Out Of The Box

Led by Mohammad Akif, the Aspiring Architect Series 2008 builds on last year’s content and covers a number of topics that are important for architects to understand. Please make sure that you have gone through the 2007 series which can be found at . We are hopeful that you will find the upcoming series to be a very useful investment of your time...

June 16^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to the aspiring architect Web Cast series

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380836&Culture=en-CA

June 17^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Service Bus – Beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380838&Culture=en-CA

June 18^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – TOGAF and Zachman, a real-world perspective

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380840&Culture=en-CA

June 23^rd , 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Realizing dynamic systems

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380846&Culture=en-CA

June 24^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Web 2.0, beyond the hype

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380848&Culture=en-CA

June 25^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Architecting for the user experience

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380850&Culture=en-CA

June 26^th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Conclusion and next steps

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380852&Culture=en-CA

The Hyper-V team has been working hard on the product, as well as working with customers to get an early BANG with Hyper-V. For example, on June 25, Rob Emanuel posted about his usage of Hyper-V on Microsoft.com. This is a good read due to the background of that large application as well as a video interview with the architect.

And on June 26, Microsoft announced the RTM of Hyper-V. It's now available for download and via Windows Update (as of July 8). Another big next step.

It's surprising to me that we already have customer case studies for this technology. Besides the noted usage from Microsoft.com (no small server environment), the RTM announcement includes the names of Land O’Lakes, HotSchedules and The SCOOTER Store. Additionally, the TechNet Virtualization blog has a post about BMW installing in 3500 locations around the world.

I also recommend viewing the Technet Virtualization blog as it has excellent posts on our virtualization story. For example, Assessment and Planning Toolikt for Hyper-V, Top 5 Things to know about Hyper-V, Linux Integration, and other enlightening posts.

Another surprise is the early positive commentary that is out there. Any Microsoft effort or product will always have some critics (especially when a product is evolving and/or late), but the positive comments are out there too.

From Chris Steffen of Kroll Factual Data, "When we started down the virtualization path, I will be the first to admit that some of the other virtualization solutions had an advantage over Microsoft, specifically in their management tools. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) took care of that, and the improvements coming in VMM 2008 makes the Microsoft virtualization management solution the best in class..."

Another recently published post comes from Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols of ComputerWorld. Titled Kiss VmWare's Rump Good-Bye, Stephen talks about several factors going against VMware.  "Number one with a bullet, Microsoft is about to roll out its Hyper-V virtualization in Server 2008 this August. I am no friend to Microsoft, but every now and again, as they did with Excel, the boys from Redmond get something right. I've used beta of Hyper-V on Server 2008. In a word, it's 'impressive.' And, it will come to Windows shops ready to go in the server".

That's good to hear. If you've got a story about Hyper-V, I'd love to hear about it.

For more background on Hyper-V and our virtualization strategy, consider this list:

• Virtualization blog
• Blog post on virtualization blog
• Channel 9
• TechNet Edge
• Virtual PC Guy's WebLog
• Hyper-V: It’s all coming together

Didn't see this one coming, but I think it's interesting. It's a $70 annual subscription for Office Home and Student + Windows Live OneCare + Windows Live tools, and can be installed on 3 machines at home.

Microsoft Equipt is $69.99 (U.S.) estimated retail price for a one-year renewable subscription. Each subscription will be good for three home PCs, making Microsoft Equipt ideal for families and individuals with one or several computers.

Microsoft Equipt will be sold in nearly 700 Circuit City stores in the U.S. starting mid-July 2008...

Announced on July 2nd, Microsoft Launches Consumer Subscription Offering That Combines Microsoft Office and Windows Live OneCare.

From an interview with Group Product Manager, Bryson Gordon":

With just a few clicks, [Microsoft Equipt] subscribers will be able install the whole package, which includes Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare to help keep viruses at bay and their computer fast and healthy; and Windows Live Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with others. [Microsoft Equipt] also installs the Microsoft Office Live Workspace connector on the Microsoft Office toolbar, so users can save documents to their own dedicated online workspace and invite friends and classmates to collaborate and share.

I've always thought that Edit-And-Continue was a nice feature, but not a must-have as some other feel. When I meet people who claim that this feature can't be lived without, I listen but I don't understand. And usually a C-minded person will jump in and make fun of the conversation. One thing that I notice is that 99.99% of the time, it's a VB person that needs this feature. (I like VB, and use it regularly.)

