Ok - I don't really have a "tool of the week" post, nor is Play Speed really a tool in its own right - but I am sure pleased it exists. I set myself a task of watching a number of Webcasts this afternoon - then Dynorod turned up to unblock the drains...

The latest "Orcas" CTP includes: Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET Provides an application programming interface (API) to synchronize data between data services and a local store. The Synchronization Services API is modeled after...

The March CTP of Orcas has lots of goodness in it and is available to download from msdn (very large download!). This CTP includes: New VB 9.0 Language Support New C# 3.0 Language Support LOTS of LINQ stuff (a big build for the LINQ team) ADO.NET vNext...

The LitwareHR sample was designed for Windows Server 2003 - but many of you wanted to try it out on Windows XP (actually - that included me as well). The good news is the team have produced detailed instructions on how to get it to work on Windows XP...

Two announcements from ISVs caught my eye in the last week. Firstly UK based Sage announced Sage 50 Online . Excitedly I wondered "wow - is this a full-on SAAS application rearchitected explicitly for multi tenancy and the efficiencies of scale?". Alas...

One of our sister teams has been pulling together a "marketplace" for hosted applications in the UK. A lot of work has happened and a lot more work is to be done - but last week they went "public" about the work and it ended up reported pretty widely...

22nd Feb DAY 3 of 7 This continues on my series of posts about how we are pulling together the SAAS workshop for the UK Architect Insigh Conference. Today was a day of SAAS stuff - admittedly plenty of it was not directly related to the session - but...

There is a new KB article listing 800 or so applications that work with Windows Vista. Check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933305 . Obviously lots more work - but for these 800 the development company has take the time to "tell us". Another useful...

The AIC got its own blog on Wednesday - good for it! Hope to get an entry up there linking to my own prep for AIC... maybe not - might worry the attendees :-) If you are attending then keep an eye on http://blogs.msdn.com/ArchitectInsight/

Got the DM flyer though and spotted they have 4 courses coming up on .NET Framework 3.0 in April and May. DM training is invariably great fun and top notch. Please post comments if you attend... always useful to share. Shame I don't have any training...

Pluralsight have dome some very good training on our behalf and have a WCF session taking place in our training rooms in the UK next month. This should prove to be an excellent few days - not to missed if WCF is your "thang" (and why wouldn't it be!!...

In case anyone was wondering - I promise you I read every comment and publish 99% (of the none spam comments). Unfortunately the 1% is enough to convince me to leave moderation on. Hence - don't feel your efforts are ever wasted when you enter a juicy...

Spotted this new little beast - the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool. The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool is an inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that will find computers on a network and determine if they are ready to run the Windows...

The Daily Mail eReader is a downloadable WPF-based application that gives readers an easy-to-use electronic version of its Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday tabloid. The eReader is still in Beta (It has crashed a couple of times for me) but is generally very...

As part of the DinnerNow work, the team released this month the QuickStart Labs for three of the technologies used in the DinnerNow sample. In a couple of weeks time I will be having a good dig into DinnerNow - but why wait for my ramblings! From the...

DinnerNow is an application I expect to be spending a fair bit of time mulling over in March as I will be using it as part of my session at SPA 2007 . Version 1.2 has just been released (FYI - DinnerNow is getting a lot of interest over at codeplex -10000...

Matt offered up the following opinion in SAAS: for Dummies : "SaaS, at best should be viewed as a metaphor for the state of software delivery at a particular point in time (ie. now) ... SaaS is a fad; it is a metaphor that encapsulates the evolving software...

20th Feb DAY 2 of 7 On the 15th I wrote a blog entry about the SAAS workshop we are running after I realised I had at best 7 days . Doesn't time fly! Unfortunately lots of other stuff is getting between me and SAAS - and therefore I haven't made anything...

I previously posted about Sidebar Gadgets and WPF . Thanks to Andre I was pointed at Stanimir Stoyanov's Blog and his Sidebar application Sidebar Styler which adds WPF support amongst other things. Not tried it yet - but definitely worth sharing.

http://www.birdseyetourist.com/ is another site taking advantage of the great low level pictures on http://local.live.com Rather liked this one

I have seen several "community mapping sites" - but hadn't realised we had our own "in the works". Well worth a play ... Potential categories Eric could do: Best bacon sandwiches in Bath area Places where I have injured myself in the Bath...

Details and download information available at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/servicepacks/sp2.mspx . SP2 makes SQL Server 2005 fully compatible with Vista - which is great news for ISVs making use of SQL Server 2005 Express...

One of my early adopters was trying to play with the SAAS Litware sample - but didn't have a Windows Server 2003 machine "handy" which is required for Litware. After a bit of searching I found just what he needed - a downloadable Windows Server 2003 Image...

Ok - I am apparently at least 1.2 million views behind the rest of the planet - but given that still leaves a lot of us to go, I thought it would be worth pointing at http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE - 4min 31second of ..."What the heck is Web 2...

Fred and Gianpaolo "do their thing", talking about SAAS and the creation of Litware sample SAAS application - and the video editor has some fun along the way! Video: Architects in Action - The Making of LitwareHR