Keith Smith's Blog : Training

Expression Studio 2 Release and Training

keiths — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:08:00 GMT

Without much fanfare, I’m back.

What brings me from my blogging hiatus? Last week’s Expression Studio 2 launch, of course. My team and I have been working on this release at a breakneck pace this past year and have been deeply focused on launch since MIX 08. Accordingly, it is great to see the fruits of our labor being praised by customers, partners and the press.

You can start using the tools today. Fully-functional, 30-day trials for the Expression product family are available for download today and thousands of designers and enthusiasts are exchanging ideas on the Expression Community site.

One thing I am really excited about with this release is the in-the-box video tutorials provided by Total Training. More than four hours of content is available to help Expression users get started with the latest features. But wait, there’s more. Total Training has also produced a full series of tutorials that build on the in-the-box tutorials. These materials will be available as part of Total Training Online in June. In the interim, you can access a free 7-day guest pass to Total Training Online to review the Expression Studio v1 content already there. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the training is available in English only.

Last, but certainly not least, I encourage you to read about the Expression Professional Subscription. It is the most convenient, most economical way of getting access to all the products professional designers need to create, test and deploy on the Microsoft platform. With a $999 estimated retail price for the first year and $649 annual renewal you get access to the latest versions of each of the following:

Expression® Studio

Visual Studio® Standard

Office Standard

Office Visio® Professional

Windows® XP

Windows Vista® Business Edition

Virtual PC

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Pre-configured virtualized server environments

Other vendors charge more for suites that only include design tools. With the Expression Professional Subscription you get design, development and productivity tools in addition to the latest client & server operating systems and virtualized environments to really put the tools to the test. Even better, the subscription includes a snazzy Welcome Kit.

Free ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Clinic from Microsoft Learning

keiths — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:57:31 GMT

I am excited to announce the launch of a new, free, 2-hour "Developing Enhanced Web Experiences with Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Extensions" clinic created by Microsoft E-Learning. The delivery of this clinic helps us reach a major milestone in our content & training roadmap for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 following its release back in January. The clinic was created by professional instructors from around the world with contributions and input from members of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX product team.

From the course description:

In this 2-hour clinic you will learn about the rich functionality that ASP.NET AJAX Extensions provides for building highly responsive and enhanced web applications. In addition to learning about the different server and client components of ASP.NET AJAX, you will also learn how to build new ASP.NET AJAX applications and how to upgrade existing ASP.NET applications to take advantage of ASP.NET AJAX.

This clinic is appropriate for experienced .NET Web Developers and Software Architects who are looking to incorporate ASP.NET AJAX within their existing and future solutions.

Here is a list of the modules and lessons covered in this clinic:

Clinic Overview
- Module Introduction
- Navigation Overview
Overview of ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Introduction
- Introduction to AJAX and ASP.NET AJAX
- Introduction to the Architecture of ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Summary
Programming with ASP.NET AJAX
- Module Introduction
- Building a Simple ASP.NET AJAX Application
- Using the AJAX Library to Enhance Web User Interfaces
- Calling Web Services and Web Methods from the Client
- Module Summary
Additional Information
- Module Introduction
- Glossary
- Next Steps

Please help me spread the word about this free training for AJAX development using the Microsoft platform. Also, send me any feedback you have. I would also like to get your feedback on follow-up lessons and content you would like to see.

ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Has Shipped

keiths — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:27:14 GMT

We have released ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 and it is now available for immediate download on our newly redesigned ASP.NET AJAX Community Site.

You can read more about this major milestone on Scott's blog.

