Chris Bowen's Blog : Training

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

XAMLFest Boston 5/27 – 5/28… and Online

cbowen — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:42:38 GMT

XAMLFest events are a great (and free) way to learn about Silverlight and WPF through a combination of presentations and instructor-led hands-on lab work.

XAMLFest Boston is coming to the NERD facility (One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA) on May 27th & 28th, and will be the last XAMLFest in the northeast this fiscal year.

John Pelak has the full details via the ISV Developer Community Blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2009/05/05/you-re-invited-to-xamlfest-boston-may-27-may-28.aspx

This event, like past ones, is already filling up and will reach capacity, so act quickly if you know you can attend!

XAMLFest Online

Because this event series has been so popular, filling up each time, the team is taking XAMLFests to the web to help reach more designers and developers.

XAMLFest Online will be held June 1-5, featuring a syllabus with two live sessions each day supplemented with recorded content.

Bruce Kyle has the details at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2009/05/10/join-for-xamlfest-recorded-sessions-online-live-june-1-5.aspx

Enjoy becoming XAMLized!

-Chris

SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit Now Available

cbowen — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:51:18 GMT

The SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit, a useful collection of presentations, demos, and hands-on labs for learning about SQL Server 2008 from a developer’s perspective is now available.

The SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit will help you understand how to build web applications which deeply exploit the rich data types, programming models and new development paradigms in SQL Server 2008.

Overview and Benefits
The training kit offers the following benefits:

Learn how to build web applications that exploit the unique features and capabilities of SQL Server 2008.

Provides a comprehensive set of presentations, demos and hands-on labs

Designed for web developers who are already familiar with SQL Server application development.

Easy to download and install and works on free editions of SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Contents
The training kit includes the following content:

Presentations (6)

Filestream

Spatial

T-SQL

Date and Time Types

SQLCLR

Reporting Services

Demos (12)

AdventureWorks Racing All-Up SQL Server 2008 Demo

SQL Server 2008 All-Up Spatial Demo

Spatial Types Demo

Intro to Filestream Demo

SQL CLR Nullable Types Demo

Programming with Filestream Demo

Reporting Services Web Application Integration Demo

Date and Time Support in SQL Server 2008 Demo

T-SQL Table-Valued Parameters Demo

T-SQL Row Constructors Demo

T-SQL Grouping Sets Demo

T-SQL Merge Demo

Hands-on Labs (3)

Using Spatial Data in TSQL

Using Spatial Data in Managed Code

Using SQL CLR in SQL Server 2008

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

Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4.0 Training Kit Available

cbowen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:40:36 GMT

If you're interested in learning more about the what's coming in the VS 2010/.NET 4.0 wave, check out the "Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4.0 Training Kit" (November Preview):

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including: C# 4.0, Visual Basic 10, F#, Parallel Computing Platform, WCF, WF, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX 4.0, ASP.NET MVC Dynamic Data.

The kit will be expanded and updated periodically as final release approaches, but here's what the kit currently contains:

Presentations:
- Overview of the .NET Framework 4.0
- Overview of the Visual Studio 2010
Hands-On Labs:
- Visual Studio 2010: Office Programmability
- Visual Studio 2010: Test Driven Development
- Parallel Extensions: Building Multicore Applications with .NET
- Introduction To Managed Extensibility Framework
- ASP.NET AJAX
- ASP.NET Dynamic Data
- Intro To Project "Velocity"
- Intro To F#

To try these labs, you can download a VPC with the CTP of .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 here. (You can also check out Brian Keller's post on a faster way to download large VPCs.)

BTW, there's a similar Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Training Kit as well.

-Chris

P.S. This is exactly the kind of the stuff you'll hear about at the MSDN Developer Conference series from December through February!

Silverlight 1.0 Fire Starter Now Online

cbowen — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:40:45 GMT

Silverlight Fire Starter was a one-day event held in Redmond late last year to cover a wide range of Silverlight topics. Now you can access the same content for the hard-to-argue-with price of free:

www.visitmix.com/University/silverlight/firestarter/

There are eight sessions available:

An Introduction to Silverlight - Mithun Dhar
Getting Started Programming Silverlight - Jesse Liberty
Workflow of Silverlight with Expression and Visual Studio - Arturo Toledo
Silverlight XAML - Laurence Moroney
A Development Story - Adam Kinney
Media, Markers and More - Ernie Booth
Popfly and Silverlight - Adam Nathan
Silverlight in the Future - Ernie Booth

You can watch the sessions via the site or download them for offline viewing/listening (as WMV, WMA, or MP3).

-Chris

Visual Studio 2008 and Training Kit Released!

cbowen — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:04:26 GMT

Visual Studio 2008 & .NET 3.5

We've just announced the RTM (release to manufacturing) of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5! MSDN subscribers can download the English versions now, plus there are trial editions and the Express editions available as well.

Where to get it? Visit the Visual Studio Developer Center.

It's going to be a big blogging day. Check out some detail posts:

Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit

We've also released a fantastic resource (that was formerly only available within Microsoft) for developers to learn about Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. Download the Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit, which contains many presentations, hands-on labs, and demos covering a variety of topics (including LINQ, C# 3.0, VB 9, and much more.)

