Joe Stagner - Frustrated by Design !

Build a Game in Silverlight and Win an XBOX 360 !

The folks at Internet.com are running this cool content.

ENTER BY THE 15th !!

Description:

The RIA Run challenge is designed for you to showcase your knowledge of Silverlight 2 to the world— and potentially win prizes for it. By taking advantage of such Silverlight 2 features as layout manager support, two-way data-binding support, control template and skinning support, core form controls and built-in layout management controls, you can show the world what you can do with the most advanced RIA platform today.

[ Click HERE for more info. ]

Free Mind Mapping Application

Mindmapping tools can be great for flushing out design ideas.

Here is a cool FREE Mind Mapping tool built with .NET 3.0

http://cayra.net/

System.Net.Mail - Sending Email with .NET

Add this awesome FAQ by Dave Wanta to your bookmarks.

All about Sending email in .NET 2.0

If you're still a .NET 1.x user, see here http://www.systemwebmail.com/

ComputerWorld: Web 2.0 developers rank MSN/Live higher than Google, Yahoo and Facebook

May 5, 2008 (Computerworld) Web 2.0 software developers ranked Microsoft's MSN/Live Windows developer program higher than competing programs offered by Internet leaders Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Facebook and PayPal, according to results of an Evans Data Corp. report released today.

[ Read more HERE. ]

Get the .NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit

The .NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit covers the technologies in the .NET 3.5 SP1 release and the out of band releases that are a part of the same wave, namely ASP.NET MVC and the ASP.NET Silverlight controls. Currently, the training kit contains six hands-on labs, made up of the following technologies:

1) ADO.NET Data Services

2) ADO.NET Entity Framework

3) ASP.NET AJAX History

4) ASP.NET Dynamic Data

5) ASP.NET MVC

6) ASP.NET Silverlight controls

·Coming Soon !

BOOK: ASP.NET Data Presentation Controls

Here is a GREAT quick read on ASP.NET Data Controls for you.

PACKT is not one of the "big" publishing companies, which can be a good thing because that often publish books on specific topics that are left un-covered by the usual suspects. One of their slogans is "Community Experience Distilled" which I think really nails them.

This book is spans about 240 pages exclusivly on ASP.NET Data Presentation controls.

It covers things like ...

• Data Binding
• Repeater Control
• List Controls
• Data Grid
• Grid View
• Form View
• Detail View

Bets of all it contains coverage of both 2.0 and 3.5 concepts like LINQ, the new 3.5 ListView & DataPager controls and using VS 2008.

Click on the book image above to check it out at Amazon.com

Replace your crummy boss.

I've has some good manager and I've had some really, um, bad managers.

In my seven years at Microsoft I've had 5 managers and would works for four of them again (meaning they were great !) I can't say that about other work experiences in my career.

My boss is awesome, but if he weren't, I'd go to work for Brad Abrams.

Brad is a Principal Group Manager in the ASP.NET Development Organization here at Microsoft.

So.....

If your are a .NET STAR! and you want to replace your current boss with someone great to work for.....

[ Click HERE to read about opportunities on Brad's Team ]

eWeek Says - Scott Guthrie the 28th most influential person in IT !

... or so says eWeek. [ HERE ]

Scott is in fine company with 10 of the 100 most important (according to eWeek) being Microsofties.

3. Steve Ballmer
CEO, Microsoft

6. Jean-Philippe Courtois
President, Microsoft International, Microsoft

12. Kevin Turner
COO, Microsoft

13. Ray Ozzie
Chief software architect, Microsoft

26. Bob Muglia
Senior vice president, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft

28. Scott Guthrie
Corporate vice president, .Net Developer Platform, Microsoft

37. Michael Howard
Principal security program manager, Microsoft

46. Tony Scott
CIO, Microsoft

67. Bill Hilf
Director of platform strategy, Microsoft

82. Bronwen Matthews
Security program manager, Microsoft

Now, we developers know Scott is WAY higher than 28 :)

Book: Murach's C# Updated for 2008

sIf you are an avid reader, like I am, then you know that different publishers tend to have different styles and specialties.

Murach is unique. They don't publish TONS of books, but the ones they do publish fill an interesting space.

