August 2006 - Posts

Make your own games for the XBOX 360
29 August 06 03:44 AM

This came through a couple of weeks ago (before Tech Ed anyway), but I'm just getting to it. You may have heard of XNA? XNA is a development framework for developing games for Windows and XBOX 360. We announced a few weeks ago XNA Game Studio Express Read More...

Postedby dburling | 2 Comments    

Microsoft Office and ODF
25 August 06 09:48 AM

When I did my presentation on Open XML File Formats at TechEd someone asked me afterwards something to the effect of "What is the Microsoft stance on ODF". Without getting into a bitter debate about pros and cons (a subject for better informed people Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

New Windows Vista security blog
25 August 06 06:33 AM

I was just looking at Jeff Jones' security blog and noticed this post where he links to a new blog addressing Windows Vista Security. The first few blogs include things like Windows Vista Security Testing , An introduction to kernel patch protection and Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Tech Ed 2006 Summary
25 August 06 06:09 AM

Its a few days in coming, but here is my summary of Tech Ed 2006. I spent quite a bit of time talking to attendees. I found that developers tended to like the keynote, while infrastructure types didn't really like it much. The keynote was oriented around Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 released
25 August 06 02:46 AM

Overnight we released the Release Candidate of Internet Explorer 7. You can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/nz/windows/ie/default.mspx . Again - this install is only for Windows XP - Vista will have it baked into an upcoming build. More details are Read More...

Postedby dburling | 1 Comments    

Live from LiveWriter
24 August 06 11:08 AM

I've finally managed to get around to installing LiveWriter. LiveWriter is a installable piece of software that you can download and install for writing blog entries. Basic features: Works with lots of blog engines (including WordPress, Blogger, Live Read More...

Postedby dburling | 1 Comments    

Tech Ed New Zealand Presentations hit the web
24 August 06 06:53 AM

The first batch of Presentations from Tech Ed New Zealand have hit the TechEd NZ website. More are coming online, but you can search through whats currently available here . Also - regarding Hands on labs, we will be making the guides available soon. Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Richard McManus interviews George Moore
24 August 06 03:14 AM

Richard McManus was at Tech Ed this week and interveiwed George Moore - GM of Live.com. Richard asks some great questions about Microsofts vision for gadgets , and even mentions something I spoke about in my talk with George. The interview is here - its Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Introduction to live.com Video
24 August 06 01:27 AM

While at Tech Ed I shot a short video introducing live.com, what you can do with it and I also talked a little bit about getting started developing for live.com . The video is up on TechEdLive in the vidoes section - click here to go directly to the video. Read More...

Postedby dburling | 3 Comments    

RadioNetwork Gadgets for Live.com
23 August 06 03:49 AM

The RadioNetwork (the guys who operate ZM FM , Newstalk ZB , Classic Hits , Flava and a number of other radio stations in New Zealand have been getting some new gadgets up and running. If you were at the session George and I presented on Monday, you would Read More...

Postedby dburling | 1 Comments    

Open XML File Format sample applications
23 August 06 12:03 AM

I've just finished my last presentation for Tech Ed 2006 (phew). At the end of my presentation I showed an application for assembling documents from existing documents programatically. I need to tidy this application up, but after I'm done I'll post it Read More...

Postedby dburling | 5 Comments    

How to add the Weather gadget to live.com
22 August 06 01:01 PM

Someone asked me today how to get the Weather gadget on to live.com if your locale is set to New Zealand. Here's how. First up, change your locale to English (United States) (click settings in the top right corner and select the language from the drop Read More...

Postedby dburling | 1 Comments    

Tech Ed Day 2 - I love feedback
22 August 06 12:42 PM

Day two has just finished for me. The party went well, everybody I spoke to was enjoying themselves and all the positive replies I got were emphatic - particularly as the night wore on. The Feelers rocked the house and everyone had a good time. I have Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Tech Ed Day 1 - Live Contacts and my summar
21 August 06 10:22 AM

What a day! Tech Ed has started with a roar. Its been a busy day with lots happening - in fact I was talking to Peter about something that happened yesterday - it feels like a week ago! So the keynote was pretty good this morning. George Moore (GM of Read More...

Postedby dburling | (Comments Off)    

Live.com in NZ - is it being used?
20 August 06 12:43 PM

I was checking some rankings for Alexa today and decided to see what the top sites in NZ were as far as Alexa was concerned. I was surprised to see that Live.com was ranked the number 9 website for New Zealand . I say I was surprised because, while I Read More...

Postedby dburling | 3 Comments    

Looking to deploy your app to Vista? Dont use MSDE!
16 August 06 12:03 AM

If you are using MSDE in any applications that you want to have running on Windows Vista, you'll need to be aware that Microsoft are not planning to support MSDE or SQL Server 2000 running on Windows Vista. If your application does require a database Read More...

Postedby dburling | 3 Comments    

Jesper isn’t coming, but...
14 August 06 01:14 AM

Jesper has blogged that he won't be coming to Tech Ed in New Zealand , Australia or Japan this year. This is sad news that will disappoint many of you who were hoping to hear Jesper speak in New Zealand one last time. Jesper is always a crowd favourite Read More...

Postedby dburling | 3 Comments    

Tech Ed – your planning helps us – and you!
11 August 06 12:43 AM

This is the editorial for this edition of the MSDN Flash which will go out early next week. It's important so I thought I'd post it here too... We all know that Tech Ed is only a week away and everyone here in the DPE team is stretched to the max to make Read More...

Postedby dburling | 5 Comments