The good folk at Readify are running a free breakfast briefing on 1 December in the Sydney CBD to give you a lap around the next version of SQL Server, code-named "Denali". Register on their Eventbrite site .

The folks over at The Code Project have launched a cool contest so you can show off your LightSwitch skills and win prizes in the process. From their release: Do you have what it takes to be a LightSwitch Star? Show us your coolest, most productive, LightSwitch business application and you could win...

While I was at TechEd last month, I sat down (twice) with Richard Banks and recorded an episode of Talking Shop Down Under about LightSwitch . Richard's been hoarding his TechEd recordings and releasing them slowly. This one came out today. Check it out .

I thought I was 33% of the way into the SwitchedOn briefings for LightSwitch and Azure , but today I found out that I'm only 25% through. New cities, Wellington and Auckland have been added to the event, and I'm looking forward to seeing my Kiwi mates and having them commiserate with me about our Rugby...

I've just finished the first of the SwitchedOn briefings (Adelaide) - we built a LightSwitch application (u:Adelaide, p:Pass@word1) and deployed it on Azure. I've uploaded the slide decks: Session 1 - LightSwitch Morning (2.2Mb) Session 2 - both Azure decks (13.5Mb) Session 3 - LightSwitch Afternoon...

The Power of LightSwitch on Windows Azure Update 10/10 - Now with Adelaide Details Introducing Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch , a simple self-service tool that allows developers and business professionals to build business applications quickly and easily for the desktop and the cloud- without the...

Aussie developer Yann Duran has just published his second Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 extension. The Luminous Controls extension is currently a TextBlock and a GroupLayout control. This is the second LightSwitch extension Yann's published, the first being Luminous Themes. He's in the process of writing...

While we were at TechEd ( talking , by the way, about Visual Studio LightSwitch , twice ), the LightSwitch team released a GDR (General Distribution Release, aka update) to "resolve an issue encountered when publishing to SQL Azure" "This is due to a recent SQL Azure server upgrade which...

I’ve been excited by LightSwitch since I first saw it more than 18 months ago and the recent release of the Beta 2 version and the updated Training Kit has just got me more excited. The Training Kit includes the following content: LightSwitch Overview Demo: Introducing Visual Studio LightSwitch Hands...

The one and only Dave Lemphers is coming back to Australia for a week at the end of February for a whirlwind tour of the country to coincide with the launch in Australia of Windows Azure . He'll be doing public technical briefings hosted by the user groups in 5 capital cities. Date/Time ...

We’ve got a few seats left for some more great free training in Sydney next week – 19-21 May, this time on VS2010 and .NET 4.0. If you're interested in attending please email Shuk Chan . Begin Length Session Title Day 1 Visual Studio Team System 2010 8:30 AM 30 Registration and Breakfast 9:00 AM 45 Visual...

Brian Madsen pinged me today, at almost the same time as my automatic notification arrived. This month the Linked .Net Users Group has two great Live Meetings as pare of their ongoing program (recordings of previous sessions are archived here ). Session 1 – register here April 8th 03:00 Sydney time ...

CodeCampOz is fast approaching - (4-5 April in Wagga Wagga). Mitch has announced the speakers and sessions , and talked about the important social aspects of CodeCamp , in addition to the obvious technical benefits. Looks like another great CodeCamp! What are you waiting for? Sign up NOW!

I know, getting training budget is hard at the moment, but you really want to make yourself as employable as possible. Help is at hand (in fact, it’s only a mouse click away). There are, of course, a whole bunch of Virtual Labs you can do (for developers and for infrastructure people ). There’s also...

Update – Sorry folks. All these vouchers are gone. I’ll post again if I can get any more. First, Happy New Year to all! Community , Certification , News , Static News , Database Editorial , Smart Client Editorial , Web Development Editorial Anyone who's followed this blog for any length of time knows...

SQL guru David Lean has joined the blogosphere and, of course, he’s started with some hardcore SQL Spatial information. Check out these great posts: SQL 2008 Spatial Samples, Part 1 of 9 - How to Learn SQL Spatial SQL 2008 Spatial Samples, Part 2 of 9 - Background on Spatial Types & Well Known Text...

As I said in my MSDN Flash editorial , I had a great time presenting at Ignite Spatial last Wednesday – the atmosphere was great and the format was a lot of fun. I’ve popped the deck up on my skydrive and would love some feedback if you were there. Is this a format we should be adopting for at least...

Fin asked me to write this week’s MSDN Flash editorial, so I did. In case you missed it, here it is. By the way, if you don’t subscribe to the flash, you should :). Sign up today ! It's been a real time for me with events. First the PDC in Los Angeles with over 6,000 developers (in case you missed it...

Matt Nunn , Group Product Manager for Visual Studio Team System will present "The Road to Visual Studio 2010", a presentation (and live demo) aimed at technical decision makers. Matt will provide a first look at the next version of Microsoft’s development tool platform – Visual Studio 2010...

Hot on the heels of other great training kits , we’ve released the Azure Services Training Kit . From the internal announcement email: Today we are making available the first preview release of the Azure Services Training Kit.  The Azure Services Training Kit will include hands-on labs, presentations...

Local MCT Deepak Kapoor is running a Free LINQ to SQL training day in the Microsoft Training Lab at North Ryde 10am – 4pm on Saturday Nov 8. With .NET Framework 3.5 Microsoft released LINQ which allows developers to write queries against various data sources using a unified approach. These data sources...

This evening (Monday 11 Aug) is the first of the Demos Happen { Here } state finals. We’ll be kicking off at 6pm at Microsoft HQ in North Ryde. Subsequently we’ll be holding finals in the MS offices in Canberra - Aug 12 6pm Melbourne – Aug 13 6:30pm Brisbane – Aug 18 6pm Adelaide – Aug 20 6pm Come and...

Following Kleefy 's not so unexpected announcement , I've taken over the Technology of TechEd Track for this year's TechEd Australia event. Here's the spiel that I wrote for the track. Come on a journey behind the scenes at Tech•Ed. This track will take you end-to-end in the technology deployed...

I was chatting with Darren the other day and he said that he's been feeling increasingly disconnected from the DPE team here in Australia since Frank left, and also now that Chuck 's gone. Putting aside the fact that they're impossible shoes to fill, I thought it was probably time to call out the other...

I was in a meeting today with Tania Netterfield and she shared some certification plans with me that I'm itching to announce ... but I have to wait. In the mean time, Trika's announced that they've rescheduled the SQL Server 2008 Certification live meeting. The second meeting listed below is at Midday...