Take this one......

I first read the 2005 version of both the C# and the VB books and loved them. I said then, and say again, if I were to teach a VB or C# book I would use these as text books. They are complete, but pleasant to read (unlike lots of textbooks.)

Murach has updated this book to include the 2008 topics.

I dug into to recently because I was doing some interesting things with Microsoft new Dynamic Data technology which makes much use of Partial Classes. It's fully up to date with the 2008 stuff !

Click on the book link to check it out at Amazon.

Free CMS and Hosting for .NET User Groups

Applied Innovations, Kentico Partner to Offer Unique Solution for .NET User Groups

Kentico Software, maker of Kentico CMS, and Applied Innovations, a Microsoft Gold Certified provider of Windows-based Hosting solutions, announced today the two companies have partnered to offer a unique free Web site solution for .NET User Groups.

Boca Raton, Fla. (PRWEB) April 8, 2008 -- Kentico Software (http://www.kentico.com), maker of Kentico CMS, and Applied Innovations (http://www.appliedi.net), a Microsoft Gold Certified provider of Windows-based Hosting solutions, announced today the two companies have partnered to offer a unique free Web site solution for .NET User Groups.

The solution, available through Kentico's partnership with Applied Innovations, allows local .NET developer communities to collaborate between community members.

We are excited to further our relationship with the .NET user community as we continue to build a line of robust hosting services geared toward developers

Users will receive a free license of Kentico CMS Enterprise Edition (valued at $1,499) and a ready-to-use Web site template that helps .NET User Groups to share information with group members; inform members about group meetings; publish articles and presentations from the meetings; communicate in discussion forums; distribute e-mail newsletters; create blogs; share files and photos; and create member-only areas.

The custom Web site template was created to meet the specific needs of .NET user groups. The template allows groups to focus on their community activities, rather than exhaust resources building a Web site.

".NET User Groups provide valuable information and training for their members and we are happy that we can support their activities," said Petr Palas, founder and CEO of Kentico Software. "We are happy that we found a professional hosting partner, Applied Innovations, to offer free web hosting for .NET User Groups. Users get a complete solution and they can start editing their new Web site instantly."

Applied Innovations will provide a free hosting account for .NET user groups to host their Kentico CMS installation.

"We are excited to further our relationship with the .NET user community as we continue to build a line of robust hosting services geared toward developers," said Jess Coburn, CEO, Applied Innovations. "In partnering with Kentico Software, we are able to leverage their advanced CMS solution to create an out-of-box collaboration solution for .NET user communities."

.NET User Groups can sign up for a free license and hosting at http://www.kentico.com/dng.aspx. To learn more about Applied Innovations, please visit http://www.appliedi.net.

About Kentico CMS
Kentico CMS is an affordable ($499 to $1499 per Web site) web content management solution providing a complete set of features for creating interactive Web 2.0 sites on the Microsoft ASP.NET platform. It supports content/design separation, workflow, permissions, multilingual support, full-text search, SEO, on-line forms, image galleries, forums, blogs, polls and 70+ configurable web parts. It's being used by more than 600 web sites in 55 countries. The clients include Gibson, Bayer, Guinness, Deutsche Telekom and others. Kentico CMS trial version is available at http://www.kentico.com.

About Applied Innovations
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Applied Innovations (http://www.appliedi.net) is a Microsoft Gold Certified Web hosting provider specializing in Windows Web hosting. Since 1999, Applied Innovations has hosted thousands of domains for small to medium sized businesses internationally, offering world-class service and support at competitive and economical rates.

BOOK: Microsoft AJAX Library Essentials

This is another one of those "Sniper Topics" that I like, again from PAKT Publishing.

Approximately 280 pages of drill down on Object Oriented Client Side development in JavaScript using the Microsoft AJAX Client Libraries.

Not only does this text enumerates the namespaces in the Microsoft AJAX Client Libraries, and provide good coverage of the Client Component Framework, but it teaches all the "whys" along with the "How Tos".

If your building AJAX applications and Microsoft's AJAX technology is at the center of your work then this book is a "must read".

