To get a flavour of what to expect, check out the preliminary list of representative sessions that only hints at the 160+ sessions to be covered at PDC2008. Initial topics include software plus services, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, a deep dive on Silverlight and its graphics pipelines, how we architected and built SQL Server Data Services for scale, building for Live Mesh, the future of our developer tools, and lessons learned by running Team Foundation Server inside Microsoft (where we have over 33 million files!). And we’ll do it all PDC-style: so deeply technical that your brain will hurt. Based on your feedback, we’re including more 400-level, deep technical content this year. We’ll also have hands-on labs where you can work directly with our latest bits.
· Microsoft PDC on
· Stay connected to PDC via
· Post and explore PDC2008 images on
· Follow PDC2008 news on the PDC blog
Enterprise Library is a collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development challenges (such as logging, validation, caching, exception handling, and many others). Application blocks are a type of guidance encapsulating Microsoft recommended development practices; they are provided as source code plus documentation that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on complex, enterprise-level line-of-business development projects.
What's New in v4.0?
This release of Enterprise Library includes the following:
– Integration with the Unity Application Block
– Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) 2.0 support and improved instrumentation
– Performance improvements (particularly, in the Logging Application Block)
– Pluggable Cache Managers
– Visual Studio 2008 support
– Bug fixes
Note: existing public APIs (v3.1) are still supported.
The Application Block Software Factory and the Strong Naming Guidance Package are not included in this release but are available as a separate download. Thus, there is no longer a dependency on Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX).
For the detailed list of all changes, see About This Release of Enterprise Library.
If you are new to the Enterprise Library:
− read the Introduction to the Enterprise Library;
− download, compile and run the QuickStart samples—study the code;
− read through the related QuickStart Walkthroughs and “Key Scenarios” sections of the documentation;
− practice the Hands-On Labs;
− join the webcast in June 2008 (the exact date will be announced on the Enterprise Library landing page).
If you already know and love the Enterprise Library:
− check out the change log for this release;
− upgrade to V4.0—no code change is required—simply update the references to the corresponding application block assemblies and to the common assemblies;
− download the updated QuickStarts and run through the Unity-integrated examples to get the flavor of new dependency injection style of using the Enterprise Library;
Did you see the Ted video that Clare linked to a few weeks back of Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope? If you didn’t, you should go check it out – it’s seriously impressive.
The WWT has been only available internally up until today, and now there is a public beta you can try yourself. Be sure you check the system requirements before trying to install it on your machine. I can also say from personal experience that it’s maybe not the smoothest app over a USB modem on my train to Belfast this morning. :-)
If you’re not at all familiar with the WorldWide Telescope, it’s an amazing piece of technology being built in Microsoft Research Labs to let your computer act as a virtual telescope to see guided tours of the sky. It is something you just have to see to understand, so go watch the Ted talk, and then go to the WorldWide Telescope site and download the application to being creating your own tours and see the universe as you never have before.
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
If you need to learn about Architecture, Deployment and Operations essentials of Dynamics CRM then I think you'll find this white paper very useful. It gives a good overview of the platform capabilities and the opportunities for ISVs to plug-in to the platform, your options for deployment (on-premise/partner-hosted/Dynamics CRM Online) and finally data analysis capabilities
You can learn more about building on the platform at http://www.innovateonmicrosoftdynamics.com and if you work for an ISV in Ireland / Northern Ireland contact me me for some other great (and free) resources.
Via Laurent I came across this excellent site showing off a cool new application called the “Patient Journey Demonstrator.” It’s a healthcare application with end-to-end scenarios for patient data, medical professional interaction, and medical administration.
This is a wonderful answer to the question I’ve get asked a lot (still): I’ve seen the shiny video players, now where are the real world applications? This healthcare site shows off how well Silverlight works as a full-blown application platform. I am looking forward to more applications like this one coming out very shortly.
In the image below, for example, we have a schedule of client appointments and live ECG running. When I clicked on the Exercise test results, I had DeepZoom on the test result graphs, which was really incredible to see. Definitely go have a look at the applications here – they are very impressive.
