Visual ActiveKent Sharkey .NET SE 3.11 : VS2005 Developer Center

Meet the new boss, (not the) same as the old boss...

ksharkey — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 18:26:00 GMT

In an attempt at our ongoing efforts to ~~confuse everyone coming to MSDN~~ balance the knowledge and workload at MSDN, we have shuffled a few of the Developer Centers around. While I will still be working on the ASP.NET Developer Center, I am reliquishing my duties on the Visual Studio Developer Center. The good news for all of you is that this means that Brian Johnson, one of the authors of "Inside Visual Studio" will be moving in. As you can probably guess, he knows far more about Visual Studio than I ever will, and I'm certain he will take excellent care of you.

Already he has made the announcement public that current MSDN subscribers will get VS Team System:

"MSDN Universal and MSDN Enterprise subscribers with valid subscriptions will be upgraded, at no additional cost, to one of the higher value MSDN Premium Subscriptions for the Visual Studio Team System. "

TechEd, will I be there?

ksharkey — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 23:16:00 GMT

I haven't a clue. Last I heard I'd be able to go if I ride my bike there.

Still, Scott & Rory will be there (along with a lot of other Really Smart Folk), and you'll even be able to get them to explain this in person...

... but who will manage the Managers?

ksharkey — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:40:00 GMT

I know my blog is in serious danger of turning into a recruiting site or even (heaven forbid) a recruiters' blog, but I have another job offer for you. Our Site Management team (the good folk who keep MSDN and TechNet running tickety-boo to the tune of about 100MM page views (MSDN) and 19MM (TechNet) page views a month is seeking a manager. Help plan, build and run two of the larger sites on the Internet. For more details, see the job posting. For those too lazy to click, here's an excerpt:

The Site Manager is responsible for understanding the business and marketing strategies, 
representing the technologies of a specific product or program, and directing the ongoing 
development of sites that help customers to find the information they need. 
They direct development through project management of content deliverables and relationships 
with product and marketing groups, third-party vendors, and other functional teams. 
The challenge is to maintain a strategic Web presence and also to manage 
the ongoing publishing efforts for the site.

UPDATE: forgot to tell you, if you're interested, send resume etc. to Katherine Lagana

February CTP now available

ksharkey — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:59:00 GMT

In honour of March 2, we now present {insert ta da here} The February Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2005. This month, we have new versions of Visual Studio 2005 Professional (for MSDN Subscribers) and the fabulous Express products:

Get them while the bits are still hot -- overwhelm our download servers. Taste, build, enjoy (note: these are still not *quite* Beta 2).
Finer print:
The new Community Technology Preview releases of the Express products now require registration and activation within 30 days of first use. This process is simple, free, and it allows us to personalize your experience on MSDN. If the products are not registered and activated within 30 days of first use, they will cease operating.
UPDATE: fixed the links

The Outlook Web Access team is looking for web developers

ksharkey — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 19:25:00 GMT

Web-based mail is hot. Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook Web Access... They're all making headlines and showing off the richness of the web. The Outlook Web Access team is looking for solid ASP.NET developers to help build our next version. We're looking for people with top-notch development skills, who have worked with C# and ASP.NET in the past and have a solid understanding of HTML, CSS and script. We're looking for people who want to take web applications to the next level of richness while also offering a blazing fast client.

OWA uses a wide variety of technologies. Candidates must have experience with C#, C++, JavaScript, DHTML, XML and ActiveX.

Right now we are looking for both full-time and contract team members so if you are interested, email your resume to owajobs AT microsoft DOT com, or submit your resume for here. We want to hear from you.

Pimping the pros

ksharkey — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:19:00 GMT

A number of Microsoft Regional Directors, Wintellect folk and INETA speakers have put themselves up on the auction block to help the victims of the tsunami in South East Asia. Get an hour of Jeff Richter, Joel Semeniuk, Scott Hanselman or many more. Solve more .NET problems than you know you have, and help others out at the same time.

Kind of a win-win-win situation.

What's new in 2?

ksharkey — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 17:02:00 GMT

I've started an attempt to get the various ASP.NET teams either blogging or (for me) ideally writing for MSDN about their favourite features in ASP.NET 2.0. There has been a lot written about the "Big features", but I think people are (or should be) also interested in the smaller refinements. Mike Pope has a great blog post on the changes to the controls on the "Web Controls" tab of the control palette.

And I *still* think the Substitution control is just a whacky (but incredibly neat) idea.

ASP.NET and Community Technology Previews (CTPs)

ksharkey — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:37:00 GMT

I know there is a *lot* of confusion around the Community Technology Previews that have been coming out for Visual Studio 2005. I know because I get a *lot* of email about them. Which build is good, what's in them, etc. That's the prime reason John "The Experience" and I created this page. However, there is always funky, er, "interesting" stuff happening around here, so the little details may get missed. Personally, I think the build process around here (especially with all the new virtual build labs) would be an excellent idea for someone to write about. However, in this case it's ASP.NET 2.0 that I want to discuss. Those looking for the latest and greatest build of ASP.NET 2.0 should look at the November CTP rather than the December CTP. Just so you know.

Data controls in ASP.NET 2.0

ksharkey — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:35:00 GMT

Have I ever told you how much I enjoy 2pm? That's when the "Here are the new articles that went live today" email goes out internally. I get to see what tasty morsels I can tell you about. Of course, I frequently don't get to telling you about until the next day, when you've already read them, but it's the thought that counts, right?

On to yesterday's email. While it did include a few J# articles, the one I'm more happy to tell you about is another fine piece from Dino Esposito: ASP.NET 2.0 and Data-Bound Controls: A New Perspective and Some New Practices. No, it's not another GridView article, but rather on how you can more easily create data-bound controls in ASP.NET 2.0.