools/VBRefactor/

Line and Shape controls, PrintForm component, and Printer Compatibility Library

San Luis Obispo will be holding a code camp on September 22nd, 2007. I will be attending and presenting. For more info go to: http://www.centralcoastcodecamp.com/

Articles/News:

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/business/story/134783.html

Code Camp on KCOY

My sessions will be:

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX

Presentation: AjaxSession091807.zip (875.6 KB)

Code Example: AjaxExample.zip (703.12 KB)

Why You Need .NET Coding Standards

Presentation: StandardsSession.zip (1.6 MB)

Pictures from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmccarter/tags/cccc/

Phoenix will be holding another code camp on September 15th, 2007. I will be attending and presenting. For more info go to: http://desertcodecamp.com/

My sessions will be:

Building Rich & Interactive Web Applications with ASP.NET AJAX

Presentation: AjaxSession.zip (1023.53 KB)

Code Example: AjaxExample.zip (703.12 KB)

Why You Need .NET Coding Standards

Presentation: StandardsSession.zip (1.6 MB)

If you live in the San Diego area, dotNetDave (a.k.a. David McCarter) will be teaching a 6 week Fundamentals of the .NET Framework course at the University of California, San Diego Extension beginning on Wednesday 9/26/2007 from 5:30pm to 10:00pm. For more information and to enroll, please click here.

The Beta 2 release includes most of the products found in the Visual Studio product line. 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. MSDN Subscribers can also download these files from MSDN Subscriber Downloads. You can also go to:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard enables the deployment of SQL Server databases into a hosted environment on either a SQL Server 2000 or 2005 server. It generates a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database (both schema and data) in a shared hosting environment where the only connectivity to a server is through a web-based control panel with a script execution window. If supported by the hosting service provider, the Database Publishing Wizard can also directly upload databases to servers located at the shared hosting provider.

Optionally, SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard can integrate directly into Visual Studio 2005 and/or Visual Web Developer 2005 allowing easy publishing of databases from within the development environment.

Download by going to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=56E5B1C5-BF17-42E0-A410-371A838E570A&displaylang=en

Is homepage layout effective? ... What effect do blurbs on the homepage have compared to headlines? ... When is multimedia appropriate? ... Are ads placed where they will be seen by the audience? Find out: http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm

Of particular note, SP3 provides better support for consuming WSDL documents, Data Execution prevention and protection from security issues such as buffer overruns.

SP3 also provides support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 to provide a safer, more reliable experience for customers using Windows XP.

SP3 is available in 23 languages.

To download, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6978d761-4a92-4106-a9bc-83e78d4abc5b&DisplayLang=en

Download the complete DirectX 9.0 SDK - (Summer 2004), which contains the FINAL release of the DirectX 9.0c Runtime and all DirectX software required to create DirectX 9.0 compliant applications in C/C++, and C#.

Major components include: DirectX 9.0c system components (runtimes); DirectX 9.0 Application Programming Interface (API) Documentation for each of the DirectX core areas (written for C++, and C#); DirectX 9.0c headers & libraries; Sample applications and source code; miscellaneous tools and utilities.

For additional information please see DirectX Web site along with reviewing the DirectX 9.0 Readme for last-minute updates.

To download go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=fd044a42-9912-42a3-9a9e-d857199f888e&displaylang=en

SP1 includes a variety of improvements to the inital product release. Documentation for this release is provided in the SP1readme_lang.htm file which can be downloaded below or found in the Reporting Services installation directory after Setup is complete.

• To view a list of the bug fixes in SP1, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 839796.
• Late-breaking information that was not available in time to be included in this readme file will be published on the Microsoft Product Support Services Web site in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 843369.
• To get the complete set of installation instructions, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 842857.
  

For the complete article, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=580febf7-2972-40e7-bccf-6cd90ac2f464&displaylang=en

The service was initially built with Java, but CafePress.com came to realize that developing on that platform was slow, problematic, and was otherwise preventing them from moving their business forward. CafePress.com is now using the Microsoft .NET Framework and has seen a vast improvement in their ability to develop new features and solutions. The ability to quickly bring new ideas to market is resulting in increased sales.

