The MSDN Australia Blog

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Hi,

As Microsoft had confirmed about it's release of Windows 7 in 2010, could it be released sooner or later, depending on progress?

hi

may name is shah and there is a problem with my vb code.when I compile it gives a error message,

  Ambiguous name detected: main

I know that there is same main procedure in my code but when i change the name it gives me another error message,

        user-defined type not defined

i m sending you code if you correct it and send me back i'll exteremly be grateful to you.

here is the code,

Public Sub main()

'visual basic geme programming

'create reference to game window

Dim window As Form

'create reference to display surface

Dim surface As PictureBox

'define the standard screen resolution

Public Enum RESOLUTION

    Res320x240 = 1

    Res640x480 = 2

    Res800x600 = 3

    Res1024x768 = 4

    End Enum

    'function createwindow

    'create a reference to an existing form and initialize

    'the form to one of the standard screeb resolution

    Public Function CreateWindow(ByRef frm As Form, _

    ByVal res As RESOLUTION) As Form

    'create the reference

    Set CreateWindow = frm

    'set up the form

    frm.AutoRedraw = False

    frm.BorderStyle = 1

    frm.ClipControls = False

    frm.KeyPreview = True

    frm.ScaleMode = 3

    'rsize the form to a standard resolution

    Select Case res

    Case Res320x240

    frm.Width = 320 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX

    frm.Width = 240 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

   Case Res640x480

    frm.Width = 640 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX

    frm.Width = 480 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

    Case Res800x600

     frm.Width = 800 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX

      frm.Width = 600 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

     Case Res1024x768

      frm.Width = 1024 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX

      frm.Width = 768 * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

     End Select

     End Function

     'function createsurface

     'create a reference to an existing picturebox ans

     'resize the control to the parent form.

     Public Function CreateSurface(ByRef window As Object) As PictureBox

     'create the reference

     Set CreateSurface = window.surface

     'set up the surface

     CreateSurface.AutoRedraw = False

     CreateSurface.BorderStyle = 0

     CreateSurface.ClipControls = False

     CreateSurface.ScaleMode = 3

     CreateSurface.BackColor = RGB(0, 0, 0)

     'resize the surface to the parent window

     CreateSurface.Left = 2

     CreateSurface.Top = 2

     CreateSurface.Width = window.ScaleWidth - 4

     CreateSurface.Height = window.ScaleHeight - 4

     End Function

     'sub main

     'starting point for the program

     Public Sub main()

     Dim X As Long

     Dim Y As Long

     Dim Count As Long

     Dim Color As Long

     'initialize the game window

     Set window = CreateWindow(Form1.Res800x600)

     window.Caption = "Chunky Pixel"

     'initialize the display surface

     Set surface = CreateSurface(window)

     'display the game window

     window.Show

     DoEvents

     'draw 100.100 chunky pixels

     Randomize

     surface.DrawWidth = 5

     For Count = 1 To 100000

     X = surface.ScaleWidth * Rnd

     Y = surface.ScaleHeight * Rnd

     Color = RGB(Rnd * 256, Rnd * 256, Rnd * 256)

     surface.PSet (X, Y), Color

     Next Count

     'delete the object reference

     Set surface = Nothing

     Set window = Nothing

     End Sub

My question for Steve Ballmer:

Can you explain why Internet Explorer is still relevant and why it's worth the company spending so much money on a new rendering engine when there are excellent open source alternatives available that seem to be able to respond much faster to the continuing changes in the web and it's associated standards?

Does Microsoft have any oversight in place over the language enhancements that occur in the different languages.  

I am all for enhancing a language but sometimes language enhancements really seem to be over extending the language.  Recent enhancements to C# make it look they are extending it out to the Ruby Crowd.

My issue with this is that it can lead to massively different programming styles within the one language which make it harder to maintain.  Is there any oversight that says hey maybe we are taking this a bit far and need to consider a different language for this.

Or this a consideration only for the language teams.

Microsoft Software as a Service - How much does it cost ?

I have a question. It's a 2 part question

1. Why did they call the company Microsoft and not Megahard? and

2. Why does Bill Gates sound like Kermit the frog?

Thanks

Frank O

My question to Steve Ballmer,

How are you going on burying Google mate..?