And for some reason, I've always associated this feature with originating from VB5 or VB6. But, recently I learned otherwise from our internal archive service.

June 29, 1998 — Microsoft announces version 6.0 of Visual C++. New enhancements include the addition of IntelliSense technology and a new feature called Edit and Continue debugging, which allows developers to change code without leaving the debugger.

So, next time that I'm in a conversation about "Edit And Continue", I'll have the opportunity to mess with the C++ folks in the conversation (i.e. blame it on them).

LineRider

You just have to see this to believe it. This has been a strangely popular Internet play toy, and many videos have been recorded. Here's more from their site...

Boy grabs sled. Boy rides sled. A simple concept yields endless fun and the latest Internet Phenomenon is born! In Line Rider the player draws their own landscape with a simple pencil tool creating as many ramps, hills, and jumps as they can imagine. Then they send a virtual sledder careening down the course until he wipes out. The possibilities in Line Rider are only limited by the player's imagination. Play Line Rider™ Now!

There are hundreds of LineRider videos on YouTube. Now, McDonald's is involved with a contest (see an interesting video here). 

NBC Olympics

Hopefully, you've heard that NBC is showing the Olympic events, using Silverlight. They have lots of video to show, and will stream live events as well. They have an interface that allows you to split up the Olympics in several ways.

Silverlight Mobile

With Silverlight Mobile coming down the path, some customers are building early prototypes. One of my DPE teammates in the west, Sam Chenaur, has posted about working with John L. Scott. They have a video of Sam talking to through the application, as well as showing it off on the phone. It uses Virtual Earth too. Here's the interview: Silverlight Mobile with John L Scott Real Estate

Small update from yesterday's post - a screen shot to show Speed (knots I think) and Heading (360 degree based, Zero is north). This lat/long is at MaxTrain. Last night's post was done from my hotel. Interestingly, I'm am a little higher here than at the hotel (319 ft. above sea level, versus 231 as seen in yesterday's screen shot).

[Update: 6-26-2008] Confirmed that this speed is indeed "knots". Found on this NOAA site the conversion forumula: MPH = knots * 1.1507794. Knots is returned from the API as a float.

This week, I'm leading the Mobility Metro this week in Cincinnati. During one of the labs, I had the opportunity to start looking at querying the GPS on my BlackJack II. And then this evening, I had time to dig in more. This is very cool stuff. Here's what I've done so far.

Connect my BlackJack II device to Visual Studio 2008

There's probably some cool way to do this, but to unlock my device enough for VS to connect, there are a couple of not well documented steps. Note, this is specific to Windows Standard (i.e. Smartphone). These devices usually come with a more locked down setup.

• Connect the device via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center (Vista). Sorry for the obvious.
• Copy the Certs.CAB file into the Temp folder on the device. On the device, click on the file to launch install. Reboot the device. This file is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mobile 6 SDK\Tools\Security\SDK Development Certificates. (Omit the x86 path if you're not running 64 bit.)
• Copy the SecurityOff.CPF into the Temp folder on the device. Launch on the device. Reboot. This file is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mobile 6 SDK\Tools\Smartphone\SecurityConfiguration.
• Now you can connect in Visual Studio. (Make sure to choose "device", not one of the emulator options.
• Test this to make sure.

Now, we need a way to talk to the GPS.

Querying the GPS

So, (the official way that Microsoft employees start informative statements), I need a GPS API that I can access from the .NET Compact Framework. How do I get there? If you looked at .NET Compact Framework 2.0 or 3.5, you would be disappointed. One of the features touted in WM5 launch days was the new GPS Intermediate Driver. This driver has several special capabilities, including allowing multiple applications to talk to GPS simultaneously (or, I should really say listen simultaneously). The problem with this GPS setup is that there is no managed GPS classes. That's a problem, because there's a lot happening in this GPS API in Windows Mobile.

So, refer to the Day 2 module in the Mobility Metro lab, and what does it say: "MANAGED GPS". That's right. Where is this Managed GPS stuff at?

Managed GPS

The WM6 SDK has a managed code sample, in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Mobile 6 SDK\Samples\Smartphone\CS, called GPS. Originally, this showed up in the WM5 SDK. Anyway, this is a C# solution, named GPS, and comes with two projects, 1) GPS, a .NET CF application project, and 2) a child project that is the managed wrapper of the GPS Intermediate Driver interface. So, kudo's who designed the solution this way so that someone can easily re-use in other applications. The library is namespace'd as Microsoft.WindowsMobile,Samples.Location (note the namespace on the slide, which might make you believe this is in the .NET Compact Framework).