Company Overview

CafePress.com offers an outsourced e-commerce solution that allows individuals, groups, and companies to sell a wide variety of merchandise without the typical hassles and overhead of doing business online. The company manages every aspect of doing business online, including e-commerce services, product manufacturing and sourcing, fulfillment, and customer service. In just minutes, anyone can set up a store selling imprinted merchandise, such as T-shirts, mugs, and more, with no setup fees and no inventory investment.

The service was originally built using Java. In time, the company came to realize that they were spending too much time patching components together and maintaining their development framework, and not enough time developing new features and solutions.

"We were running into serious compatibility problems with the previous solution," says Fred Durham, Chief Executive Officer, CafePress.com. "After an upgrade from the vendor, the issues still existed so we decided we could not wait any longer for the vendor to fix things and needed to find a new framework to develop around. Previously we had been using a combination of Java tools, runtimes, beans, and libraries. It became clear to us that a single framework would be far more productive. We wanted to get out of the cycle of maintenance and constant patching, and into new application development again."

Solution

"Along with the .NET Framework, we examined BEA WebLogic and Orion. The .NET Framework proved to have everything we wanted—the richest library, and the best price point," says Durham. "We were able to do a 100 percent conversion of all our systems in less than four months from initial testing to complete rollout. For a time during the transition, we had Java and the .NET Framework running side by side without problems on our live Web servers."

The company is now using the application server features of the Microsoft .NET Framework, including Microsoft ASP.NET to build their solutions. "A user simply uploads images and CafePress.com's servers superimpose those images onto product shots of items like T-shirts and mugs," explains Durham. "The user's store is then filled with products for sale without having to produce any actual merchandise in advance. Customers purchase items though the user's Web site and on the back end CafePress.com processes the payments." CafePress.com also has a manufacturing facility that accesses a private Web site where work orders, images, and product specifications are automatically accessed as needed to manufacture and deliver the products.

CafePress.com now uses the .NET Framework exclusively for every part of this service—utilizing ASP.NET pages, custom ASP.NET controls, and .NET-based console applications for various administrative tasks.

Benefits

Making the switch to the .NET Framework was easy and quick, and has resulted in significant advantages for CafePress.com. The most significant benefit involves development time. For CafePress.com, turning new ideas into features and services in a timely fashion is critical. Developing with the .NET Framework is allowing CafePress.com to quickly produce and add new features to their service, and to produce customized solutions to meet the needs of larger customers.

The advantages go beyond the improved developing capabilities of the .NET Framework: The CafePress.com Web site has realized impressive performance increases.

Faster Development

"We are a start-up in the classic Silicon Valley model—moving fast and bringing things to market at the bleeding edge," says Durham. "We evaluate products based on their ability to advance our business." For CafePress.com, the ability to quickly add features to their service and to develop new service for larger customers is critical to their success. The .NET Framework allows the company to move quickly in the increasingly competitive Internet industry.

"Since moving to the .NET Framework, our development speed has increased dramatically," says Durham. "Project cycle times have been reduced to approximately one-quarter of the previous development cycle times. That means more features and services for our users. With the .NET Framework, we can much more easily develop custom code for larger clients. It also means we offer more services and features at large. Again, this is because development times are compressed and the lines of code needed have dropped significantly."

An Efficient Platform

The reason that CafePress.com is realizing improved development times is because the .NET Framework provides a single development platform and eliminates the integration and maintenance issues that plagued the company when they were working with Java.

"Our development environment was messy," says Durham. "We had been using Borland Jbuilder for Java Code and HomeSite for HTML. We could never find a useful Java-based imaging library, so we were forced to use an OCX control. To use that we also had to use a COM-to-Java component from yet another vendor, with routine compatibility problems. The JDBC driver was ineffective and crashed periodically. Java is supposed to have everything, but it doesn't. We had to cobble together a lot of stuff from different vendors. We found developing in this environment to be highly inefficient. We were spending far too much time patching and maintaining our development process, when we should have been spending that time bringing new features and services to market."

The Microsoft .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) contains a wealth of resources—including DLLs, tools, compilers, and samples—that enable developers to build efficient, powerful, and scalable Web-based applications and services. It provides companies like CafePress.com with a single framework for developing new applications.

