October, 2011

A couple of weeks ago I introduced the Mango App Challenge – in essence, a contest for you to develop and publish 2 Windows Phone apps to the Marketplace and in return we’d give you a free phone.  Well, so far the contest has gotten a lot of entries (but there’s still plenty of phones left to give) and I want to share with you some of the great winners so far. Broken Wings+ Get it:  Here...

Wow! it’s over already really? But I was just getting warmed up! Tuesday and Wednesday, the Toronto Congress Center was overrun with technology enthusiasts ready to learn all new tools, features, and tips and tricks from the experts at TechDays Toronto. If you were looking for me and didn’t find me, that’s because I spent two days locked up in the labs . I am so excited about this...

Today we published the Windows Phone 7 app for Techdays 2011! If you are attending Techdays in Vancouver (November 15/16) or Techdays Montreal (November 29/30) and have a Windows Phone 7 device, then go ahead and download it here ! What’s in the App: Choose between the 3 different cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal) Browse the schedule in list form (both days) Browse by track...

  With just under a week to go before TechDays Vancouver , I know that the team here is going through all our prep lists to make sure that we have everything to ensure an amazing experience for you. While we’re doing that, you can get started on your TechDays prep with this “everything I need for TechDays” prep list – Vancouver Edition! There’s lots to do and so this post is a bit of a long read...

One of the elements added to TechDays 2011 that I am most excited about is the addition of instructor-led hands-on labs at the event.  This is directly as a result of your feedback asking us for more content where you can actually play with the technology.  We will have 9 labs on site and an additional 40+ labs that you will be able to take advantage of from the luxury of your home or workplace...

Shhh don’t tell anyone about this blog, then you will look brilliant in front of your co-workers when you show them these cool tools! Have you found the F12 key yet in Internet Explorer? I will admit that until 6 months ago I hadn’t. If you are running Internet Explorer 8 or 9 you can try it right now. Just hit the F12 key and a window appears at the bottom of your screen. This window will help you...

Now that I’ve caught your attention with the title of this post, I want to introduce you to a really great promotion we are holding at Microsoft Canada for you as a mobile app developer (by the way, when I write “app”, I actually mean “app or game”). One of the biggest comments that I get when talking to people interested in building an app for Windows Phone is that they don’t have a device. ...

I started work in the era of Stephen Covey and the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ craze. Heck I was even sent on a 7 Habits course and given a 7 habits daytimer! One of the 7 habits was to ‘Sharpen the Saw’ which amounts to the importance of spending time improving yourself and learning. The IT world changes so fast! You have to keep learning to keep up! The smartest...

Come and find out! Sam Guckenheimer, ALM expert, product planner for Visual Studio, and author of “Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback” is coming to Toronto to talk about exactly that: “What’s Next in Software Delivery”, If you are in the Toronto area you can come out for a unique opportunity to meet and learn from him in...

A few weeks ago, the Windows Azure SDK v1.5 was released with many enhancements and fixes that further simplifies development, deployment, and management of applications on the Windows Azure platform. As soon as it was released, I headed over to the SDK download page (Web Platform Installer), downloaded the latest version, and started exploring the new features. Reading through discussions on stackoverflow...

I was just preparing a slide deck to talk about IE9 features at the Microsoft Certified Trainer summit and realized, that although I have blogged about how to update your pinned sites , I really haven’t taken the time to explain what the heck pinned sites are and how they work. Pinned sites are a fantastic feature of IE9 , and as more and more users are discovering them, you want to make sure your...

TechDays is going to rock Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. But we haven’t forgotten the rest of the country! TechDays is sponsoring a number of events across Canada so even if you can’t make it to TechDays this year, you don’t have to miss out! In Ottawa, Microsoft is a proud sponsor and is even providing some of the great TechDays content at DevTeach , November 2-4, 2011 at the new Ottawa Convention...

We’ve revealed the keynotes , the Windows Client and Phone Track , the Developer Tools, Languages and Framework track , the Developer Practices & Architecture , and the Cloud Computing and Online Services track, but the one thing that all of these have in common is the need to access, store, and manipulate data.  Organizations rely on IT to help ensure that corporate data is safe and secure...

We’ve revealed the keynotes , the Windows Client and Phone Track , the Developer Tools, Languages and Framework track , and the Cloud Computing and Online Services track, now I’d like to introduce you to a track that applies to cloud, windows, mobile, and web developers, C#, and VB programmers alike! Sometimes as developers we need to take a step back and look at the big picture . Are there ways we...

You’re seeing lots of buzz this week of about TechDays 2011 . Why? Simple. It is going to be great! So far this week, you’ve heard about the keynotes , as well as about the Windows Client and Phone and Developer Tools, Languages, and Frameworks tracks. Today, I’d like to introduce you to my personal favourite track (obviously, being the Cloud Guy ), Cloud Computing and Online Services. The Cloud Computing...

I can’t believe that TechDays is already there. In 3 weeks, we will be in Toronto (October 25-26) to start the tour. After Toronto, we will go in Vancouver (November 15-16) and Montreal (November 29-30) to give you a full two days of awesoness around the technology you love. This week, you’ll see one blog post per day around an area of TechDays. If you missed it, go read (after this...

Time moves quickly! Hard to believe that we are only a few weeks away from the first TechDays 2011 event in Toronto on October 25/26. We’ve been busy getting the content ready and are working with a great group of subject matter experts from Microsoft, our Partners, the MVP community and your peers to deliver some of the best content we have ever put together! I’m really excited to let you know that...

By now, you may have seen that TechDays 2011 is now open for registration . TechDays is Microsoft Canada’s premier, in-person training event that is reaching 3 cities (Toronto – October 25-26, 2011, Vancouver – November 15-16, 2011 and Montreal – November 29-30, 2011) with 2 full days of training in 8 different tracks (in alphabetical order: Cloud Computing and Online Services;...