Chris Bowen's Blog : Development

Greater Buffalo IT/Dev Day – July 21

cbowen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:37:08 GMT

As Northeast Roadshow attendees know, our usual stop in western NY is Rochester (in fact we just returned from a great event there on Friday!) It’s always good to see the people who make the trip from Buffalo to attend, so I’m glad to say we have an event where Buffalo is the center of attention!

MSDN and TechNet, in partnership with the Western NY .NET Users Group, are running a free Greater Buffalo IT/Dev Day on July 21st at Daemen College in Amherst, NY.

Shamelessly copied from Jim’s post:

This IT/Dev Day comprises separate TechNet Unleashed and MSDN Unleashed events, with morning TechNet sessions focused on the IT Professional audience, and afternoon MSDN sessions geared toward the .NET developer audience. Attendees at either event (or both events!) are welcome to stay - or come early as the case may be - for a light lunch courtesy of our sponsor, PSI Professional Support Inc.

In addition to the great content outlined below, all attendees will receive a copy of the Windows 7 Release Candidate media!!

Greater Buffalo IT/Dev Day
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

107 Schenck Hall
Daemen College
4380 Main Street
Amherst, NY 14226

8:30am - 12pm
Lunch 12pm - 1pm

1pm - 4:30pm
Lunch 12pm - 1pm

Moving to the Modern OS Roadmap

In this welcome session, we will discuss some of the key challenges IT professionals face in today’s economy. We’ll talk about scenarios with Windows 2000 and Windows XP and the importance of moving to a modern OS. In addition, we will cover Windows Vista and improvements that have been made with SP2 as well as review guidance concerning Windows Vista deployments.

Developing Cloud Applications with Windows Azure

Cloud computing is one of more recent buzzwords in software development, and Microsoft has thrown its hat in the ring with Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform. You’ll discover what makes Microsoft’s unique Software + Services approach tick through discussions and demonstrations of key components like Azure storage, the .NET Service Bus, Live Services, and SQL Data Services.

Windows Security and Application/Driver Compatibility

This session discusses security, data protection with the new “Bitlocker-To-Go”, rich support tools like Reliability Monitor, Resource Monitor, Windows Recovery Environment, and the new System Restore and Problem Steps Recorder. We will also cover application control using group policy and implement simple rule structures that include working with an application to Allow, Exception or Deny the installation. We’ll also discuss Group Policy Preferences and how users can change their own policy settings.

Developing Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight

Silverlight is the technology of choice for building applications with rich features and broad reach. Using Silverlight 2 today, we’ll show you what you can accomplish with .NET and XAML to deliver a great user experience. Then, we’ll up the ante with a preview of Silverlight 3 including out-of-browser support and productivity and performance enhancements. We’ll also take a look at some of the great features in Expression Blend 3, sure to please your designer side.

Windows 7 Release Candidate

The way Microsoft develops Windows has changed. We’ll discuss the changes we have made in Windows Vista that affect Windows 7, such as hardware, and new features that work with Windows Server 2008 R2 like DirectAccess™, which provides seamless remote access to corporate network resources. We also will cover BranchCache ™, which caches content downloaded from file and web servers; users in the branch can quickly open files stored in the cache, which frees up network bandwidth for other uses.

Developing applications with Windows Mobile

With worldwide mobile phone shipments predicted to grow at a 31% rate in 2009, there’s no time like the present to bring your applications to Windows Mobile. In this session we’ll discuss the components of the Windows Mobile Platform, notably the Compact Framework and SDK, and use familiar tools and constructs in Visual Studio to build and deploy a mobile application from the ground up. There’s also a look forward to some of the great features coming in Windows Mobile 6.5.

A very special thanks to the event sponsors below for making it possible to bring this event to the Buffalo area!

Special geekSpeak on Developing Silverlight Games on May 27th

cbowen — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:18:00 GMT

The Northeast’s very own Andy Beaulieu (Silverlight guru, MVP, CNY .NET UG Lead, etc.) is connecting with Jim O’Neil and Glen Gordon to share details about developing games with Silverlight!

This episode in the MSDN geekSpeak series is May, 27th (tomorrow) from 3:00-4:00 PM EST, and features an open “radio show” style, where you can ask whatever’s questions are on your mind.