There are 4 things that excite me the most about this release:

Now developers have a fully-supported solution for building AJAX-enabled Web experiences using ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. No new tools are required, no new concepts to learn. You can literally stick of few controls on your page and create a more sophisticated user experience that works in all modern browsers.
The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is up to 30 powerful controls and counting. The Control Toolkit has brought together some of the most creative developers in the ASP.NET community and everyone can benefit from their contributions.
We will be providng access to the source code for both the Microsoft AJAX Library and the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions to aid in debugging and provide our developer community an unprecedented level of transparency.
Last, but certainly not least, there are many partners and early adopters who have gone to great lengths to support us since our early CTPs. From ComponentArt and SPI Dynamics to Burton Snowboards, Phanfare, Pageflakes, Squeet, TitleZ and Shelfari. There are way too many to list here and more sites coming online each week so be sure to check out the Showcase.

Over the next few weeks we will be providing a ton of new content and training material to help ASP.NET AJAX newbies and veterans alike take advantage of all the newest features and capabilities. This includes a complete MSDN eLearning Clinic, MSDN Virtual Labs, tutorials, sample applications and "How Do I?" videos.

Go download ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 today and let us know what you think.

Free .NET Framework 3.0 Training

keiths — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:31:16 GMT

For a limited time only (until Windows Vista launches) you can get free training on some of the coolest, new features of .NET Framework 3.0. The three 2-hour e-Clinics offered by Microsoft Learning cover topics including:

Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon")
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Communication Foundation ("Indigo")

The entire collection is available here.

Once Vista is released the training will cost $9.99 per clinic. So hurry and register for this excellent, free training today before it is too late and learn everything you need to get started with the latest advances in .NET and the Microsoft platform.

ASP.NET 2.0 Webcast Series for PHP, JSP, and ColdFusion Developers

keiths — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:19:00 GMT

Are you a PHP, JSP or ColdFusion developer? Do you want to learn how ASP.NET 2.0 allows you to build richer Web sites more quickly and with less code compared to the tools, technologies and techniques you currently use?

The Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Webcast Series is a set of 45 webcasts organized by developer audience around 3 Web development technologies: ColdFusion, JSP and PHP. This series is sponsored by Microsoft, Dr. Dobb's and O'Reilly and is designed to enable developers to use their existing Web development knowledge to gain insight into the simplicity and power of ASP.NET 2.0.

As if the training wasn't enough, developers who attend 3 webcasts between 3/6 and 4/17, will receive an ASP.NET 2.0 Development Pack which includes Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition (NFR), five chapters from Programming ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference by Dino Esposito, and more.

ASP.NET 2.0 & Visual Studio 2005 "How Do I" Videos on MSDN

keiths — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:21:00 GMT

Just released! Eleven 15-20 minute videos that provide an overview of many of the cool, exciting features of ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 and showing how to accomplish many of the common web development tasks (e.g., creating a portal with user login, building a "Contact Us" form that sends email, etc.) There is also a Tips and Tricks video that introduces some of the lesser known yet immensely useful features and techniques that help you build ASP.NET web sites more quickly.

The current list of videos in the "How Do I" series includes the following titles (in no particular order):

Caching (Part 1)
Caching (Part 2)
Create a Full-Featured Customer Login Portal
Data
Form Building for a "Contact Us" Page
Localization
Master Pages and Site Navigation
Membership and Roles
Profiles and Themes
Tips and Tricks
Web Parts and Personalization

Let me know what you think.

Free ASP.NET 2.0 Training!

keiths — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:02:00 GMT

You may have already seen this announcment on Brian's or Scott's blog, but, in the event you are stumbling across it for the first time here...

Brad McCabe has coordinated with the Microsoft Developer Network & Microsoft Learning groups to offer free training for a limited time.

Basically, you pick one of 6 courses about Visual Basic 2005 or 9 courses about ASP.NET 2.0. After you have completed your free online course, you will receive 30% off the price of the next one.

The offer is only good until January 4th, 2006 so you must register soon. You do not have to complete your free course by then, but you have to sign up and make your selection before the deadline. (You have 90 days from the date you sign up to actually complete the course.)

Visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/learning/elearning_promo/ for all of the details and to get the free training code to sign up.