March, 2007

This Saturday, over 600+ people will converge to attend the 2nd annual Toronto Code Camp . I'll be delivering the keynote and a session on codename " Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E) ". The event is unfortunately full (in terms of attendees) but if you have already signed up, be sure to drop by and say hi. We will be doing some podcasts and videocasts from the event - some of us will...

Believe it or not, March 19th marks the 10th anniversary "decennial" of Visual Studio 97, the first release of the product. The news was announced onstage at VSLive! in San Francisco on March 26th. Rob Caron has posted additional details on his blog . I remember buying a copy of VS 97 and being really impressed with it's features. Using VB 5.0 and C++ 5.0 - seems like a century ago, doesn't it?...

Here is an interview with Matthew Cassell at the 2007 MVP Summit. In this interview, Matthew talks about some of his academic activities including the Academic .NET Student Conference held in Toronto . He also recounts his meeting with Steve Ballmer , CEO of Microsoft. Video: MVP Summit: Matthew Cassell

A little while back, I blogged about composite applications (aka application "mashups") - how important it is to think about the components of your applications, and how to use existing frameworks as a shortcut to reach business goals. For example, does it make sense to build ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or CRM (Customer Relations Management) software from scratch? It can be a slippery slope...

We ran the first Game Camp in November 2006 - it was great to see the number of people show up and the excitement you demonstrated towards XNA and the XNA Game Studio Express . In fact, the event was such a hit that our developer and student communities were soon asking us how to run their own Game Camps! So we followed the idea to it's logical conclusion. Enter the Develop Mental Institute website...

In case you missed it, we posted all the .NET Framework 3.0 webcasts (including the .NET Framework 3.0 overview presentation with Christian Beauclair) on our Ignite Your Code website . If you are interested in Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows CardSpace - check them out!

Last week, I attended the 2007 MVP Global Summit in Redmond and the Canadian contigent really made a splash. We all wore bright red Team Canada jerseys and showed our national pride by chanting "Canada, Canada". In case you aren't aware, MVP stands for Most Valuable Professionals - exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who are awarded for voluntarily sharing their high quality...

S’il y a bien un message que nous avons entendu après chaque arrêt du lancement d’affaires de Windows Vista, Système Office de Microsoft 2007 et le serveur Exchange 2007 , c’est votre intérêt de recevoir des logiciels afin de vous familiariser avec nos nouveaux produits. En partenariat avec les gestionnaires de ces produits, nous sommes heureux de vous annoncer que nous remplirons votre demande. Toutes...

If there is one message that we have heard from you following each stop of the Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Exchange Server 2007 Business Value Launch , it is your cry for a copy of the software so that you can play and become familiar with it. Working in conjunction with the Product Managers, we are happy to say that we can now fulfill your request. Everyone who attended a Launch...

In the next couple of weeks, John Bristowe, Christian Beauclair, and I will start travelling to a city near you for the Developer Night in Canada (DNIC) User Group Tour: The Exciting Adventures of the Microsoft Application Platform Developer . We will be visiting over twenty (20) user groups across Canada. I'm personally looking forward to meeting you all on the road! The theme of the tour is "building...

I can remember when I first started programming - I was about 11 years old, my father bought me a Commodore 64 and I took on the challenge of learning BASIC. At the time, the only documentation I had to help me in my learning process was the manual that came with the computer, and the monthly copy of Compute magazine I would receive in the mail, with pages upon pages of source code I had to type out...