.net DEvHammer

MSDN Flash Editorial for March 15th, 2010

gduthie — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:31:00 GMT

A bit late in posting this, as I just got back from MIX10, but here’s my local editorial for the MSDN Flash newsletter for Mid-Atlantic:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff458328.aspx

There’s info on our current MSDN Roadshow tour, upcoming Code Camps, this weekend’s Southern Maryland GiveCamp, and more.

You can subscribe to the MSDN Flash here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa570311.aspx

WCF RIA Services Release Candidate Available

gduthie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Here at MIX, the RC of WCF RIA Services has been announced.

You can find out more about updates in the RC to ease deployment of RIA Services applications here.

And Brad Abrams’ announcement of the availability of WCF RIA Services RC is here.

UPDATE: Just talked to Brad, and wanted to clarify that the WCF RIA Services RC is only for Silverlight 4, and since Silverlight 4 RC does not have a go-live license, you should consider whether you need to support any current Silverlight 3 apps before installing on base hardware. You may want to install the SL4 bits on a test machine or VM.

The good news is that Silverlight 4 should release within a month, so there’s not long to wait before you can go live on the above releases.

MIX10 Day 2 Keynote Liveblog

gduthie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:01:03 GMT

Going to try the liveblogging thing again…on wifi this time, so hopefully it holds up…stay tuned!

11:03am – and duct tape…the hardware is a prototype that’s literally stuck together with duct tape…which is awesome.

11:00am – the keynote comes full circle with the Project Gustav / Wacom hardware-software combo, as a demonstration of the potential for NUI. A computer interface that behaves just like paints on canvas…mixing on a palette, smudging with fingers, varying brushes, charcoal, and more. Amazing possibilities.

10:54am – Using Visual Distortions in the live presentation to represent some of the concepts of what NUI needs to cope with…wonder how this translates on the live feed?

10:48am – Buxton talking music, and relative cost/value in our industry, relative to NUI. Playing a Yamaha WX7 wind controller…awesome. Always wanted one of those, though I’m not a wind player.

10:42am – Bill Buxton on stage to close out the keynote.

10:35am – bringing in Windows Phone to demo how Dallas makes data mashups really easy and powerful. You can get listed on the Dallas marketplace, complete with your own terms of service, pricing, etc.

10:32am – moving on to Codename “Dallas”, a marketplace for oData feeds, making it possible for developers to easily discover interesting feeds, and for feed providers to monetize their feeds.

10:28am – SQL Azure makes it possible to expose an oData feed for your database with a single checkbox. Wow.

10:25am – Want to create your own oData service? Just use the WCF Data Service template in Visual Studio 2010.

10:22am – more info and client downloads for oData at http://www.odata.org/.

10:20am – announcing oData support on iPhone. Program against oData sources in Objective C. Also announcing that SharePoint 2010 and Excel will both support oData, including SharePoint data exposed via oData.

10:18am – Demonstrating an oData client running on the Palm Pre.

10:12am – demoing rich querying via URL conventions against the Netflix catalog, and return the results as either XML or JSON.

10:09am – Netflix announces a live oData feed for their collections at http://odata.netflix.com/.

10:04am – Doug Purdy is on to talk about the Open Data Protocol, or oData, which underlies WCF Data Services.

9:50am – Reminder about WebSiteSpark and BizSpark programs, supporting web professionals and startups with free software for 3 years, with no obligation after the program. Get your business up and running on the Microsoft platform.

9:53am – Microsoft loves jQuery. We ship it in MVC, provide CDN support for it, as well as product support when used with ASP.NET MVC. Microsoft is announcing today that we are providing coding and testing/QA resources for jQuery. John Resig comes on to talk about it.

9:41am – Scott Hanselman is on to demo Visual Studio 2010, demoing an e-commerce app that sells Polo shirts…and ONLY Polo shirts. And is making his privates public (variables, people…get your minds out of the gutter).

9:38am – Clean markup from Web Forms controls in ASP.NET 4…not news, but still very welcome. New Web Forms controls, including charting controls. ASP.NET MVC2 built-into Visual Studio 2010 RTM.

9:36am – Scott Guthrie is in the house to discuss the Microsoft Web Platform.

9:34am – Video carousel. Amazing demo of HTML5, standards-based markup, and hardware acceleration.

9:31am – HTML5 video support announced for IE9. Hardware accelerated. Buttery smooth 720p HD with CPU to spare, compared to jittery in Chrome, pegging the CPU on a netbook.

9:28am – IE9 Community Preview announced. Network about to get hammered. Speaking of…the developer tools now includes a network tab, plus support for SVG.