So, I open up the project, compile, deploy, and debug. Interesting stuff. I've got .NET code receiving GPS events on a device. Cooooool!!!!!

Now, there are a couple of issues to deal with. First, I get a random error out of a function - which happens to be without a Try/Catch block, so I'll have to look into that.  It's sporadic so that even makes it more fun.

Second, you will need to utilize some patience waiting for the GPS chipset to find a set of satellites to start listening to. Once you get connected, you're fine as long as some app is talking to the satellites.

Third, there's a lot going on in the API. Fortunately, this sample does a good jump of showing a fairly rich implementation of working with the GPS driver. It's not for the faint of heart since there are plenty of marshaling attributes, P/Invokes to Win32 land like WaitForObject, calls to LocalAlloc and LocalFree (man, I love managed code), and working with Windows handles; however, they hide that pretty well from the UI code. It is interesting what the application does. In the wrapper, they create a background thread that receives the GPS events, basically reacting to position change events and satellite state change events. They nicely call Control.Invoke in order to do the UI updates on the main thread. Good stuff, mostly.

After looking at this application, I'm ready to start understanding what I can do with what is exposed to me in the managed wrapper. The display is a text windows showing a concatenated string of properties from a GPS_POSITION (native structure is converted to a .NET class), and only a few interesting properties are shown like Latitude and Longitude. But what are these other properties?

GPS Background

When I start looking at the GPS_POSITION properties exposed by the GPS Intermediate Driver (note in the slide above), I can see that I need some more understanding of GPS workings. One good source that is a sorta short read is the Wikipedia page for GPS. They have a little history, some inner-workings, some definitions that will fill in a few blanks in the GPS_POSITION structures, and resource links to bunches more. I had no idea that there were so many GPS satellites in the sky (30+, although you only need 3-4 for decent accuracy).

You can see some information about Assisted GPS (A-GPS), which is the ability to triangulate location based on cell towers, part of the E911 initiatives from the U.S. government. This capability is used in several mapping applications, like our Live Search for Mobile, which uses this to find the appropriate satellites faster.

Another interesting but useless fact: "Following the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making the system available for free for civilian use as a common good..." I'm not a history buff, but sometimes I find some things that just grab my attention.

For me, the main thing in this reading was to get a little background understanding of the properties in the GPS structures. Example, what is a PRN, why does a satellite return "satellite time", etc.

My Additions to the GPS project

So, after looking what the sample did and noting some of the properties that would be useful to me that weren't used, I made a few changes to sample application:

• I removed some properties that were redundantly displayed. I don't need to see Latitude/Longitude display several ways.
• Took out formatting, specifically too many line feeds. On the BlackJack, some of the sample data was displayed off the screen below.
• Added Altitude. Also note that you should check the AltitudeValid property before displaying this information.
• Also did similar additions with Heading (as well as ValidHeading check), and Speed (and ValidSpeed). Note that if you're not moving in the beginning of listening to the GPS reciever events, you will not get this information - as in the picture below. On the flip side, after moving for a while and then stopping, I continued to get these properties sent for a time. I know my wife will like to have this data when she is doing her speed walking.
• Here's a work-around for the sporadic error that I'm getting from the managed wrapper code. In the client application, the main function that is called when different GPS events fire is the UpdateData method in Form1. I added a Try/Catch block to trap the error, display it in the textbox, and keep on moving. The error only happens once in a while.
• I found that one of the culprit exceptions is in the GpsPosition::GetSatellitesInSolution method. Early in that method, an array (inViewSatelites) is returned from a called function (GetSatellitesInView), and the code expects it to always come back with data (and blows up when a NULL object is returned). Easy to fix, but not sure of the underlying issue.
• I ended up with a display like this, that's good enough for today's learning.

Hope this helps you get started with adding location data to your applications. I'll have more posts on my potential usage of this in the future.

I'm certainly am glad to have a open platform that allows me to easily code a mobile application, easily deploy to a device, and enjoy it today.

I was reading through the latest issue of Redmond Developer News. I most like this magazine as I can get a quick view of Microsoft development from a industry perspective, although sometimes I disagree with a few points here and there.