Click on the book image above to check it out on Amazon.com

Microsoft patterns & practices Web Client Software Factory 2.0

I know this isn't "hot off the press" but I'm just

Microsoft patterns & practices Web Client Software Factory 2.0

February 2008 Release

   Resources

·          MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/webclientfactory

·   Community site: http://www.codeplex.com/websf

And some more information from their February Release Announcement....

The Web Client Software Factory (WCSF) provides a set of guidance for architects and developers building enterprise Web applications. The factory includes samples, reusable code and a guidance package which automates key development tasks from within Visual Studio.

Using the Web Client Software Factory assets, developers can create Composite Web applications composed of independently developed and deployed modules. These modules are dynamically brought together at runtime into a common shell. Additionally the factory includes support for ASP.NET AJAX thus providing users with a richer and more responsive user experience.

New In This Release

The February 2008 release of the Web Client Software Factory has the following improvements to the June 2007 release.

− Full support for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5

− Added ASP.NET AJAX extenders for Context Sensitive Autocomplete, AJAX Validation, and Real Time Search that can be used in existing ASP.NET sites and ASP.NET sites built using the Composite Web Application Block.

− Added UI Composition capability through extending our dependency injection mechanism to support Pages, User Controls and Master Pages.

− Added Dependency Injection on ASMX Web Services and JSON services.

− Added a new set of Quickstarts and How-To topics on MVP, Modularity and the new AJAX extenders

− Added a new Order Entry Reference application that demonstrates all of the new functionality.

In addition, this release of WCSF has the following community issues and fixes:

− 42 Workitems closed including the top-voted items on CodePlex

− Add ASP.NET AJAX Support

− Web Client Software Factory Support for Enterprise Library 3.1

− Services through configuration

− Support for using the Validation Application Block

− Recipe support for Visual Basic .NET

− Added Presenter support for Master Pages

The Developer's Guide to loosing 20 pounds in 8 days !

Nope, this is not an infomercial.

I've been on the road for lots of this spring. For the last two weeks I was in Seattle for the MVP Summit, then in Orlando for Dev Connections, then in Atlantic City for the Microsoft Health and Life Sciences.

I got sick about half way through the 2 weeks. Some sort of intestinal fun, probably a bacterial infection.

It make Dev Connections and the HLS conference interesting.

Have you ever tried to give a presentation while concentrating on not throwing up or having another kind of embarrassing accident ? :)

Usually stuff like this lasts for about 24 hours. Today is day 8 of the really "active" part and I'm feeling almost ready to try eating again after a week of Ginger Ale.

I just got on the scale and have lost nearly 20 pounds from last Sunday to this. Yuck !

In any event. I'm expecting to be back on line this week.

3 of my 4 sessions this past week were well received (considering) but the ListView talk was a bomb so I'll be doing How Do I videos of the material.

Since I'm in the office for few days, I'll be cranking out some videos. As always , feel free to send suggestions.

ASPConnections Orlando - Dynamic Data & Listview Talks

Thanks to all who attended my ASP Connections Talks last Monday in Orlando.

It's great to see the interest in the new features!

ASP.NET 3.5 Dynamic Data [PowerPoint] [Demos]

ASP.NET ListView & DataPager [PowerPoint] [Demos]

..... and as promised, here are links to some of the clever blogger's samples out there.

ListView Web Server Control Overview.

Mat Berseth has several great ListView Examples on his blog.

Rick Strahl on ListView & DataPager in ASP.NET 3.5

Dan Wahlin on Simplifying ListView Control Templates.

ListView Column Sizing at XOC.net

.... and don't forget (as I learned the hard way) uninstall the last 3.5 Extensions preview before you install the current one.

Microsoft Health & Life Sciences Event Presentations

Thanks to everyone who attended my AJAX Sessions at the Microsoft Health & Life Sciences Developer's Conference in Atlantic City last week.

Here are links to the PowerPoints and Demos

ASP.NET AJAX Security [Demo Code] [PowerPoint Deck]

ASP.NET AJAX Patterns [Demo Code] [PowerPoint Deck]

.... and here are links to the free ASP.NET Security Books from Microsoft Patterns and Practices.

Building Secure ASP.NET Applications: Authentication, Authorization, and Secure Communication

Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures

Happy Reading.