9:25am – Clippy makes a couple of guest appearances, including in a fully SVG-rendered Asteroids clone.

9:18am – GPU-powered HTML5 applications, demoed by Steven Sinofsky. Impressive demo of perf with DirectX, using the same markup, GPU-accelerated in IE9.

9:17am – Microsoft will contribute DOM and CSS3 compliance tests to the W3C to help ensure markup compatibility across browsers.

9:12am – IE9 and standards. Demo of cross-browser script and CSS including opacity, rounded corners, etc. IE9 also passes all 578 CSS3 tests. Impressive demo of real-world CSS across IE9, Firefox and Chrome.

9:09am – New script engine in IE9 is solidly in the middle of the pack on the SunSpider benchmark…without optimization for the benchmark. JavaScript is compiled in the background using multi-core power.

9:06am – Up first, Dean Hachamovitch, on IE9 and HTML 5, and Hardware Acceleration.

8:58am – awesome pre-show live demo – Pioneer Studios artist doing some amazing sketching using the new 21” Cintiq multi-touch display. Awesome!

MIX10 Day 1 is Done

gduthie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:55:00 GMT

Though the parties are still going on, the sessions are long done. The big announcements included the release of the Silverlight 4 RC, Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools, Netflix app coming for WP7, and more.

You can check out some of the resources for Windows Phone 7 Series development on MSDN.

Day 2 Keynote promises to be very interesting. Don’t miss it…if you’re not in Vegas, you can always catch it live on http://live.visitmix.com/

Events This Week – March 15th, 2010

gduthie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:50:00 GMT

Here are the events listed in Community Megaphone for the next week (or so) for the Mid-Atlantic area, as well as webcasts of interest…this list includes events imported from the UGSS event calendar, and all events entered in Community Megaphone are also automatically synced to the UGSS event calendar:

TechNet Events Presents: The Next Wave - Azure, Hyper-V and Windows 7 Deployment
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 8:30 AM, Pittsburgh, PA
Join your local TechNet Events team for a lively tour of the latest tools and resources for IT Pros. We’ll start with an overview of Windows Azure, and explore how you can use this high-performance hosted platform to build customer-facing applications and add horsepower to your computing infrastructure. Next, we’ll look at all the tools and techniques available for building virtual environments in Hyper-V version 2.0, then finish the day by demonstrating how to simplify your Windows 7 deployments. TechNet Events are free, live learning sessions packed with hands-on technical content. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 1:00 PM, Pittsburgh, PA
Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure. Register today for these free, live sessions in your local area. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

CDUG: Building Modules for DNN 5.x - The New Manifest and You
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:00 PM, Vienna, VA
This presentation will introduce extension developers to the new manifest format that can be used when targeting 5.x for custom development. Included will be a discussion of the new structure, features, limitations and gotchas to allow individuals to hit the ground running.
Speaker:
Mitchel Sellers
Mitchel Sellers, Microsoft C# MVP, Microsoft Certified Professional, is the CEO of IowaComputerGurus Inc. He has many years of experience in the software development industry and specializes in development using Microsoft technologies. Over the course of his career he has completed work for many organizations across the world of varying sizes and structures. This experience as a consultant has provided him with a deep understanding of software development and has lead to a focus on proper architecture, performance, stability, and overall cost effectiveness of delivered solutions.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Thursday, March 18, 2010 1:00 PM, Allentown, PA
Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure. Register today for these free, live sessions in your local area. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Southern Maryland Give Camp
Friday, March 19, 2010 3:30 PM, St. Mary's City, MD
GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, or a small data-collection application to keep track of members. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

TechNet Events Presents: The Next Wave - Azure, Hyper-V and Windows 7 Deployment
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 8:30 AM, Chevy Chase, MD
Join your local TechNet Events team for a lively tour of the latest tools and resources for IT Pros. We’ll start with an overview of Windows Azure, and explore how you can use this high-performance hosted platform to build customer-facing applications and add horsepower to your computing infrastructure. Next, we’ll look at all the tools and techniques available for building virtual environments in Hyper-V version 2.0, then finish the day by demonstrating how to simplify your Windows 7 deployments. TechNet Events are free, live learning sessions packed with hands-on technical content. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
This event will be held in Suite 700.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 1:00 PM, Chevy Chase, MD
Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure. Register today for these free, live sessions in your local area. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
This event will be held in Suite 700.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

You can also add your events via the Community Megaphone web service API, which is now live. You can get more information on the API, and how to sign up, at http://www.communitymegaphone.com/API.aspx. You can also email me for more information.