In this issue, they have a variety of articles. I'll point out a few at the bottom of this post. The cover story (Decoding Bill) takes a look at Bill Gates, and attempts to identify Mr. Gates as a developer, technologist, and/or businessman. It has some interesting opinions from competitors back in the early days.

Another interesting article that caught my attention was .NET and Java Grow Organically. It's subtitled "Mixed .NET and Java application deployment platforms promote new interoperability initiatives". Why did it catch my eye?

.NET Winning, 59 to 49

First, was the opening paragraph of the article. "When Forrester Research Inc. surveyed platform software decision makers in large North American and European enterprises recently, the IT industry analyst firm found that 59 percent of those surveyed use .NET and 48 percent use Java or Java EE." 

Wow! I've been waiting to see "recent" information from the enterprise that .NET was doing well. Maybe I missed an internal email on this, but this is good news as I like to validate what I'm seeing. This enterprise research was done by Jeffrey Hammond, but the specific study is not mentioned. But, I'm looking for it.

The other point here is that in large enterprise companies, there is a mix of technologies. That matches what I'm seeing as well, and shows that Microsoft is playing well at interoperability and standards. Unfortunately, there are examples where these camps don't play well with each other internally, and that's a shame. My typical suggestion is to focus on the business using the tools that make sense for you, and forget the religion. When another tool or platform make better sense, then take a look - and be professional, not burning bridges, and not making conclusions personal. That's for another post though.

Skins Challenge

The author, John K. Waters, brings up other interesting points in the piece. However, one paragraph I found irritating, and is the reason for this post.

Putting together and maintaining the right mix of coder skills has become a common enterprise challenge, Hammond says. "In some cases I see these heterogeneous shops pushing their .NET developers toward C# as opposed to VB.NET because it's the most like Java, and the hope is that it will make it easier for them to transfer skills. In practice, though, it's not so much the languages that create a learning curve as the frameworks."

Well said, Mr. Waters and Mr. Hammond. Although languages and IDE's are important, they are just a way to talk to the underlying frameworks - and this is where the real power is. In my opinion, there is no more single powerful framework than .NET. Yes, Visual Studio provides an excellent story of productivity on top of .NET. Yes, VB.NET is nicely done, as well as C#. But the power is in the framework.

.NET is not designed to run everywhere?

The very next paragraph is what caught my attention.

Another issue that Redmonk analyst Michael Cote points out is that the .NET Framework is designed for the Windows environment, while Java is designed to run everywhere. "Java is largely an open source-driven world, and .NET is largely not," he says.

OK, please raise the BS flag. (Maybe this is strong, maybe it's either the ignorance flag, or other flags that I omit from this list.)

.NET was designed to be portable, as portable as Java. This is the type of FUD that I see in the evening news, while Republicans say this, and Democrats say that. Hog wash! .NET is portable. If you need examples, consider this list: Mono, Rotor, Silverlight, and now Silverlight Mobile. Even Forrester talked about this long ago.

To understand this, one has to look at the CLR and CLI terms. Remember that Microsoft submitted the spec's for the internal guts of .NET to ECMA about five years ago (ECMA-335 and ISO/IEC 23271). This spec details the CLI, which is a portable specification. Microsoft implemented that for Windows, and made extensions on top, and this effort produces the CLR. Why does this keep having to be explained to the media? (Sounds like something I say when watching the evening news.)

The Wikipedia page may say it best: The CLI is a specification, not an implementation, and is often confused with the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which contains aspects outside the scope of the CLI specification. In the same Wikipedia page, it mentions several other frameworks that use the CLI on other platforms. So, .NET is portable!

OK, I'm moving on now...

Other articles I found interesting:

Gates Bids Developers Farewell - Redmond's chairman uses Tech-Ed keynote to talk up 'Oslo,' 'Velocity,' Silverlight and other dev tools.

Architects Craft Their Future - International Association for Software Architects aims to establish a support network for architects nationwide.

Tool Optimizes New Windows Mobile - Microsoft releases Mobile Device Manager 2008 with improved support for Windows Mobile devices and third-party tools.

Last year, John and I ran across a new company that had moved to town (thanks Diana for the intro). Several things caught my attention about them. First, they were hard at work with .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 Beta, and second, their business model of "reverse logistics". This has turned out to be a really interesting story to watch unfold as this company explodes at the seams in growth, all the while with a minimal IT staff of five.  These guys went live with ASP.NET 3.5 before the VS launch in November, and then later went live with Windows Server 2008 before it launched. They are looking at SQL Server 2008 too.