"In the end, what really solidified our decision to adopt the .NET Framework was the incredibly rich class library that handled all the application plumbing you could ever think of," says Durham. The .NET Framework class library is a comprehensive, object-oriented collection of reusable classes that can be used to develop applications ranging from traditional command-line or graphical user interface (GUI) applications to applications based on the latest innovations provided by ASP.NET and XML Web services. "The class library saves us time. Our applications don't have to be built from the ground up anymore. It reduces the amount of code we have to produce and test."

One project that CafePress.com was able to undertake because of the improved development environment of the .NET Framework is called "Strip of the Day." One of CafePress.com's partners is Dilbert.com—the online home of the popular Dilbert comic strip. What CafePress.com had envisioned was a feature that would allow people to order any comic strip printed on a variety of merchandise. Previously, only select strips from the past were available. Every Dilbert comic strip is now available on CafePress.com's array of merchandise, including today's strip.

"We had wanted to do this with Dilbert.com for a long time," says Durham. "When we were on the Java platform, we always knew that developing this feature would be troublesome and would take too long. Simply put, we never got around to it because we knew what we were in for. With the .NET Framework, we developed this feature in just one week. Since implementing this feature, sales have increased dramatically—perhaps a four or five times increase in sales. More projects like this are in the works. Previously, these projects would not have even made it to our development list."

Improving Web Site Performance

Moving to the .NET Framework has not only benefited the company because of the improved development environment, it has also resulted in improved Web site performance. Web traffic is significant for CafePress.com, a Webby Award recipient. Monthly traffic for CafePress.com runs at about 50 million hits. "The performance increase after moving to the .NET Framework was unbelievable," says Durham. "The machines used to run at about 50- to 70-percent utilization and now run at about 2- to 3-percent. I have never heard of such an increase in performance."

"We're supporting about 5,000 concurrent sessions, and 10-20 pages per second with imaging, plus lots of dynamic database page views," says Durham. "We had five dual processor machines that have now been converted to one machine. There's no way we could have done that with Java."

"We handle about 1 million unique visitors a month on a single server that refuses to go above 200-megabytes of ram usage even though it has 1 gig installed, and never goes above 3 percent CPU utilization. We sustain a 5 megabit per second average throughput. Where's the top end? I have no idea."

VSDN Tips & Tricks CafePress.com store 

Posted: November 11, 2001

Original Article: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/CaseStudy.asp?CaseStudyID=11721

The MDAC 2.8 SDK is for developers who are building applications using ADO, OLE DB, and ODBC. It contains updated documentation, headers, libs and typelibs for x86, IA64 and AMD64 platforms, as well as updated sample applications and developer tools.

The MDAC 2.8 SDK is designed for use with MDAC 2.8, which is also available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5067faf8-0db4-429a-b502-de4329c8c850&displaylang=en

SAN FRANCISCO -- March 29, 2004 -- Today at electronicaUSA with the Embedded Systems Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced a Technology Preview Kit for Windows® CE 5.0, previously code-named "Macallan." Leveraging extensive feedback from customers, the final version of Microsoft® Windows CE 5.0 will focus on increasing developer productivity through a variety of feature enhancements including increased out-of-the-box hardware support, security enhancements, advanced multimedia capabilities and automated testing tools. The wide range of functionality will enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build more exciting and compelling devices and bring them to market more quickly.

More than 60 industry-leading OEMs, silicon vendors and solution integrators are already working on solutions for Windows CE 5.0 as part of Microsoft's Joint Development Partner program. Some of these companies include industry leaders such as Biostar Group, Costron Company Limited, Humax Co. Ltd., InFocus Corp., Intel Corp., Intermec Technologies Corp., LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Tcom&Dtvro Co. Ltd and ViewSonic Corp.

"The next version of Windows CE will deliver new componentized technology that will help customers save time in the development process and will enable a wide range of innovative devices, from gateways and gaming devices to set-top- boxes," said Ya-Qin Zhang, corporate vice president of the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft. "This release is an important milestone for Windows CE because it reflects ongoing feedback we've received from customers to enable them to build embedded devices even more quickly."

