Silverlight 4 Beta was recently unveiled at the PDC in Los Angeles (http://microsoftpdc.com), continuing the rapid pace of innovation for the Silverlight platform.  In addition, ASP.NET MVC Beta 2 was released, which introduces improved Visual Studio tooling support, extensible client validation and lots of other features that help developers build Web sites and applications faster.

 Silverlight

Silverlight helps companies design, develop and deliver engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop and mobile applications when online of offline.  Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET Framework compatible with multiple broswers, devices and platforms.  With printing support, rich reporting and charting, and integration with back-end systems and server products including Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), the Silverlight 4 Beta delivers a full suite of powerful features to application developers, bringing innovative platform capabilities to browser-based experiences.

For more information, see http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC is a free, fully supported framework that enables developers to quickly build standards-based, SEO-riendly Web sites by offering complete control over the HTML and URLs.

For more information, see http://www.asp.net/mvc

I'll just post here my email to BizSpark startups this morning

 Dear BizSpark Startups and Network Partners,

We have kicked off PDC last night, in case you haven’t catched it, you can keep up by going to http://microsoftpdc.com/ .  There were a bunch of exciting announcements.  And one that I would like to share with you is this the announcement of our BizSpark One program and free Windows Azure for BizSpark start-ups.  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/nov09/11-17PDCBizSpark.mspx

I’ll paste the relevant parts for you –

Casting a Finer Net: Introducing BizSpark One

Building on the momentum gained by BizSpark over the past year, Microsoft is now turning its focus to expanding the reach and fine-tuning the offerings of the program. At PDC 2009, Microsoft will announce multiple extensions to its existing lineup of startup-centric offerings.

The biggest announcement concerns BizSpark One, the newest extension to the BizSpark program. BizSpark One has been designed to catalyze the growth of selected high-potential startups through a one-on-one relationship with Microsoft and a global community of advisors, investors and peers. At the time of launch, BizSpark One will be available in 10 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.

“The idea behind BizSpark One is to cast a finer net using Silicon Valley best practices, and then lift the net up to find the startups that are most likely to succeed in the market and shape the industry’s future,” says Lewin. “Following the filtering process, our local subsidiaries in 10 countries will partner with the corporate team to help these startups to become the ‘ones to watch’ within the BizSpark program.”

Windows Azure, at No Cost

Another announcement at PDC 2009 is the offering of free Windows Azure platform cloud computing use. Today at PDC, a number of new features in Windows Azure will be made available for the first time. To kick-start development on this platform, BizSpark partners will receive 750 free compute hours per month for eight months.

Lewin anticipates this offer will serve as a powerful incentive for startups to innovate with the Windows Azure platform. “Windows Azure is a new architecture and we’re bound to see some visionary entrepreneurs building trailblazing solutions and illustrating new capabilities with that in mind.”

France-based Lokad, a software development company that delivers forecasting technologies, has enjoyed a fruitful association with BizSpark since the day the program was launched in Paris in November 2008. Joannes Vermorel, founder of Lokad, says that BizSpark helped the startup catch the attention of some large companies, and Lokad’s scalability-driven migration to Windows Azure this year has been instrumental in delivering a more compelling software-plus-services application to customers.

“While our highlight in 2009 was the successful porting of our technology to Windows Azure, next year we are poised to extend our solutions to a level that would not be conceivable without cloud computing,” says Vermorel. “No doubt, our ongoing relationship with BizSpark will propel us forward and guide us on how to better market our technology.”

And here are a bunch of other announcements which you’ll probably be seeing on the web – (you may also want to check my Twitter account and Jonathan’s for a blow by blow account of the announcements last night - @chrispogeek and @armchairdude)

-          Microsoft setting up a data centre in Singapore (and Hongkong) to serve Asia

-          Announcing Windows Azure Virtual Machine (finally!)

-          There was a FOSS demo on Azure – Wordpress, MySQL, Apache

-          Microsoft Pinpoint – directory of qualified IT companies/software solutions built on Microsoft technologies

-          Code “Dallas” – Repository of datasets from businesses, easily accessible by applications (wow)

-          Ah heck there’s lots of announcements - check the site or our tweets here - @armchairdude @chrispogeek (http://twitter.com)

By the way the streaming early this morning was flawless!  Silverlight / IIS 7 smooth-streaming baby.

It’s not over yet! You can catch the 2^nd day keynotes tonight!  More announcements – http://microsoftpdc.com

Catch you all again soon.  I’ll be busy preparing for my presentation tomorrow at the New Efficiency Launch.  I’ll update you guys once more info comes in.

