The world’s a lot better because of people like Bill Gates. The foundation has done so much good for the world. It’s always the ‘few of us’ that change the ‘most of us’ in this world.

Watch this video and you’ll understand what I’m saying…

-Mithun Dhar

Well, I’d have christened it a bit differently. I’d have perhaps called it the Mouse 3.0 or even 4.0…but here’s what WE mean by the next generation mouse.

You can read more about it here in the Research Papers that was published a few days ago: http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/mouse20.mspx 

The future’s more friendly!

-Mithun Dhar

Experience The New Efficiency Microsoft Launch Event Live from San Diego October 26th Virtually!
www.thenewefficiency.com/live

View and download 18 IT Professional and Developer focused live sessions from San Diego starting at 9am PDT October 26th. Focusing on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010, you can listen to Microsoft experts, download valuable resources and explore the live launch event "virtually".

Mark your calendars

Click below for more details…

Hope to see you tomorrow, virtually!

-Mithun Dhar

Click on the image above for more information.

http://bing.com/twitter

-Mithun Dhar

Interact is turning 1 year today! And, this user group is celebrating it in style. They have a Adobe vs Microsoft smack down. Well, to be more specific,

This month Ryan Stewart from Adobe and Adam Kinney from Microsoft are taking on ‘Designer and Developer Workflow’ Here’s an excerpt:

Designer and Developer Workflow

Is it a myth? Marketing lingo? Or could it be real with the help of powerful tools?

Listen in as Ryan Stewart from Adobe and Adam Kinney from Microsoft discuss the workflow concept from their respective point of views. Ryan will demonstrate how Flash Catalyst works within the Flash Platform development cycle. Adam will show how Expression Blend fits into the Silverlight development workflow

I’ll be there. Come join us…

Venue/Time/Etc…

Register: http://www.seattled2ig.org/

WHEN
Date: Wednesday, Oct 21th, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm PAC
WHERE
Bellevue Place
10500 NE 8th St.
Bellevue, WA 98004

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&where1=10500%20NE%208th%20St%2C%20Bellevue%2C%20WA%2098004-4345&encType=1

Cost
Attendence: Free.
Parking: Free.

Come join the fun! :)

-Mithun Dhar

Not all Mondays wake me with a smile. However, today I woke up knowing that I’ll be able to download and play with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. Developers subscribing to MSDN can fully experience the Beta2 and .NET 4 for themselves by visiting MSDN To download it. The rest of you should subscribe to MSDN sooner to get premium access or wait till October 21st where you can download it from Microsoft Downloads.

The following Visual Studio 2010 SKU’s are available: Professional, Premium, Ultimate, Test Essentials, Team Foundation Server, and Team Lab Management. The Key New SKU’s in this release are:

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN: the comprehensive suite of application lifecycle management tools for software teams to ensure quality results from design to deployment.

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN: a complete toolset for developers to deliver scalable, high quality applications.

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN: the essential tool for professional development tasks to assist developers in implementing their ideas easily. (Note: Visual Studio 2010 Professional will also be available without MSDN subscription)

For more information on the new packaging, licensing, and pricing of Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN, see Visual Studio.

Download: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta

‘What’s new’ Feature walk through:

Here’s a really good walkthrough of ‘What’s new’ in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework Beta 2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd441784.aspx 

Finally, Here’s a Channel 9 Video that talks about downloading and installing Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2:

10-4 Episode 33: Downloading and Installing Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 

(If you don’t already follow, here’s 10-4’s home on Channel 9: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/)

The actual launch date of VS2010 is scheduled for March 22nd 2010. Beta 2 is a significant progress as we inch closer to the launch. 

-Mithun Dhar

Thank you everyone for attending the Windows 7 launch events in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. As promised, here are the slides from the presentations, demos, demo code, demo snippets, demo notes to follow soon.

Session 1 – Taskbar and Jumplist – Windows 7

Session 1b – Trigger Start Services, Troubleshooting Platform, Libraries

Sessions 2 – Sensor and Location Platform

Session 3 – Multi-touch and Ribbon

I had an absolute blast doing these events. I hope you enjoyed it too! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

-Mithun Dhar

I Love the new Windows Live Movie Maker. If you already haven’t tried it: http://download.live.com/moviemaker (And, it ain’t gonna cost you a cent! It’s FREE!)

-Mithun Dhar

I can’t tell you how refreshing, crisp and nice Windows 7 is. The Windows team blog put out this great post today about another cool hidden gem in Windows 7. Ringtone Editor! Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make a custom Ringtone for your mobile phone. This feature is available in all flavors of Windows 7.

Click the image below to learn more about the Ringtone Editor in Windows 7.

• Check if your mobile phone is compatible with Device Stage
• Send a ringtone to your mobile phone
• Create a new ringtone

More information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Create-and-assign-a-ringtone-for-your-mobile-phone-using-Device-Stage

-Mithun Dhar

Last week Exchange 2010 was Released to Manufacturing! So for developers it is high time to get ready for this exciting release :) Exchange 2010 has some important API changes and it’s important that you understand them. Channel 9 just released a videocast series about these changes and it also includes some of the cool new Exchange Web Services Managed API 1.0.

Here is the link for you to get started: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/cmayo/Exchange-2010-and-Exchange-Web-Services-Whats-New-Webcasts/
If you haven’t already started upgrading your applications to Exchange Web Services now is a good time as several older Exchange API’s like WebDav, Store Events, CDO 3.0 and the Exchange OLE DB Provider will be depricated.

In order to help you prepare for these changes, the Exchange Platform team will conduct a series of Level 400 webcasts. Please sign up to view these webcasts:

 

10/13/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - Migrating Applications to Exchange Web Services

 

10/14/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - A Deep Dive into Using Autodiscover Service in Exchange Web Services

 

10/15/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - A Deep Dive into Impersonation and Delegation in Exchange Web Services

 

10/20/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - A Deep Dive into Exchange Web Services Notifications (Push/Pull)

 

10/21/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - A Deep Dive into the Exchange Web Services Managed API

 

10/22/2009 08:00 AM Pacific - Best Practices for Building Scalable Exchange Server Applications

If you have any specific questions, be sure to send em my way.

-Mithun Dhar