Saving Device-Development Time

Windows CE 5.0 is designed to help developers reduce development time and costs when building small-footprint, connected devices. Customers said they wanted the ability to switch easily between the Windows CE graphical integrated development environment (IDE) and command-line environments to more quickly build devices with a wide range of functionality. The new Windows CE 5.0 development environment enables developers to take advantage of the capabilities of the command line in the graphical IDE, which will decrease operating system image development time and speed time to market.

"Unifying the tools capabilities is a brilliant move for Windows CE. Being able to work in one unified development environment where you only need to use that one toolset for building, debugging and deploying an operating system image will save OEMs a lot of time by reducing complex development issues," said Doug Boling of Boling Consulting, an embedded consultant and training firm for corporations. "All of the benefits of the command line are now exposed through the graphical IDE, making the Windows CE tools extremely easy to use. This significantly increases the productivity and creativity of our development team."

Microsoft also has dramatically increased support for widely available embedded hardware with more than 50 production-quality drivers optimized for leading chipsets, such as ARM, MIPS, SuperH and x86, enabling OEMs to use the drivers right out of the box rather than having to customize them for a particular hardware platform. These production-quality drivers are in addition to the more than 250 sample drivers currently available in Windows CE.

"InFocus recognizes Microsoft's market leadership and consistent capability in delivering robust embedded operating system platforms," said David Woolf, director of Worldwide Product Management at InFocus. "Windows CE 5.0 provides the best collection of technology, tools and resources to enable InFocus' continued product innovation. We are delighted to partner with Microsoft to deliver exciting user experiences with emerging wireless display applications."

Integrated Reliability

Windows CE 5.0 is a hard, real-time operating system that provides OEMs with a reliable foundation and integrated core operating system components for developing a broad range of devices, from consumer electronics to headless devices to building and industrial automation. Windows CE 5.0 will ship with all components automatically set to the highest possible security setting while providing developers with complete flexibility to modify the security setting as needed for their unique design. A powerful new capability, Windows Error Reporting, enables quality and performance monitoring for in-field devices so OEMs can continually improve and update devices they have already deployed. In addition, an enhanced Windows CE Test Kit provides comprehensive automated testing tools to improve device stability and reliability.

"We are pleased with the proactive steps that Microsoft is taking to further enhance the reliability of and security for embedded devices with the upcoming release of Windows CE 5.0," said Richard Mahany, vice president of Product Marketing and Development at Intermec Technologies. "The new security features will shorten our custom development time, and the error reporting technologies will provide us with customer usage data to further improve our products over time."

Unlimited Innovation

New multimedia capabilities will enable developers to create applications and services that will differentiate their devices in the marketplace. Windows CE 5.0 will include support for Direct3D® Mobile, a Component Object Model (COM)-based programming model and graphics solution built on Microsoft's desktop technology, DirectX®. By including support for Direct3D Mobile, Windows CE devices can now support even richer, higher-performance graphics and multimedia, similar to a desktop experience, on small-footprint devices. In addition, enhanced multimedia features, such as Fast Start, dramatically decrease playback start time for multimedia content such as movies on a range of devices including Internet Protocol (IP) set-top boxes.

"Intel has enabled a new generation of rich multimedia and gaming capabilities for D3DMobile utilizing Intel XScale® technology with Wireless MMX instructions," said Mark Casey, director of Marketing for the Cellular and Handheld Group at Intel. "Working closely with Microsoft to integrate these enhancements into D3DMobile, developers and OEMs will be able to deploy a new generation of compelling 3-D applications while meeting the battery life and small size requirements of mobile devices."

Windows CE 5.0 Technology Preview

Technology Preview kits for Windows CE 5.0 will be provided to attendees visiting the Microsoft booth at electronicaUSA with the Embedded Systems Conference. The preview will also be available for download at the Windows Embedded Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/ April 1. The final product is scheduled to be available during summer 2004.

Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 provide the services to support a secure, available, and scalable Web server on which to run your Web sites and applications. Whether you manage a single Web server or many, Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit will help you effectively plan, deploy, operate, and troubleshoot your IIS 6.0 solution. This comprehensive technical resource delivers an in-depth description of the new IIS 6.0 architecture, as well as reference information about IIS 6.0 features and services. It also includes practical information and tools to help you accomplish everyday administrative tasks.