If you get a chance, take a look at their auctions. They all start at $1. You read correctly, one dollar! And the variety of items is unfathomable - electronics, movies, motor parts, collectibles, jewelry, music, computers, networking equipment, PDA's, books, etc. It's crazy. (Really, you don't get the full reality until you get a tour of the warehouse.)

When I compare what a corporate IT shop gets done to what Bargainland gets done with only a few resources, I'm flabbergasted. Most IT corporate managers would be concerned if they saw the ground that Bargainland's IT staff can cover in a short amount of time. These Bargainland guys run circles around what a corporate shop does. If you thought that the meat of this story would be our technologies, in my opinion their business and the people are THE story - we've just provided a platform to support their business activities.

Paul St. James (CTO) and Joe King (IT Director) are the face of Bargainland. One minute, I'm listening to the craziest auction item ever sold or the wildest variety of items they receive - and then I'm listening to the speed they run at in the IT shop, or the load that their web servers handle. I can't do justice explaining their impressive story - so let me point to some other sources.

First, get our slant with the Bidtopia case study on Microsoft.Com. There are many interesting points in this writing:

• Utilizing ASP.NET, LINQ-to-SQL, AJAX, Silverlight, IIS7, Windows Server 2008
• “When we put our new ASP.NET 3.5 code into production, we saw an immediate 50 percent increase in site capacity—with no stability issues whatsoever.”
• “Our site uses lots of images, and the improved HTTP compression in IIS 7.0 appears to have reduced bandwidth usage by 10 to 15 percent,” says Joe King...
• “In the past, we’ve used Flash, but it was never quite where we wanted it to be,” says St. James. “Silverlight will enable us to make the site more dynamic and interactive—for example, by displaying thumbnails when the user hovers the mouse over an item.”
• “Our biggest issues today are site capacity and the speed at which we can achieve it,” says St. James. “In two months, when we’re done rewriting the solution to run on the .NET Framework 3.5, our bottleneck will become the hardware, and we’ll be able to scale out at will. Our goal is to increase site capacity a hundredfold, as needed to support both our own auctions and those of other large eBay sellers, and I’m confident that we’ll hit that goal.”
• “We epitomize what a small IT shop can achieve with Microsoft software,” says St. James. “We may not have a lot of developers, but we have a lot of talent—and Visual Studio 2008 lets us make the most of that asset.”
• Just to show a few quotes...

Another interesting piece on this story was done by Josh Holmes and John Mullinax. In this video interview (right after the Detroit launch event in March), Josh and John talk to Paul St. James and Joe King. You get to hear the latest in their saga of Internet e-commerce, plus a few stories about this business. You can't make this stuff up! Since the earlier mentioned case study, they lost a warehouse to a tornado and then a fire finished it off later that week (newspaper story). They also discuss the challenges and opportunities that they experienced through their phenomenal growth and the related challenges - like tornados. You also get to hear about some of crazy things that have been auctioned: a box of cash, invisible goldfish, and an origami boulder (which became a company created by the auction winner). So, make sure you watch Code To Live Bidtopia. (Thanks Josh and John for doing this.)

The Bidtopia story is far from over. They are on a role, and got a hot business. I am sure that we'll be hearing more from these guys and their continue success. So, stay tuned.

There are other articles about this company:

• http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2008/02/13/prnewswire200802131854PR_NEWS_USPR_____CLW120.html
• http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m02/i07/s01
• http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/feb/13/whoops/
• http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0802/gallery.ex_ebay_sellers.fsb/2.html
• http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m12/abu0204/s03

It's a small thing - but I like it. In years past, I'd get a URL in an email and it might be split up in some way. However, IE8 handles this.  Highlight the following:

http://bl
ogs.msdn.
com/jonbox

Copy & paste into the address bar. It just works!

Another interesting feature, like my point on

Well, although not what you might interpret by the blog post title, the below picture accurately shows how Microsoft provided another day of life to this Blackberry. It's just a joke, sort of!

Yesterday, I was at the Memphis community launch event sitting in the back listening to Colin Neller and Ron Cundiff do their thing on the Visual Studio track. Next to me was a customer contact, Donnie, who had this setup on the table, and I couldn't resist taking the picture with my WM6.1 BlackJack. Donnie told me that his Blackberry almost died except for this Windows Mobile emergency charger. Also sent the picture to Loke who posted his version last night.