Register for the webcast here

I’ve discussed Silverlight and game development with Andy before and had the pleasure of catching some of his presentations on the subject and can say he truly knows his stuff. This promises to be a worthwhile and interesting webcast!

-Chris

P.S. If you’re looking for a little stress relief, definitely check out Andy’s latest Silverlight game, called “Boss Launch”, that he recently unveiled!

Just one of the many Silverlight games that Andy has written and made available for you to try.

Free Online Training with Microsoft Ramp Up

cbowen — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:30:10 GMT

Ramp Up is a is a free online program to help you learn new development skills. Each subject has a variety of supporting slide/code casts, articles, and hands-on labs organized in steps to guide you through learning.

Three new tracks have just been launched, brining the total to 11:

Check out www.MyRampUp.com for more.

-Chris

Free Resources and Training on MSDev.com

cbowen — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:23:48 GMT

Though specifically geared toward developers at ISVs*, the newly updated MSDev.com site has great content useful for any developer and is worth checking out.

From the ISV Developer Community blog announcement:

You will find web seminars, virtual events, live events on .NET Framework, business development, cloud computing, Exchange, Expression, high performance computing, Hyper-V, Internet Explorer, IIS, Dynamics, Office System, VSTO, SharePoint, Next Web, Web UI, Silverlight, SQL Server, Azure, Windows, Visual Studio, and much more.

You'll find unfettered, friction free access to rich media learning content for Microsoft-based solution developers and non-Microsoft based developers. In additon, the site provides developer training focused on value added partners (VAPs).

The phrase “friction free” is key, there’s no need to log in to view resources (though you can if you wish) – just easy access to the content you need.

Start with a search and take a look.

-Chris

* Independent Software Vendors

Roundup of 11 Recent Microsoft Technology Releases

cbowen — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:55:51 GMT

There have been quite a few developer and technology releases in the past couple of weeks, so in case you’ve missed any, I’ve collected pointers to 11 of them in this post:

Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)
- IE Team Post
- Release Notes
ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate 1 (RC1)
- Many new improvements including tooling, view enhancements, form post handling, unit testing, file handling, AJAX and others.
- Scott Guthrie’s Detailed Post
- Phil Haack’s Post
Updates for Windows Azure:

Windows Azure SDK January 2009 CTP
- “The Windows® Azure™ SDK provides developers with the APIs, tools, documentation, and samples needed to develop Internet-scale applications that run on Windows Azure.”
Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio January 2009 CTP

“Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio extend Visual Studio to enable the creation, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.”

Live Framework Tools January CTP

Read James Senior’s post for details and note that you’ll need to sign up for the appropriate services before you can download the CTP, described in Lynn Langit’s getting started with Azure post

Microsoft Tag Beta
- “With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no browsers to launch!"
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: BETA
- "The Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: BETA provides the documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools (including C++ compilers) that you need to develop applications to run on Windows 7 BETA and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1”
- BTW, you can access all SDK’s from this portal.
Managed Extensibility Framework Preview 4 Release
- “The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can make the shift from being statically compiled to dynamically composed. If you are building extensible applications, extensible frameworks and application extensions, then MEF is for you.”
Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3
- “The Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS) provide project templates for developers using Visual Studio 2008 to create, debug, package and deploy SharePoint projects including Web Parts, Data Lists, Content Types, Event Receivers, Templates, Modules and other SharePoint artifacts.”
Microsoft Web Platform Installer 1.0
- “The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that installs Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform.”
Microsoft Visual Studio Learning Pack 2.0
- “The Visual Studio Learning Pack 2.0 is a software package created by Microsoft to help students learn about computer programming. Improvements in this release include support for Visual Studio 2008 Express and more support for Visual Basic.”

Plus a couple of new guides for good measure:

Patterns & Practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0
XAML Guidelines Draft
- Rudi Grobler’s post (includes additional videos)

Enjoy!
-Chris

MSDN/Architecture Journal Readers and the Reader SDK

cbowen — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:48:44 GMT

Some very cool news if you're a fan of the WPF-based New York Times reader or Seattle P-I reader. We've just released the Reader SDK which you can use to quickly create similar rich applications for your own purposes.

In addition, the MSDN Magazine Reader sample application (featuring full source code) is now available, as is the Architecture Journal Reader.