Deployment scenarios in part one of this book include installing a new Web server, upgrading an existing Web server from an earlier version of IIS, and migrating existing Apache or IIS Web sites and applications to a newly installed Web server. Part two of this book includes information about running IIS 6.0 as a platform for Web applications, managing a secure IIS 6.0 solution, administering servers programmatically, and capitalizing on built-in scalability features to manage large-scale deployments. In addition, part two includes a thorough discussion of IIS 6.0 troubleshooting concepts, tools, and procedures.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=80a1b6e6-829e-49b7-8c02-333d9c148e69&displaylang=en

If so, the Microsoft® Data Access Application Block for .NET is for you.

The Data Access Application Block encapsulates performance and resource management best practices for accessing Microsoft SQL Server™ databases. It can easily be used as a building block in your own .NET-based application. If you use it, you will reduce the amount of custom code you need to create, test, and maintain.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f63d1f0a-9877-4a7b-88ec-0426b48df275&displaylang=en

REDMOND, Wash. -- Jan. 27, 2004 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of SQL Server (TM) 2000 Reporting Services. Reporting Services provides companies with a powerful new reporting tool that can increase business insight by providing real-time information from any data source to any device. As a result, employees at every level will have better access to information that will increase their ability to make more-informed decisions and provide more business value to their company. With the addition of Reporting Services, SQL Server, a part of the Microsoft® Windows Server System (TM) , provides the single most comprehensive data management and business intelligence (BI) platform on the market, with integrated analytics that include online analytical processing; data mining; data warehousing; extract, transform and load tools; and reporting functionality. This integrated, end-to-end approach helps companies make better decisions faster while lowering their total cost of ownership.

"Reporting Services is an enterprise-level reporting solution that is more affordable than competitive solutions in the marketplace today. It builds on the success of SQL Server 2000 to provide an integrated and scalable solution whether it is used to send interactive reports to five or 50,000 subscribers," said Paul Flessner, senior vice president of Enterprise Servers at Microsoft. "With Reporting Services, our customers benefit from a cost-effective, easy-to-use reporting solution that enables them to better leverage data from their disparate systems for smarter business decisions."

Industry Acclaims Microsoft's Comprehensive, Cost-Effective BI Offering

SQL Server 2000 offers a broad business intelligence platform that helps enable customers and partners to easily build custom business intelligence applications. This flexibility and interoperability provide users with powerful business intelligence solutions tailored to their specific needs. Customers such as ASB Bank Ltd., Best Buy Company Inc., Coldwater Creek Inc., Cox Communications Inc., IS Partners Co., Long & Foster Companies, Mary Kay Inc., PREMIER Bankcard, RF Micro Devices Inc., Scout-Master and TSYS have already started to implement Reporting Services solutions.

"In six short weeks, Reporting Services helped PREMIER Bankcard develop an enterprisewide business intelligence reporting solution that will result in a workload reduction equivalent of at least three full-time employees, giving those employees time to work on other, more-proactive projects," said Dan Zerfas, vice president of application development at PREMIER Bankcard. "Reporting Services is the perfect combination of flexibility, scalability and performance required to support the high-growth rate that we have been enjoying. With just 40 report authors across three business units, we look to deliver 400 BI reports to 500 users at all levels."

Reporting Services provides an open and extensible reporting platform industry partners can use to broaden their offerings without investing in building reporting infrastructure. Microsoft is collaborating with companies including ActiveViews Inc., Aspirity LLC, Comprehensive Software Systems, Configuresoft, Fenestrae, Geac Computer Corporation Ltd., Hitachi Consulting Corp., IntelligentApps Ltd., Intellinet Corp., OutlookSoft Corp., MaxQ Technologies Inc., MIS AG, Professional Advantage, ProClarity Corp., Solutions Consulting Group, Silvon Software Inc., SPSS Inc., Trax Retail Solutions Inc. and Unisys.

