My little plot of digital pasture.

Microsoft Unplugged Update – December 2009

2009-11-10T09:35:39Z

Join us in December 2009 for the latest Microsoft UNPLUGGED Update. Come to TechNet morning for IT Pros and/or afternoon MSDN sessions for Developers.
TechNet Sessions for IT Pros: 9am – 12.30pm

• Migrating Windows XP to Windows 7: Get it done with Microsoft Deployment Tools
• Microsoft Infrastructure Update

Nathan Mercer, Microsoft New Zealand IT Pro Evangelist will take IT Pros through the process of migrating Windows XP to Windows 7, and provide a Microsoft Infrastructure Update showcasing the latest Microsoft technologies for IT Pros. Level 300.

Wellington: 1 Dec - Register
Christchurch: 2 Dec - Register
Dunedin: 3 Dec - Register
Tauranga: 8 Dec - Register
Auckland: 9 Dec - Register

MSDN Sessions for Developers : 1.30pm – 5pm

• Windows Azure – All You Need To Know To Get Started!
• Get ready for Visual Studio 2010

Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform will be launching at PDC 2009 this month. Mike Zeff and Ryan Tarak from Microsoft will take you through how Developers can start using and benefiting from Windows Azure. Also, Visual Studio 2010 will be the latest release of Microsoft Developer tools. Come for an overview presented by John-Daniel Trask from Mindscape. Level 300.

Wellington: 1 Dec - Register
Christchurch: 2 Dec - Register
Dunedin: 3 Dec - Register
Tauranga: 8 Dec - Register
Auckland: 9 Dec - Register
Level 300 events for IT Pros and Developers. Free to register. More information...

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Available

2009-10-20T02:09:07Z

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available for download by MSDN (and BizSpark) subscribers today, with a more general availability starting October 22nd (NZ Time).

There are also some changes coming to the number of versions of Visual Studio and MSDN available. There will now be only 3 versions you need to choose from:

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN: the comprehensive suite of application lifecycle management tools for software teams to ensure quality results from design to deployment.

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN: a complete toolset for developers to deliver scalable, high quality applications.

· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN: the essential tool for professional development tasks to assist developers in implementing their ideas easily. (Note: Visual Studio 2010 Professional will also be available without MSDN subscription)

Scoot over to the Visual Studio product site to compare what’s included in each version.

The testing tools in Visual Studio 2010 are a personal highlight for me. So often you see testers discovering and logging bugs that then get closed as ‘No Repro’ by the developers. The Test and Lab Manager along with TFS 2010 allow testers to capture both screenshots AND full screen video of a bug which can then be attached to the bug report. Along with IntelliTrace (historical debugging) the developer then has the repro steps plus a historical stack trace and other debugging information. Have a look at Brian Keller’s Channel 9 10-4 video and Habib Heydarian’s blog. Nice.

WebSiteSpark joins the *Spark Family

2009-09-25T01:46:39Z

Yesterday at PICNIC, Scott Guthrie announced the launch of another member of the family of programmes to help software entrepreneurs get started building their companies. WebSiteSpark is designed for small professional Web development and design companies (referred to as Web Pros) interested in adding proficiency on the Microsoft platform to their business credentials. The program helps Web Pros drive new business opportunities through increased visibility and connections with partners (including Web Hosters) and customers around the world; WebsiteSpark also provides Web Pros with Microsoft tools and hosting solutions, as well as support and training.

Here is a Channel 9 interview with Scott about WebSiteSpark you can watch to learn more:

So you can see, it is a lot like the BizSpark programme we launched last year, but better suited to Web development companies and design agencies.

We have a WebSiteSpark programme guide containing more information available for download. If the programme sounds like a good fit for you then sign up today.

TechEd New Zealand 2009 Session Changes

2009-09-13T09:06:49Z

Here is a list of the sessions that have changed since the mini-guide was printed for TechEd New Zealand 2009:

Monday 14th
12:05 – 1:20p.m.	New Zealand 4	Was: VOC205 Plunket – Where are all the babies?
		Now: VOC206 Manukau City Council – Content & Enterprise Performance (Mike Brothers, Ignacio Montenegro)

3:50 – 5:05p.m.	Ballroom 1	Was: DEV307 Using Team Foundation Server in a distributed world (Wayne Ewington)
		Now: Make some magic! Shake, Flip & Flick your application for Windows Mobile 6.5! (Loke Uei Tan)

Tuesday 15th
No Changes.

Wednesday 16th
10:45 – 12:00p.m.	New Zealand 3	Was: CLI 307 VDI – the saviour of desktop management or just another unrealised promise (Leon Booth)
		Now: CLI307 Microsoft’s optimised desktop strategy – delivering the end user experience (Deannah Templeton)

12:10 – 1:25p.m.	New Zealand 4	Was: VOC208 HP
		Now: ARC206 Cloud Computing and Software + Services (Paulo Rocha)

	Marlborough	Was: ARC 307 – Cloud computing in your pocket (Nick Randolph)
		Now: CLI305 Easing the pain; techniques for managing drivers with System Center Configuration Manager, MDT2101 , WDS, and more! (Michael Niehaus)

	Ballroom 1	Was: DEV310 Make some magic! Shake, flip & flick your application for Windows Mobile 6.5! (Loke Uei Tan)
		Now: DEV 307 Using Team Foundation Server in a distributed world (Wayne Ewington)