Head over to WindowsClient.net for information on the Reader SDK and links to the MSDN Reader sample. The MSDN Reader lives under the name "Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit" or SCE. Head to the Architecture Journal site for more on that application [download here].

Here's a quick tour, focusing on the MSDN Reader (most of the features are shared with the Architecture Journal Reader.) As you can see, it's basically like have a magazine or newspaper right on your machine:

See an article and presto - read away!

But this goes well beyond the capabilities of mere paper. You can zoom in or out without loss of fidelity and you can add your own annotations, but I think the most important feature is search:

If you're anything like me, you come across lots of articles that you'd like to note for later reading... when you have that elusive "free time"... That's easy to do with the Readers' "Reading List" feature. First send stories to the Reading List (right-click to get the menu):

Then, open the Reading List, (by default, docked on the right-hand side) and click through to read each article (they're automatically grayed out as you view them):

And of course, the Readers both support automatic synchronization of content to support offline reading. The MSDN Reader uses the new Subscription Center beta to manage it's subscription:

The MSDN Reader and Architecture Journal Reader applications are definitely worth a look. If you have your own data/content source that you'd like to make available for display, I encourage you to take a look at the MSDN Reader code and the SCE/Reader SDK as well.

-Chris

.NET Framework Source Now Available

cbowen — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:30:54 GMT

Scott Guthrie has just posted the excellent news that everything is now in place for people to access the source code for the .NET Framework!

You can now configure Visual Studio 2008 to step through your code and directly into the source for classes in the following libraries:

.NET Base Class Libraries (including System, System.CodeDom, System.Collections, System.ComponentModel, System.Diagnostics, System.Drawing, System.Globalization, System.IO, System.Net, System.Reflection, System.Runtime, System.Security, System.Text, System.Threading, etc).

ASP.NET (System.Web, System.Web.Extensions)

Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)

Windows Presentation Foundation (System.Windows)

ADO.NET and XML (System.Data and System.Xml)

The real how-to details are on Shawn Burke's blog, including the "get me running quickly" and "I want to know even more" versions of the story.

-Chris

New MSDN and TechNet Series in the Northeast

cbowen — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:34:46 GMT

The next series of MSDN and TechNet events is coming in January and February, and there are ten events planned for the northeast. Each day is split with TechNet in the morning (8-12) and MSDN in the afternoon (1-5).

MSDN: "Explore IIS7, ASP.NET and Tackle Web Security"

Check out the latest coding solutions with like-minded developers at MSDN Events. Witness the evolution of IIS and see why IIS7 is our most extensible, manageable and secure Web platform on record. You'll learn how to extend application services - including membership, role management and navigation - from ASP.NET and how to consume them from a wide variety of clients. As a special bonus, we're also tackling the biggest security risks and clueing you in to the top counter measures available for Websites and Web applications of all kinds. Don't miss these free, live sessions that are really on your wavelength.

Falmouth, ME
Tuesday, January 8 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Boston, MA
Thursday, January 10 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Stratford, CT
Tuesday, January 15 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Burlington, MA
Thursday, January 17 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Westborough, MA
Tuesday, January 22 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Syracuse, NY
Tuesday, January 29 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Amherst, NY
Thursday, January 31 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Nashua, NH
Tuesday, February 5 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Burlington, VT
Tuesday, February 26 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

Providence, RI
Thursday, February 28 - 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Register (MSDN)

TechNet: "Secure Your Critical Data"

Step up and save the day with hot new solutions from TechNet Events. Make sure your company's private information is fully secured - even if it falls into the wrong hands - with Windows BitLocker disk encryption technology in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. You'll also learn how the new Network Policy Server Role in Windows Server 2008 enables powerful functionality in the form of Network Access Protection. Now you control who can access your network - whether wireless or wired. Sign up now for these free, live sessions in your local area.

