Darryl Burling @ Work

When I first started at Microsoft I had my own blog on my own site.  However, after a few months I started blogging here anyway and removed the blog from my own site. Recently I've dusted off the old site and started afresh with a nice new blogging...

We often get asked "how can I buy Visual Studio and MSDN?". And since last time we posted on this was back in 2005 I thought we should update this guidance. If you look at the bottom of the MSDN NZ Visual Studio page, you'll see a section called...

I was going to open this editorial in celebration of the fact that registration for Tech Ed is now open and encourage you to register today. And – I strongly encourage you to register today. Not tomorrow – TODAY! Here’s why: As of...

Ummmm, yeah.if you were planning on heading to Tech Ed this year to hear the likes of Scott Hanselman speak, I would be considering signing up real soon. The early bird tickets are already half sold, and when they are gone they are gone. What is amazing...

If you have been hanging out waiting for Tech Ed registration to open, well, the wait is over! Yesterday we opened registration for Tech Ed 2008.  This year Tech Ed is September 1-3. The other bit of good news that has "leaked" over the...

This month I'll be out and about a little doing a talk in a few locations on mixing up the web: Title : Mixing up the web using HTTP, REST, WCF, PHP and IIS7 Abstract: HTTP programming is about more than just ASP.Net. The latest releases of Visual Studio...

Sometimes it feels like we just live from one event to the next. So while we’ve now got the launch events out of the way, there is more coming – and we need your help to make them the best events they can be First up – we are getting underway with our...

Chris has blogged the details of the newest user group in New Zealand - in Christchurch - focused on Embedded development. The first meeting is next week - details here I have recently became involved in starting up a new user group within the Christchurch...

As promised, I've uploaded the slides and code from my Connected Systems talk from the Launch events up to my skydrive, so if you are interested, you can grab them. The sample code includes the code to extract data from Oulook, extend your ASP.Net Role...

Each quarter we award those who work hardest in the technical community with an award we call the Most Valuable Professional. These awards are given for the contributions made to the technical community over the last 12 months.  Contributions can...

There is a bunch of photos on Port25 taken inside the OSS labs at Microsoft.  This is an interesting look at whats going on behind the scenes.  It is reasonably well known that we have a OSS lab, but this opens it up a little more. If you are...

Adrian just emailed me to let me know that Australian Peter Ward is presenting in Wellington on Thursday night: Peter Ward is visiting us from Australia and will make 2 presentations, with refreshments in between. Peter Ward is WARDY IT Solutions Chief...

On Wednesday we drew the prize draw for the 2008 summer road trip. Jeremy took the data, imported it into SQL, did some code to match registrations and invitations to evaluation forms, then write a little function to draw someone from random from the...

Many of you have asked about availability of the code and slides from the road trip, and the good news is that they are now up. Jeremy has the scoop along with instructions to build a VM for yourself. Enjoy!

Given that March is a big month here at Microsoft New Zealand due to the launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, Mauricio decided to get a bunch of developers together to blog about some of the cool new features in Visual...

As you may know Sean has moved on to Redmond which means we have a new manager here in DPE New Zealand. Scott Wylie is now the Director of the Developer and Platform Strategy team here in New Zealand.  Scott has been in Microsoft New Zealand for...

I just got an email from Chan regarding the Sharepoint User group in Wellington this week.  There are some nice add-ins to Sharepoint around, and one of them is the Community Kit for Sharepoint - which Zac has been involved in building.  Details...

One of the big changes over the last few years at Microsoft has been openness.  That is openness about interconnecting with other systems (i.e. non-MS systems), openness with regards to file formats and openness with regards to working with other...

Today we are in Invercargill.  Today is the last day of our Road Trip.  Today is kind of a sad day. We've had a great time driving around the country presenting on Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008.  I think those...

Last night JB and I flew down to meet Chris in Dunedin.  In retrospect, we could have gone down this morning, but it translated into a good sleep in this morning, and we are safely in the town we need to be in and not at the mercy of the airlines...

This morning we woke up in the middle of nowhere, with no mobile coverage, no telephone and lots of distance between us and civilization - a geek's worst nightmare.  We were of course in Maruia Springs Thermal Resort in Lewis Pass.  Chris is...

Last night we took the ferry to the South Island at 6:15 (give or take 30 minutes for a delay).  We it was dark when we got to Picton, which meant we got to take some photos during sunset in the sounds which was pretty cool.  When we got to...

  Today the boys did their presentation to our home town of Wellington.  It went well and was generally enjoyed by everyone.  The Paramount was a fantastic venue and we had heaps of capacity so even though we  had hundreds of registrations...

Jeremy and Chris are both really looking forward to Wellington tomorrow - it is our home town, and we are expecting the biggest (and best?) audience at a very cool venue - the Paramount Picture Theatre. Today however, we are in Palmerston North. After...

We started the week at 7am by driving from Wellington to Napier.  It was pouring rain in Wellington - but the rain eased and cleared once we got through the Waiarapa. It was funny driving through my home town, Dannevirke, and pointing out one or...