@shah

Quit life, seriously.

In today's world talented developers/designers are being pulled into other non MS platforms by the promise of financial riches eg. iPhone, Android, facebook apps etc etc. These develoeprs/designers are the ones we need to attract on the MS platform to create the amazing experiences that will truely show off WPF/Silverlight.

Is there any plans to work with partners or to actually create consumer facing app stores where MS developers/designers can build things and make money??

Microsoft is requesting alot of develoeprs/designers in taking up and learning these new technologies with no promise of financial incentives. Personally up till now I've been happy to devote my time and energy to learning these new skills BUT it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up this learning whilst my dev/designer counterparts are earning big bux on other platforms!

Microsoft seems to be offering more and more technologies for developers every year yet at the same time offering more and more versions of the same product by splitting features across multiple SKU's.

For Visual Studio alone there is Visual Studio Express/Standard/Pro/Team Editions for Devs-Testers-Architects-DBA's & Team Suite (oh, and XNA Game Studio as well).  And we can't forget the other dev related products floating around the MS ecosystem such as TFS, Sharepoint, Silverlight, Surface, ASP.NET & ASP.NET MVC, Linq, Entity Framework, Cardspace/Geneva, WPF, WCF, WF and more...  and now you're adding Azure.

While all of this provides a more compelling "power to developers" story, it's also something average developers are finding increasingly difficult to keep track of.  The rate of change and the barrage of new products being released is wearing the 9-5 developer out and driving adoption of simpler technologies with smaller learning curves such as Ruby on Rails.  This has parallels to Java's complexity making .NET development feel so much simplere when .NET was first released.

What is Microsft doing to consolidate the fragmentation that is appearing in the product versioning and the technology stack? And how will Microsoft prevent the average developer from increasingly feeling "left behind"?

I have one question:

How important is interoperability with other platforms such as Linux, Mac, iPhone or Symbian is to the success of a software product?

It seems that MS are now learning from there massive mistake of not embracing the internet earlier.... BRAVO.... they seem to be doing it in a way that makes damn sense from a technology perspective (Azure, Mesh etc)

My concern is that they are repeating this error but in the mobile space... I believe the push to allow Silverlight 2 onto the mobile device is ingenious however the Windows Mobile OS could undo all that good.

I've been using the iTouch for over 2 years now, I've also had a blackberry for over a year. I recently purchased my HTC touch and as hard as i try to leave my iTouch/Blackberry behind I find myself going back to them constantly.

The Windows Mobile OS 6.1 is truly horific compared to the blackberry and iTouch. Are we going to see anything in the Mobile OS space in the next year? Or are we going to have to wait another 2-3 years before MS realize the opportunity lost!

On my previous comment I do understand that the Apple iTouch is an iPod and not a phone. The point i was trying to make was that the iTouch, exactly like the iPhone, is a million times better in user experience than the WinMo 6.1... And MS don't seem to care, or if they do care they don't seem to care about the same things that I do..

Interested in hearing how the ad sponsored Azure service will work for advertisers - where will the inventory be sold, what kinds of adds will be supported (OTP? Video?). Will adds be content sensitive (eg I am writing about adobe, I get adds for microsoft products) or sponsor based. Can competitors advertise (eg Adobe?)

It started with "Windows", then "developers", and finally it went to "advertisers".

So, are the developers back?

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HTkA9L2J2gY

Finula is gorgeous. Sorry. I had to say it. Plus she is smart.....wow!

Hi Finula,

Don't worry - i'm sure you'll do just fine.

Can't wait to watch the action today!!

Finula,

Not sure if this is too late, but i do have one question :)

Q:

Will Australia ever see PDC sized/styled events?

These events, which is generally held in the US are for the most of Australian developers not accessible, so there'd be a huge benefit to us having similar opportunities down under as the developers in the US has.

At the moment, the only event we have of any significant size, is TechEd.

Well done Finula, you did fine :)

Nice shoes Fin  ; ) and a great Q&A !

Yeah, very well done during the event. Wish there had been more questions!