Videos from the presentations are also working their way onto Channel 9. David Aiken has a helpful post with more details.

Learn More at the Roadshow!

If you live the in the northeastern U.S., you can also learn about Visual Studio 2008, LINQ, and more by coming to one of our Roadshow events in December.

Enjoy!
-Chris

Technorati tags: Visual Studio, .NET

MIX University Expands with a Free WPF Bootcamp Course

cbowen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:45:57 GMT

Tim Sneath posted about a great new addition to the already strong lineup of training available at MIX University.

Now you can access a full three-day WPF training course (over 20 hours) for the low cost of free. From Tim:

"You'll hear a keynote from Ian Ellison-Taylor, the general manager responsible for WPF, Silverlight and client platform tools; introductory sessions on core WPF topics from external luminaries like Ian Griffiths; depth training by talented and knowledgeable speakers from the product group such as Beatriz Costa and Kevin Moore; and lastly, five sessions on real-world experiences from early adopters who built applications ranging from The North Face kiosk application to the new Yahoo Messenger client."

MIX University now has free videos, demos, quickstarts, and labs for the following technologies:

Silverlight
WPF
ASP.NET AJAX
Sidebar & Live Gadgets
Expression
Internet Explorer Extensions
Media Center
RSS
Virtual Earth
Windows CardSpace

Definitely worth a click to take a look.

-Chris

Technorati tags: WPF, Training, MIX, Education

Upcoming Professional Developer Training Courses

cbowen — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:56:59 GMT

As Summer draws to an end, developer training courses are gearing back up. Here are some third-party training options coming to the New England area:

DevelopMentor's Essential .NET 2.0 with C#

August 20 - 24, Boston, MA
"You will leave this course with a clear view of what .NET does (and does not) do, and how to start designing and building robust applications that take maximum advantage of the platform while avoiding common traps and pitfalls."

DevelopMentor's Essential BizTalk Server 2006

August 27 - 31, Boston, MA
"For developers who have experience with .NET, XML and Web Services and want to learn how to use BizTalk 2006 to build application integrations."

DevelopMentor's Essential Windows Presentation Foundation

August 27 - 31, Boston, MA
"Learn to use WPF to write compelling user interfaces that include documents, media, and user interaction and be able to take advantage of the new features of the platform including XAML, styling, templates and commands."

Wintellect's Mastering .NET Debugging

August 29-30, Online Course with John Robbins
"Mastering .NET Debugging teaches an approach to debugging that has proven to help companies ship better code faster. Additionally, the course gives you the leg up necessary to truly take advantage of the new debuggers and tools in Visual Studio .NET 2005 so you have a better chance of successfully deploying your first applications. Finally, this course discusses performance tuning in the .NET environment"

Wintellect's Advanced ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET AJAX

September 12-13, Online Course with Jeff Prosise
"Beneath the surface of ASP.NET 2.0 are numerous features such as expression builders, virtual path providers, and asynchronous pages that many developers have never heard of. These features are augmented by ASP.NET AJAX. Take your ASP.NET expertise to the next level by learning about key (and often undocumented) ASP.NET extensibility points and programming models, and by learning how to add AJAX magic to your web apps."

DevelopMentor's Programming C#

September 17 - 21, Boston, MA
"This course provides in-depth knowledge of the C# language and an introduction to the .NET platform. Mastery of the language syntax lets you spend your time building applications instead of fighting the compiler."

Ted Pattison Group's Great SharePoint Adventure

September 17-21, Boston, MA
"The first half of GSA focuses on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) where students learn how develop fundamental WSS building blocks such as Features, application pages, site pages, Web Parts, custom list types, site columns, content types, custom workflows, site definitions and solution packages. The second half of the week focuses on developing with SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) where students learn how to assemble and configure business solutions by using and extending the portal and web content management features of MOSS as well as other server-side services such as the Business Data Catalog, Forms Services, Excel Services and Report Center."

Pluralsight's Double Feature: WCF+WF at the Microsoft Technology Center

September 24 - 28, Microsoft Technology Center, Waltham, MA
"Limited training time? Need to learn more than one technology? Come learn about WCF and WF from two top experts, Aaron Skonnard and Matt Milner."

DevelopMentor's .NET Architecture & Design 2.0

September 24 - 28, Boston, MA
"Through discussion, demonstration and hands-on experience, this class provides essential and practical information for designers and senior developers building robust, reliable, high-performance distributed .NET applications."

Wildermuth/Dunn Silverlight Tour

October 3-5, Boston, MA
"The Silverlight Workshop is a soup-to-nuts breakdown of Silverlight. This includes learning the ins and outs of XAML, hosting in the browser, the tools and using Silverlight on the server. The class utilizes Silverlight 1.0 RC and Silverlight 1.1 Alpha as well as the latest toolset from Microsoft (including Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio)."

Pluralsight's Double Feature: ASP.NET AJAX + Silverlight

October 22 - 26, Microsoft Technology Center, Waltham, MA
"Limited training time? Need to learn more than one technology? Come learn about ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight from two top experts, Fritz Onion and Ian Griffiths."

[Update 8/27 - Added Wintellect's online offerings.]
[Update 8/31 - Added Ted Pattison Group offering.]

Technorati tags: Training, Events, Boston, New England, Third-Party