Falmouth, ME
Tuesday, January 8 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Boston, MA
Thursday, January 10 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Stratford, CT
Tuesday, January 15 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Burlington, MA
Thursday, January 17 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Westborough, MA
Tuesday, January 22 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Syracuse, NY
Tuesday, January 29 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Amherst, NY
Thursday, January 31 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Nashua, NH
Tuesday, February 5 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Burlington, VT
Tuesday, February 26 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

Providence, RI
Thursday, February 28 - 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register (TechNet)

-Chris

GameDev Day '07 Agenda and Additions

cbowen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:31:49 GMT

GameDev Day '07 is this Saturday at Harvard and I'm very pleased with how well the agenda has come together. We have an incredibly strong group of presenters from the gaming industry with interesting sessions throughout the day.

First, a change in logistics. We are now in Emerson Hall (room 105), which is right next door to our original Sever Hall.

In exciting news, we're going to be joined by Kent Quirk and John Lester from Linden Lab (makers of Second Life) to speak about virtual worlds and technology!

Add to Kent and John our lineup of Dan Scherlis, Mark Mullin, Michael Cummings, Darius Kazemi and Derek Horton, and it's going to be a great day!

Full details are here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen/archive/2007/11/18/gamedev-day-07-boston-xna-gaming-and-game-development.aspx

There's a cool flyer that Edwin put together as well.

Session agenda:

10:15 - Welcome and Announcements (Edwin Guarin and Chris Bowen)
10:25 - Introduction to XNA (Edwin and Chris)
10:50 - Creating Your First XNA Game (Michael Cummings)
12:00 - Pizza & Open Gaming
12:50 - Creating Games - What *Really* Goes on Under the Covers (Mark Mullin and Dan Scherlis)
2:00 - Blurring the Boundaries: CSI, Second Life and You (Kent Quirk and John Lester, Linden Lab)
3:00 - Gaming Industry Q&A Panel (Dan Scherlis, Mark Mullin, Michael Cummings, Kent Quirk, Darius Kazemi).

See you on Saturday!

-Chris

Technorati tags: XNA, Harvard, Events, Cambridge, Second Life, Gaming

GameDev Day '07 Boston - XNA, Gaming, and Game Development

cbowen — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:00:26 GMT

Like games? Wonder how they're made? Want to know how to make them yourself?

Come to GameDev Day '07, a free event being hosted at Harvard University on December 1st, sponsored by Microsoft in association with the Harvard Interactive Media Group (HIMG).

The Details

What: GameDev Day '07 Boston
Who: ANYONE - students, professionals, enthusiasts - interested in learning about how games are made and the gaming industry
When: Saturday, December 1st, 10 AM - 4 PM
Where: Harvard University [directions],
Emerson Hall [map], Room 105 (Note that we moved from Sever Hall)
Cost: Free
Registration: None, but if you're on Facebook, add yourself to the event's page!

Game Development Sessions

Presentations on game development topics
Learn about virtual worlds like Second Life (from the company that created it!) and their effect on the real world
Learn to create games for the XBOX 360 and PCs with (the free) XNA Game Studio Express

Gaming Industry Experts

Open Q&A Panel
Advice on getting to game development
Careers in the Boston area

Open Gaming

Play Halo 3 and Guitar Hero on XBOX Elites

Pizza and Giveaways

Halo 3
Project Gotham Racing 4
Gears of War
Flight Simulator X Deluxe [PC]

The Agenda

10:15 - Welcome and Announcements (Edwin Guarin and Chris Bowen)
10:25 - Introduction to XNA (Edwin and Chris)
10:50 - Creating Your First XNA Game (Michael Cummings)
12:00 - Pizza & Gaming
12:50 - Creating Games - What *Really* Goes on Under the Covers (Mark Mullin and Dan Scherlis)
2:00 - Blurring the Boundaries: CSI, Second Life and You (Kent Quirk and John Lester, Linden Lab)
3:00 - Gaming Industry Q&A Panel (Dan Scherlis, Mark Mullin, Michael Cummings, Kent Quirk, Darius Kazemi)

We're going to have a great time! See you there!

-Chris

Technorati tags: XNA, Events, Gaming, Development, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Harvard

C# Day Event in Waltham on November 13th

cbowen — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:39:34 GMT

Michael de la Maza has run three very successful (and free!) C# Day events in Waltham since the summer. I'm glad to say he's ready to run another one on November 13th from 8:30 - 4:00 at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.

C# Day is a great way to take those first few steps with C# programming - no prior experience required. The day is structured much differently than traditional training events, so please take the time to read about the event at Learn2Learn2Program.com and watch the video to get an idea of what the day is like.