Mitch Sellers at CDUG - Weds, 3/17: Building Modules for DNN 5.x

gduthie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:39:00 GMT

My friends at Capital Area DotNetNuke UG asked me to let folks know that they’re having Mitch Sellers presenting this Wednesday on Building Modules for DotNetNuke 5.x.

You can get more details on Community Megaphone.

MIX10 Keynote is ON! LiveBlogging by Devhammer

gduthie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:10:06 GMT

Sorry for the sudden end to the liveblogging…lost my 3g when the phone section started…irony indeed. Great keynote, more to come!

9:34am – it’s time for WINDOWS PHONE 7 SERIES! Bring on Joe Belfiore…

9:33am – Silverlight 4 RC is now available for download!

9:31am – fantastic to see what a real design firm can do with SketchFlow. Really fleshes out the workflows that are possible.

9:28am – Dave Wolf from Cynergy rocking SketchFlow.

9:26am – Open eBay – http://apps.ebay.com

9:22am – eBay now on stage to demo their Silverlight out-of-browser experience with local Silverlight rockstar shop Cynergy Systems.

9:21am – Pivot video…Pivot is just awesome. Bing it.

Starting off with a demo of Bing Maps rocking deep zoom and flickr integration. Good stuff. Now covering Silverlight and the Vancouver Olympics. Millions of hours of video streamed, deep zoom photo galleries, leaps in advertising, and much more.

The Olympic Video player is now OPEN SOURCE!

Silverlight 4 will now support Full Screen playback in a multi-monitor scenario…AWESOME!

MIX10 Day 1 – The Calm Before The Storm

gduthie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:28:00 GMT

All is quiet as I write this…most folks are likely still recovering from one of the several parties and tweetups last night, great opportunities to see old friends and meet new ones (and lose your voice and hearing for those of us who aren’t 20 anymore).

In less than 3 hours, the first Keynote will start, and many of us in Microsoft will be able to discuss publicly things we’ve had to keep to ourselves. There will be lots of announcements at MIX. All of them will be interesting, some may be surprising, and some may even blow you away completely. But if you’re working with Microsoft developer technologies, you will want to be watching.

The good news is that the keynotes will be streamed live at http://live.visitmix.com/, and breakout sessions will be recorded and posted within 24 hours of the session time.

I’ll follow up with more detailed info from keynotes and sessions as my battery life and internet connectivity allow.

Drop me a line via the Contact form if there are any specific questions you’d like me to see if I can get answers for, and I’ll post those here, too.

And of course, you should follow me on twitter for more short-burst updates.

Southern Maryland GiveCamp is One Week Away – Help Still Needed!

gduthie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:33:00 GMT

In just under one week (next Friday, to be exact), the Southern Maryland GiveCamp will kick off, bringing much-needed IT help for 19 charities and non-profits. Over 80 technical volunteers have stepped up to help out, but the team is still slightly short of their goal of 100 technical volunteers.

Can you help? The GiveCamp runs from Friday afternoon through Sunday night, and you don’t necessarily have to commit to the entire weekend to help…can you spare a day? You’ll get fed, have fun with your peers, help some worthy organizations, and have a chance to take home some cool swag and prizes.

Oh, and for those of you who know me, don’t forget that if the GiveCamp reaches 100 technical volunteers who sign up and show up to work, I will be getting a mohawk, on site at the event, and on camera, streamed live. Helping, food, cool swag, fellowship, and a chance to watch a ritual humiliation…what more motivation could any geek require?

Here’s a message from Jim Pendarvis, who’s heading up the GiveCamp:

Dear Mid-Atlantic Community

    During the weekend of March 19th, a unique event is going to take place in St. Mary's City, MD called a give camp.

    GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, or a small data-collection application to keep track of members. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend.

    Currently we have 19 total projects - 17 websites, 1 SharePoint and 1 stand-alone applications - and 82 registered volunteers, but we need more volunteers. We promise food and drink during the weekend. Hotels are offering discounted room rates and as an added bonus, if we get 100 to sign up and show up - Jim Pendarvis is going to shave his head bald. Not good enough, how about Andrew Duthie shaving his into a Mohawk? All of which will be broadcast live, via Ustream, also recorded and posted on YouTube later in the day.

    We'll have gaming systems available for "down" time and some very nice giveaway's on Sunday. Including the gaming systems you'll have your "down" time with.

    We hope you'll consider this event. Please visit our website: www.somdgc.org

Respectfully Yours

Southern Maryland Give Camp

http://www.somdgc.org

Thanks for considering volunteering. Hope to see you next weekend!