To find out more about this application along with the Microsoft Health Common User Interface (which is available for you to download the source on codeplex.com), go check it out here: http://www.mscui.net/PatientJourneyDemonstrator/
Check it out – there is a cool new gadget with content from Channel 8, downloadable for your Vista machine. It flips through the latest content on channel8. When you click on an item that grabs your interest, you will get more information as well as have a pointer to the page for additional details. The pop-out might include images, videos, more content from a blog post, etc.
If you’re not familiar with http://channel8.msdn.com, it’s Microsoft’s community website for students. It has blog posts about new technology, videos, information on software programs like DreamSpark, and news about student-related events like the Imagine Cup. The content is quite varied and might go anywhere from new programming languages, updating Zune software, videos about using Live Mesh, interviews with developers, what’s going on with Microsoft Research, building a custom PC and more – there’s something there for all interests.
To get the Channel 8 gadget, you can install from the Windows Live Gallery here: http://gallery.live.com/LiveItemDetail.aspx?li=ae5fede5-e5ed-49af-85a5-d357580c1e2b. And of course, it’s free.
For the fourth episode of the Microsoft Ireland podcast, I respond to some user requests for information regarding all the noise being made about Live Mesh.
Thanks to t r y ^ d for the use of their music.
Resources for further information:
Live Mesh Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/livemesh/
Gillmor Gang Podcast with David Treadwell: http://gillmorgang.techcrunch.com/2008/04/25/gillmor-gang-042508/
Channel 9 Live Mesh Videos: http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/LiveMesh
Alan Crowley from DeCare Systems in Cork is in Dublin for the evening to talk with the Microsoft SQL Server User Group. The discussion is on “Visual Studio for Database Professionals”, and includes the following topics:
More information can be found at the SQL Server User Group website here: http://www.sql.mtug.ie/
Want to protect your .NET code from reverse engineering?
Obfuscation is better than nothing, but it doesn't go far enough.
Encryption? Well the encrypted MSIL has to be decrypted before the CLR can handle it, meaning there's an opportunity for a hacker to obtain the key.
Code splitting, where you deliver sensitive parts of your application on external hardware such as a smart card or a dongle offers a higher level of protection, but it has disadvantages (expense, inconvenience and not least pushing out updates or patches!).
Software Licensing and Protection Services can help you protect, package, license, sell and control your software.
To protect your IP you can select certain functionality for one-way transformation, and this transformed code runs within a secure virtual machine (SVM), with each vendor receiving a unique SVM as shown below:
In a nutshell, your transformed code remains permanently unreadable. Check out the below video for more details, plus an overview of the licensing and activation functionality which gives you feature-level control/activation. Nice!
Check out Windows Live Maps where you can now zoom in to Birds' eye views of
· Dublin
· Carlow
· Cork
· Galway
· Limerick
· Navan
· Wexford
The level of detail is very impressive For example, here's Microsoft Building 3 (Atrium B) (be sure to select Bird's eye view). To see it in action, take a look at the below video:
If you, like me, were really bummed that you didn’t make it to Mix08 in Las Vegas this year, get excited! We are bringing Mix to you!
Mix Essentials is a one-day event being held in the National College of Ireland on Friday, May 23rd. It’s completely free and includes speakers from Microsoft Corp, Conchango in the UK, and all over. This event is for web designers and developers and includes some unique talks like “Virgins, Spaceships and Total Experience Design”, “Beauty and the Geek”, the new MVC framework, and more, not to mention keynote speaker Lou Carbone on “Getting Clued in to Experience Management.”
I’m really thrilled to get to host this event right here in Dublin. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be announcing some additional surprises for the event to help make it more unique and fun, including giveaways and on-site activities.
Go learn more about the event, check out the agenda and register here: http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/mix08/default.html. Register soon, as we have a strict capacity in the venue. Please let me know if you have any questions. See you at Mix Essentials!
If you watch any of the flavours of CSI you'll probably get a kick out of this article which describes how the show's forensic scientists attempt to recreate a crime scene using hundreds of photos taken from a camera phone. The technology used to stitch them together? Photosynth.
What about using geospatial data types in SQL 2008 to map out all the crime scenes and overlay them on Virtual Earth, a la:
Or maybe Mapcruncher to overlay an aerial view with custom info? Or...? Could be fun ideas to play around with, maybe I'll give it a whirl...