Industry analysts have also expressed high expectations for the value Reporting Services will bring to customers and partners. According to Giga Information Group analysts Philip Russom and Keith Gile, Reporting Services has the potential to reshape the niche market for reporting, just as SQL Server's Analysis Services has for online analytic processing (OLAP) and Data Transformation Services (DTS) has for extraction, transformation and load (ETL). Educational efforts by Microsoft will raise the profile of reporting technologies and the realization of their usefulness, while bringing usability and cost within the technical and budgetary grasp of far more companies.1

A valid SQL Server 2000 license is required for each server on which Reporting Services is deployed. It is available in nine languages including traditional and simplified Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

About SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server, part of the Windows Server System, is the complete database and analysis offering for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-business and business intelligence solutions. It dramatically reduces the time required to bring these applications to market while offering the scalability needed for the most-demanding environments. More information on Microsoft SQL Server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/.

12/2/2003: Altiris, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRS), a leader in systems management solutions that reduce the total cost of owning information technology, today announced that it has acquired privately held Wise Solutions in a combined cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $43 million.

Wise Solutions is the leading provider of enterprise application management solutions and is best known for its expertise in application packaging, including conflict analysis and resolution. Wise Solutions has licensed its Wise Package Studio products to a wide range of customers and partners such as Dell, HP, Wal-Mart, Universal Studios and GlaxoSmithKline.

The strategic acquisition of Wise significantly enhances Altiris® IT lifecycle management offerings with the addition of Wise branded products, and provides Altiris with technology that will enhance existing client and server management offerings, specifically in software delivery and patch management. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive and is expected to provide operational efficiencies over time.

"Through this strategic acquisition, Altiris adds world class software packaging and delivery capabilities to our portfolio of IT lifecycle management offerings," commented Greg Butterfield, President and CEO of Altiris. "Through our existing partnership with Wise, we have already been successful in winning new customer relationships and are now positioned to further leverage our channel partner relationships. As a result of this acquisition, we expect to further integrate the technologies and expand our branded offerings."

Rockwell Automation, a leading industrial automation company with annual sales of approximately $4 billion, uses Altiris and Wise Solution technologies to automate desktop and laptop management for more than 12,000 employees.

Jim Harings, Rockwell Automation global administration analyst, said, "We use Altiris and Wise Solutions to help reduce the cost of software configuration management. These complementary technologies help us automate and standardize application management and software distribution. A natively integrated solution will help us further create a more stable software environment and ultimately increase end-user productivity while reducing help desk costs."

Fred Broussard, senior research analyst for IDC's PC and Device Management Software, said, "When there are thousands of machines within an IT department's responsibility, repackaging is an important part of the overall software distribution process. A software distribution solution that can take advantage of repackaging capabilities to speed software delivery to the desktops is going to strengthen Altiris' product line."

Under the terms of the agreement, Altiris agreed to pay approximately $31.5 million in cash and issue 348,797 shares of Altiris common stock for all capital stock of Wise Solutions. A portion of the consideration has been placed in escrow to satisfy certain indemnification obligations of the Wise Solutions shareholders.

SQLXML enables XML support for your SQL Server Database. It allows developers to bridge the gap between XML and relational data. You can create XML View of your existing relational data and work with it as if it was an XML file. SQLXML allows you to:

• Build Web Services with SQL Server 2000
• Build Web sites to publish data from SQL Server
• Query relational database with XPath
• Update relational data as if it was XML
• Load XML into SQL Server
• Query SQL Server via URLs, OLEDB/ADO or .NET Managed Classes

SP2 includes many fixes since the SP1 release including:

Identiy Propagation for XML Bulkload

Null Support for Web Services when used with Visual Studio .NET 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4c8033a9-cf10-4e22-8004-477098a407ac&DisplayLang=en

More news to follow as it becomes available.

3/25/03 Update:
It was confirmed to me today by an Wrox Press author that not only are they filing for bankruptcy but they are in liquidation.

The MDAC 2.7 SP1 Refresh release installs the same Data Access core components as Microsoft Windows XP SP1, with the addition of several important bug fixes. The MDAC 2.7 SP1 Refresh release is also included in the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a release.

This release does not include Microsoft Jet, the Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider, the Desktop Database Drivers ODBC Driver, or the Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver.

Click here to download.