BenkoBLOG

We've got our first month and a half of BenkoTIPS Live and On Demand on the books and now we're looking at December. In an effort to find the best tips and tricks for developers we're going to bring in some special guests next month to talk about what...

Thank you to everyone that joined me yesterday in Minneapolis at the Silverlight User Group. The demo code we wrote is up on the site & ready for download...the code from the Linq to Amazon to WPF to Silverlight for both the book finder as well as...

Over the last month or so I've taken the SharePoint for Developers Webcast series on the road and we covered a few topics including how to set up a developer environment for SharePoint, Customizing the Chrome (master pages, style sheets, etc), Authentication...

Last week in Kansas City while presenting the New Features of SQL 2008 for Developers session of MSDN Unleashed we had some questions of whether this is a new feature in this release. I mentioned that it isn't and has been part of the product since at...

Here are some links from the talk I'm doing for the SharePoint Developer Session. Kirk Evans Blog The SharePoint Developer CodePlex Project - SharePoint Features CodePlex Project - Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint SharePoint Team Blog MSDN - How to...

If you missed PDC, you're in luck. We're bringing the best of PDC to a city near you. You can check it out - the site is up, the agenda is listed, and registration is live (register with RSVP code MDCEXTB)!  

If you've been to a MSDN Unleashed event in Omaha, Des Moines, St. Louis, Marshall, Sioux Falls or Kansas City and are wondering where to get the demo code we wrote, I've posted it to the downloads section of www.benkoTips.com . It includes the samples...

I was trading emails with a colleague (Cris Deeter) on resources for getting started in SharePoint development. He had a great list that is worth sharing. Here's his list: 1. Get started developing with SharePoint: a. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...

I'm starting a new weekly webcast show - BenkoTips Live and On Demand (BTLOD)...a series aimed at bringing more developer event content to you in a reliable, predictable and consistent way. Starting this week on Wednesday we will begin the series, then...

I’m excited to announce that based on feedback and response to people I’ve talked with and the previous emails I’ve sent out that we have scheduled the first “Charter” meeting of “ TechMasters - Twin Cities ”...

Today I’m presenting at Minnesota Developers Conference on “Playing with Possible”…a collection of short demos that together show how you can leverage new technologies such as LINQ to browse books on Amazon using a Silverlight control deployed in SharePoint...

You may have head that I've been sounding out people in the Minneapolis area lately on the idea of starting a group to help people learn the art of technical speaking. The idea is to build on the educational program of Toastmasters to give members the...

We're back on the road this week with more MSDN Event goodness. Tuesday is Des Moines where my good friend from Florida ( Russ Fustino ) will be bringing the Tool Shed to the greater midwest, and then Thursday I'll be delivering the sessions in Kansas...

As promised yesterday at the St. Louis MSDN Event in Clayton, here are the links to the additional information in the slide deck. I've also posted the code from the WPF Bonanza project we built onto www.BenkoTIPS.com/code so you can take a look for yourself...

We're back on the trail with Microsoft Across America and more developer "What's Possible". This time we're talking about WPF, Vista and What's New with Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5. You can read more about the abstracts...

Until we get the www.MSDNEvents.com site up to date you can search for and register on the site https://msevents.microsoft.com by clicking the advanced search box and selecting your city. I found that I needed to turn off all but the "In Person"...

Picking topics for sessions we present at MSDN Events is always an exciting task. Trying to figure out what is interesting, useful and timely topics that ultimately help developers understand and adapt the the rapidly changing technical landscape can...

I was looking a back at my site and the blog I've put together over the last couple years, and I'm starting to notice a trend. Anymore, I generally post to announce events and when I've got resources from a webcast or something I've presented that people...

Wow. I know I played the video (Bill Gates Last Day) for fun a my events this spring, but it’s official now. Bill Gates has left the building. After three decades of working in the business, he is moving onto the next thing. Some skeptics are still in...

I'm excited about all the opportunities to see what's going on in this rapidly changing technology world. Recently we saw the start of the Silverlight User Group in the Twin Cities. This weekend we saw the genesis of yet another group! The SharePoint...

I've been running this site ( www.benkoTips.com ) for 3 years now, and I finally got around to updating the links on the left hand side of the screen. You will now be able to find a (more) complete list of bloggers, conferences, regional User Groups as...

This week on Tuesday I had the great pleasure of attending the charter meeting of a new User Group in Minneapolis focused on Silverlight . Many thanks to Farhan and all the people who worked so hard to make this event a success. Scheduled to run the third...

Calling all XNA Developers in the Twin Cities area and beyond. This May 15th, the Twin Cities XNA User Group is pulling out all the stops to bring you a Shawn Hargreaves (Microsoft, XNA Team) Double Feature! Shawn is flying in from Redmond for one night...

I have been on the Visual Studio Launch Tour visiting Chicago, Des Moines, Madison, Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis over the last couple months. As part of that we've been showing new features of Visual Studio for web development. I've uploaded the sample...