These are cool phone chargers. I've only seen them at the Memphis Mobility Metro Lab, and they were given out by Loke (probably funded by Lillian). I've got a few extra that I'm holding for the right moment.

If you've got a cool, impactful Windows Mobile development story using Visual Studio 2008, .NET Compact Framework 3.5, or SQL CE 3.5 (and you're in TN, KY, OH, or MI), the right moment may be here for you. Tell me about it!

If you'd like to build a story, shoot me an email and I can tell you how.

There are some questions that I get occasionally and I have to go look them up. In an effort to cut down this look up time, I wanted to record this link. What kinds of questions am I talking about?

• What version of VS targeted which platform? (tough to answer with new features in VS2008, but there is a table for previous versions)
• Which VS works with a version of SQL CE?
• Which version of SQL CE is in a certain version of a mobile O/S?
• What about CEDB and EDB on WM5 and WM6?

And from the SQL Server Compact blog, there's a post that talks about the confusing SQLCE version namings. Specifically, this table is handy.

Everyone needs a dose of Wally, and he's put together CodeStock. It will probably be the biggest technical event in Knoxville that has ever happened!!!! Better register soon for the AUG 9th extravaganza. He's got quite a speaker list, and for only $25 - which includes SWAG and lunch.

On the IE Blog, they announced a slight change with the META Tag. I've included an excerpt here:

In IE8 Beta 1, that option is the “IE=7” X-UA-Compatible tag, which instructs IE8 to display content in IE7 Standards mode. However, the scenario this doesn’t address is when IE=7 is applied as an HTTP header to a site that contains Quirks mode pages. The IE=7 HTTP header will force all pages – both Quirks and Standards – to display in IE7 Standards mode. Developers using this header while updating their sites would then have to add the “IE=5” <META> tag to each page they want to keep in Quirks mode. This logic is fine for many websites. However, if a site has lots of Quirks mode pages, or for the case where pages with frames host a mix of Strict and Quirks mode content – as brought to light by IE8 Beta 1 user feedback – the compatibility opt-out adds a bit more work than we intended.

In response to the great IE8 Beta 1 feedback we’ve received so far, we are introducing the “IE=EmulateIE7” tag to address this problem. EmulateIE7 tells IE8 to display standards DOCTYPEs in IE7 Standards mode, and Quirks DOCTYPEs in Quirks mode. We believe this will be the preferred IE7 compatibility mode for most cases. Support for IE=EmulateIE7 is available now as part of the IE June Security Update for IE8 Beta 1. Installing this update will enable you to verify you’ve applied the EmulateIE7 tag to your site correctly.

See the IE Blog for more details: Introducing IE=EmulateIE7

In my opinion, if I was going to choose one technical event to attend in any year, my first choice will always be the PDC. It was my first big Microsoft event that I attended back in the mid-90's. That's where I became aware of DCOM and ASP, before they came out. That year was when I first saw Don Box. I took that knowledge back to my employer and changed the direction of our IT shop - all due to the PDC. So, want to change the game at your company?

Experience the Future of the Microsoft^® Platform

Since 1991, the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects. Attend the PDC to understand the future of the Microsoft platform and to exchange ideas with fellow professionals. You’ll learn about upcoming products, meet Microsoft’s leaders and top engineers, write some code, and be inspired! Unplug for a few days and think about the future.

• Explore the full breadth of the Microsoft platform in more than 160 technical sessions
• Roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, and explore the latest technology for yourself in the hands-on labs
• Attend a day-long pre-conference seminar to get deep training, best practices, and insightful advice from industry experts (*additional fee required).
• Take the opportunity to interact with your peers and Microsoft staff in a variety of community-focused events like Ask the Experts and in the PDC Lounges

In past years, the PDC has unveiled Microsoft .NET, Windows^® XP, Windows Vista^®, and other significant milestones in the evolution of the Microsoft platform. This year, you’ll hear more details about our services platform, the future of Windows, mobility, and our next generation of developer tools. And there are always a few surprises.

Who Should Attend (or… The PDC is for YOU)

The PDC is designed for leading-edge developers and software architects. If you’re interested in the future of the Microsoft platform, you’re responsible for the technical strategy in your organization, or you’re a highly skilled developer who likes to delve deep into the heart of the platform, then the PDC is for you!