Community Megaphone Podcast Show #5 – Steve Michelotti

gduthie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:21:00 GMT

Show #5 of the Community Megaphone Podcast is now available! In this episode, Dane and I chat with Steve Michelotti. We discuss ASP.NET MVC 2, the software craftsmanship movement, and more.

Want to keep up with all the latest episodes? You can subscribe to our RSS feed, follow the show on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook.

Enjoy the podcast? Please tell your friends!

HRNUG Windows 7 Development Links and Information

gduthie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:22:00 GMT

My thanks to all of the folks who came out for my presentation last night at the Hampton Roads .NET User Group, and especially to Kevin Griffin for his hard work in building and running the group!

Last night I talked about developing for Windows 7, and specifically about the new Sensor and Location API, as well as multi-touch development in WPF 4 and Silverlight 3. Here are some links that you may find useful on these topics...

Sensor and Location API:

Windows API CodePack - Provides managed code access to many new Windows 7 features, from Taskbar Jumplists, overlay icons, etc. to Sensor APIs.
Sensor and Location API team blog - information straight from the source on these new features.
Location in .NET 4 - Accessing the new managed location API built into the .NET Framework 4.
Sensor Device Driver Interface (DDI) - Information on how sensors communicate with the Windows 7 Sensor API.
Writing a Sensor API driver for the Wii Remote - Interesting project on codeproject.com.

Windows 7 Multitouch:

Intro to Multitouch in WPF 4 - demo code available
Basics of Multitouch in Silverlight 3 - demo code available
Windows Touch on MSDN Code Gallery - includes a .NET interop library sample

I also had a side discussion with some folks on Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center, and home automation, so I wanted to share some of my favorite resources:

The Green Button - great user forum for Windows Media Center. Lots of good information on troubleshooting and optimizing your media center experience.
We Got Served - fan site for Windows Home Server. Includes forums, and lists of WHS add-ins, and more
WHS Add-ins - big list of add-ins for Windows Home Server, including plug-ins specific to home automation, such as mControl, from Embedded Automation.

MIX10 Windows Phone Session Details

gduthie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:37:00 GMT

Titles and detailed abstracts have been posted for the Windows Phone sessions at MIX10, which kicks off next week. Check them out here:

http://live.visitmix.com/Sessions/Tags/WindowsPhone

Lots on Windows Phone, of course, including an introduction to the platform, Silverlight development, and more…featuring Joe Belfiore, Charlie Kindel, and many other Windows Phone experts.

Events This Week – March 8th, 2010

gduthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:07:00 GMT

PGHDOTNET March Meeting - PGHDOTNET and Pgh ALT.NET Talk TDD and MVC
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:30 PM, Pittsburgh, PA
At this month's meeting we'll discuss not only the core ideas and concepts that make ALT.NET what it is, but we'll also discuss how you can apply some of these very same concepts to your own day to day development using frameworks like ASP.NET MVC. Some concepts we'll be discussing our Test-Driven Development, Inversion of Control, and the SOLID principles.
Scott Guthrie announced ASP.NET MVC to the world at the first ALT.NET Conference in October of 2007. Since then, this new framework has made impressive inroads into the mainstream .NET community. The flexibility inherent in this lightweight framework has made many of the ideas which first inspired the ALT.NET mindset achievable in every day .NET development.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Hampton Roads .NET Users Group : March Meeting
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 6:00 PM, Chesapeake, VA
Do you love shiny new toys? Well, Windows 7 has some nice surprises for you, then. There are many, many new features in Windows 7 for developers to discover, and in this session, we’ll talk about two that can be both fun and useful in your applications, multi-touch, and the Sensor and Location API.
Windows 7 has built-in support for multi-touch, and there are libraries available that make it easy to add multi-touch to your current applications. And the .NET Framework 4 provides improved support for multi-touch in managed code, making it easier than ever to add this feature to your applications.
The Sensor and Location API is new to Windows 7 and provides a consistent way for applications to interact with sensors such as accelerometers, light sensors, and other devices that use this API to communicate with Windows. No more learning inconsistent and obscure APIs for each new piece of hardware you wish to interact with.
G. Andrew Duthie, aka .net DEvHammer, is the Developer Evangelist for Microsoft’s Mid-Atlantic States district, where he provides support and education for developers working with the .net development platform. In addition to his work with Microsoft, Andrew is the author of several books on ASP.NET and web development, and has spoken at numerous industry conferences from VSLive! and ASP.NET Connections, to Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) and Tech-Ed.
Andrew is also the creator and developer of Community Megaphone, a site designed for promoting and finding developer community events.
Andrew can be reached through his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/gduthie/. You can also follow Andrew on twitter.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