P.S. One of our BizSpark start-ups is now in PDC, flown there by the Code7Contest team because they submitted an entry (remember that Windows 7 contest I was telling you about that would get you a chance to win $US 17,777 ?).  We think they might be one of the finalists so keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks,

Chris

November 5, 2009 - Microsoft.NET Services: November CTP SDK

The November CTP represents the complete feature set that will be available at the PDC conference from both the Service Bus and Access Control Service when the Windows Azure platform becomes commercially available.

The Service Bus and Access Control service make it easier to connect applications and services in the cloud and on-premises.  The Service Bus helps applications and services communicate across network and organizational boundaries, and the Access Control Service helps create secure authorization for your apps, services and users.

Resources for learning more about .NET Services and the Windows Azure platform are available here:

·         Microsoft .NET Services SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/developers/dotnetservices/

·         Microsoft .NET Services general information: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/dotnetservices/

·         Microsoft .NET Services Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/netservices.aspx

·         Microsoft .NET Services on Twitter: @dotnetservices

·         Windows Azure platform web site: http://www.windowsazure.com

November 11, 2009 - SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP

SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers several breakthrough capabilities that will enable your organization to scale database operations with confidence, improve IT and developer efficiency, and enable highly scalable and well managed Business Inteligence on a self-service basis for your users.  Download the SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP here.

November 10, 2009 - Sharepoint 2010 Training Courses on Channel 9 

Check out new SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Course on Channel 9. This training course contains 14 training units covering all aspects of developing solutions on the SharePoint 2010 platform using Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010. SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform for developers to rapidly build solutions using familiar tools while leveraging a rich set of out of the box features. Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 make developers more productive and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server delivers support for application lifecycle management. Developers can integrate Line of Business data in SharePoint 2010 with read/write capability delivered by Business Connectivity Services. Sandboxed Solutions can be deployed to a shared hosting environment to limit the impact of unpredictable code to the other applications in use.

November 11, 2009 - Windows Server 2008 R2 Trainings

New R2 Learning Center

New R2 Developer Training Kit – Learning Center Edition

Download the Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) Developer Training Kit.   The kit includes self-paced hands-on-lab exercises with corresponding video resources on the new Channel9 Learning Center.  Topics include:

·         “Many-Core” Application Scale

·         VHD and Hyper-V API’s

·         Designed for Efficiency

·         Extreme Web Services

·         The Extensible Web Platform

November 11, 2009 - Office 2010 Workshop on Channel 9

All New Office 2010 Developer Training Course

The Office 2010 Workshop is one of the new developer training courses to debut on Channel 9 today. The release of this course consists of 29 videos with presentations and demos on Office 2010 development. That’s around 4.5 hours of content! The training course includes these units:

·         Office 2010 Developer Roadmap

·         Office UI Customization

·         Office Client Workflow

·         Security and Deployment

·         Business Connectivity Services

·         Developing BI Applications

·         Open XML

·         Office 2010 Services

·         InfoPath 2010 and Forms Services

Well I'll be... A cool way to promote your .NET application, and a chance to win over $16,000.  Nice.  Check out the site.  Here's the more important info :P

Check out what's cookin' here at Microsoft Singapore during our BizSpark Startup Night...

Check out the MSDN Singapore page for more pictures and to get updates on future events! (in the Latest Updates and News Section)

Awesome!

 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

And here it is after install, slick!

My job here at Microsoft entails a lot of field work.  It provides me with an opportunity to escape the four walls of the office, put my ear on the ground and hear what people really think about our technologies.  Interestingly enough, the stuff I love to hear most about are sentiments that border between "doubtful" and "convinced".  Given that Windows 7 has gotten a lot of positive buzz, it is still no exception.  The most common question I get from developers is - "Are my apps in XP going to run on Windows 7?"  Don't get me wrong, they have valid reasons to be on XP.  Most of them have business justifications on staying with XP.  But you have to admit, it's a better question to ask than "Why would I bother running my apps on Windows 7" ;)

With Windows 7, the buzz has caught on.  And rethinking their platform investments seems a much more logical direction.  Windows after all is run by more than 90 something percent of people in the planet :P  It's a sound investment.  So are your XP apps going to run? 

I dug through my Inbox and  found an excellent video tutorial on how you can make sure your apps will run on XP.  It's not complicated as many would think.  It's excellent for those who are troubleshooting their apps and find themselves greeted with a random Warning or Error pop up box.  Most of us would probaby just throw our hands up in the air and give up in that situation.  You can count me out, because watching this video gave me tons of simple tweaks, code changes, and options that I can recommend to people when they're stuck.  Made me look like I actually know what I'm talking about.  That's cool.

http://www.msdev.com/Directory/Description.aspx?eventId=1196