Attendance is free, but RSVPs are required (and have "sold out" for prior C# Days.)

I hope you have a great time!

-Chris

Technorati tags: C#, Massachusetts, Programming, Education, Training

.NET Framework Libraries - Source Code Coming!

cbowen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:02:02 GMT

Big news again from Scott Guthrie. We're announcing coming availability of the source code for the .NET Base Class Libraries!

From Scott's post:

"One of the things my team has been working to enable has been the ability for .NET developers to download and browse the source code of the .NET Framework libraries, and to easily enable debugging support in them.

Today I'm excited to announce that we'll be providing this with the .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 release later this year.

We'll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows). We'll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ). The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL)."

So, how is this different from what we as developers have been doing to date (firing up Reflector and having a look through the code)?

First, this code has comments and original variable names to aid readability. Second, sometimes there are IL constructs for which Reflector just can't determine what the original code was. Finally, integration with the debugger means you can step from your application code directly into the .NET BCL code without having to stop, fire up Reflector, and hope to find the right code for your scenario.

Clearly this is going to be good news for developers and developer productivity.

-Chris

Technorati tags: .NET, development

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Webcast Series for Becoming a Better Developer

cbowen — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:40:09 GMT

Here's a chance to take a step back from the technology treadmill and consider your career.

John Bristowe posts that my colleagues with Microsoft Canada are hosting a series of 5 webcasts, not on technology X or Y, but on the fundamentals of being a more effective developer and managing your career.

They have some excellent speakers lined up for the webcasts which run from September 11th through October 9th.

Becoming a Better Developer - September 11
Building your Skill Set - September 18
Discovering your Trusted Resources - September 25
Becoming your own Boss - October 2
Creating your Startup Business - October 9

Details and registration.

Of course, some tips may be specifically for Canadian-based developers, but I'm sure all developers regardless of technology and location would find these worthwhile.

-Chris

Technorati tags: Careers, Development

Code Camp 8: The Rise of the Silverlight Surfer

cbowen — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:18:57 GMT

The fall is rapidly approaching, and with that comes another fantastic weekend of code, technology, and developer community called Code Camp. Save the dates of September 29th and 30th for Code Camp 8: "The Rise of the Silverlight Surfer" (thanks to Andy Beaulieu for the name!) As always, CC will be held at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.

For now, just save the dates, but Registration and Call for Speakers will be coming soon!

With the incredible amount of new technology emerging, this is clearly going to be an excellent Code Camp! If you haven't been to a one before, check out the Code Camp Manifesto as well as the summary of Code Camp 7.

-Chris

Technorati tags: CodeCamps, Microsoft, New England, Massachusetts, Development, Events

Controls and Control Libraries for Silverlight

cbowen — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:14:17 GMT

Though the jury is still out on what controls we'll see in or alongside Silverlight 1.1 when it's released, there are a number of reusable controls and libraries emerging to help make development more efficient and familiar to developers used to WinForms and WebForms style programming.

The Silverlight 1.1 SDK has a set of controls with source code.
- Button, ScrollBar, ScrollViewer, Slider, ListBox
- Ashish Shetty discusses these controls (or at least an earlier version.)
Netika Tech has GOA WinForms for Silverlight
- Free standard edition, available Professional edition
- Control demos
Telerik has RadControls for Silverlight
- Newly-released Beta. Shipping in September.
- Control demos (with C#/VB and XAML source), including the very cool cube demo.
Dave Relyea has created a layout framework and controls for 1.1.
The Silverlight site has some sample 1.0 controls.
Joe Stegman posted Richard Zadorozny's "Jelly Samples" along with the 1.0 source.
Infragistics is working on Silverlight technology as well.
- A preview demo

Of course, if others made the above controls, you can create your own as well:

"How to: Create Custom Silverlight Controls" on Silverlight.net
Rob Conery has two good posts on control creation:
- "Creating a Data-Driven Control"
- "Creating a Web Service-Enabled Login Control"
Video: "How to Build a Silverlight Control" (in 1.0)
"The Basics of a Silverlight Control" by Scott Barnes
Great background reading in Ian Griffith's "Silverlight Controls and Objects"

-Chris

Technorati tags: Silverlight, Development