TechNet Events Presents: The Next Wave - Azure, Hyper-V and Windows 7 Deployment
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 8:30 AM, Towson, MD
Join your local TechNet Events team for a lively tour of the latest tools and resources for IT Pros. We’ll start with an overview of Windows Azure, and explore how you can use this high-performance hosted platform to build customer-facing applications and add horsepower to your computing infrastructure. Next, we’ll look at all the tools and techniques available for building virtual environments in Hyper-V version 2.0, then finish the day by demonstrating how to simplify your Windows 7 deployments. TechNet Events are free, live learning sessions packed with hands-on technical content. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

MSDN Events Presents: The MSDN Mid Atlantic Roadshow
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 1:00 PM, Towson, MD
Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure. Register today for these free, live sessions in your local area. If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

RockNUG Release 3.9
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 6:30 PM, Rockville, MD
C# 4.0 New Language Features
by Steve Michelotti
This presentation will cover the new C# 4.0 language features. This demo-heavy session will begin by covering various dynamic scenarios with C# including the new “dynamic” keyword, simplified Reflection, custom dynamic objects, duck typing, Iron Ruby integration, and more. We will also cover named and optional parameters, new COM Interop enhancements, co-variance, and contra-variance. If you are a C# developer, come learn about the new language tools that you can put in your toolbox!
About Steve Michelotti - Steve Michelotti is a Microsoft ASP.NET MVP and an Architect/Developer for Applied Information Sciences (AIS). He has consulted at Advertising.com/AOL where he was the Tech Lead for one of the highest volume .NET applications in the world. He previously was the Chief Technologist at e.magination. Steve is a frequent presenter at developer user groups and Code Camps along the East Coast and holds the MCSD, MCPD, and MCT certifications. Steve has been on Microsoft Channel9 and his published articles include Visual Studio Magazine and his blog.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

An Introduction to Report Builder 2.0
Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:30 PM, Glen Allen, VA
What does the fountain of youth have in common with happy, self-served BI users? Microsoft’s Report Builder 2.0 answers that question and more. Report Builder 2.0 is a report authoring tool with enhanced data layout, visualization and formatting capabilities left out of the earlier (and not widely used) Report Builder 1.0. This session introduces the audience to the dependencies and capabilities of Report Builder 2.0 and offers ways BI users might finally build those reports they always wanted.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Roanoke Code Camp 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:00 AM, Roanoke , VA
The Roanoke Valley .NET User Group (RV.NUG) , with support from Microsoft, the International .NET Association (INETA) is hosting the third Roanoke Code Camp on Saturday, March 13th at Virginia Western Community College. This is an all-day, all-free event consisting of 4-5 tracks for a total of 20-25 presentations. Topics include Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework, SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint.
[ Event Details | Map & Directions | Add To Calendar ]

Want your events listed? You can add them here.

iMo 7” USB Sub-Monitor Unboxing

gduthie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:25:00 GMT

I’m a big fan of multi-monitor as a way of getting a broader view of all the applications I’m working with at any given time. I have 4 monitors on my primary desktop machine, so when I’m on the road it can be difficult to deal with the limitation of a single laptop monitor.

Enter the iMo 7” USB sub-monitor. I recently picked up a couple of these at a great price during a woot-off for use with my laptop(s) while I’m on the road. Since I know many of my readers are gadget fans, I figured I’d do a quick unboxing video, to show how the monitor works, and what you might use it for. The video is below…enjoy!

View Zune Content By Content Type

gduthie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

If you’re a Zune user, by now you’ve probably installed the Zune 4.2.x client software. There are a lot of cool new features in this release, including the Smart DJ feature, which I use fairly often.

But there’s a lesser-known feature that I ran across that I thought I’d share, which is the ability to sort the content in your collection by its origin, as shown below:

Here’s my take on the content types:

All Content is pretty self-explanatory…everything you’ve ripped or downloaded
Personal Content is any content that contains no DRM, whether something you’ve ripped, or your own recordings
Protected Content (from what I can tell) appears to list only DRM content for which you have obtained a permanent license, for example, tracks you’ve purchased on Zune Marketplace
Zune Pass Content includes any DRM content you’ve downloaded via Zune Pass, but do not have a permanent license for

Why is this important? Because if, like me, you like to use your 10 free tracks from your Zune Pass subscription to purchase music you’ve already downloaded via Zune Pass, filtering your content to just Zune Pass content makes it easy to locate which tracks you have that have not yet been purchased. Good stuff!