2:20p.m. – 3:35p.m.	Marlborough	Was: CLI305 Easing the pain; techniques for managing drivers with System Center Configuration Manager, MDT2101 , WDS, and more! (Michael Niehaus)
		Now: ARC 307 – Cloud computing in your pocket (Nick Randolph)

3:45p.m. – 5:00p.m.	New Zealand 1	Was: SVR309 Everything you need to know about VDI (Leon Booth)
		Now: SVR309 Everything you need to know about VDI (Gavin Bennett, Adam Hall)

TechEd New Zealand 2009, almost there

2009-09-10T11:05:04Z

TechEd New Zealand 2009 is almost upon us and thanks to the hard work of our Track Owners we have a fantastic line up of speakers and content. Hopefully you’ve built your own personal TechEd schedule by now. As is usually the case, there have been a few changes to the schedule due to unforeseen and/or unavoidable circumstances. Therefore keep checking the published schedule on the TechEd New Zealand site right up until the event starts. We will also publish any changes that have occurred since the Mini-Guide was printed, onsite (via the screens around the venue) and @techedlive will Twitter them tomorrow (Friday 11th). I’ll also publish the list here on my blog.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Beta 1 available for MSDN Subscribers

2009-05-19T13:03:43Z

As announced on Soma’s blog, Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Beta 1 was made available for download to MSDN subscribers today. If you are an MSDN subscriber you can visit the download centre and download it now.

If you want to know more about what is new in Visual Studio 2010 have a look at the product page or watch some Channel 9 videos.

I have installed it on a machine with Visual Studio 2008 as well and so far it appears to play nice (though I haven’t done any extensive testing).

It will be made available for general download starting Thursday, NZ time. Beat the rush, get it now!

Unplugged Tour – Windows 7 and Silverlight 3

2009-05-19T01:48:50Z

Nigel, Nathan and I are on the road again in May/June to talk about Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Silverlight 3.

Nathan is covering Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 from an IT Pro’s perspective with no nonsense technical sessions that cover the improvements and new features of these two products. Nigel and I are doing developer focussed sessions with Nigel talking about Silverlight 3 and covering some of the upcoming features that were announced at Mix 09. I will be talking about developing applications for Windows 7 and taking advantage of some of the new features in your own applications and how to make sure your applications are ready for Windows 7. There’s even an optional Installfest at the end if you want the Release Candidate installed on your test machine.

Once again we are visiting a good number of cities: Palmerston North, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington. You can find out more details and register here.

Hope to see you there!

Australia and New Zealand TechEd 2009 Call for Content

2009-05-12T07:19:51Z

With TechEd North America underway this week (you can visit TechEd online too) we are kicking off the 2009 TechEd season. Australia and New Zealand have ours in September (8-11th for Australia, 14-16th New Zealand). Planning is well underway for our local events and you can read more about how the event is shaping up over at Andrew Coates’ blog.

You may have noticed on Andrew’s blog there is a Call for Content. This means you can suggest a session that you would like to deliver at TechEd this year.

Here are the rules for submitting content and what we’ll cover/not cover if the track owners select your session(s).

All the way through the process you’ll be able to review your submission and track its status. This is the first time we’ve opened up the Call for Content publically like this and we’re likely to receive many more proposals than we’ve got slots to fill, so please don’t be disappointed if your submission isn’t selected.

Tips for Successful Submissions

Write a descriptive, fun and enticing title
Target 300-400 level technical content; 200 level content is in low demand
Describe content that is new, unique or significantly refreshed from a previous presentation.
Take a solution oriented approach
Align your topic to the technologies listed for the track
Ensure there is no marketing in your content
Showcase your speaking experience
Focus on currently released technologies, technologies in beta or technologies that will be released within 12 months of Tech·Ed
Include one or more live demos. Historically, sessions with strong demos receive higher audience scores

Submitting a topic

So how do you go about submitting a session? Go to the Call for Content tool and register with your email address and the RSVP code TechEdANZ. Fill in all the details and hit submit. You can come back to the site at any time to update or review the progress of your submission.

Innovation Day for Independent Software Vendors

2009-04-24T02:29:45Z

We would like to invite you to attend the first Innovation Day for ISVs to be held in Auckland. This is your opportunity to 'get your feet on the ground, head in the clouds' and connect with Microsoft New Zealand for a day of technical sessions, compelling discussions about the exciting future of the Microsoft platform and how partnering with us can help you be more successful.

We will be covering the Microsoft Partner Program, offerings such as BizSpark, our Metro program for early adopter ISVs, InnovateOn, the ISV Royalty program and lots of other things you may not know about our ISV partner offerings.

Of course there will be technical content as well with demos of Windows 7 features for ISVs, a Silverlight 3 preview and Windows Azure.

There will also be a session on Microsoft Online Services and how Office 2010 is part of Microsoft’s Software+Service strategy.

So come along and see how Microsoft can help your ISV business be more successful. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Wednesday 29th April
8am - 1pm
Microsoft New Zealand Offices.

For more information or registration, please email Thiloma Patabendi or register online. Places are limited so register today!

You are invited to see the top teams compete in the Imagine Cup Finals in Auckland!

2009-04-24T02:07:00Z

Imagine Cup is a competition which encourages students to use technology to transform great ideas into real world solutions every year. Student teams from around New Zealand have come up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Join them at The University of Auckland Business School as they compete in the Imagine Cup 2009 National Finals and find out which team will be the ultimate winner and represent New Zealand in the world wide finals in Cairo, Egypt.

For the first time ever, watch the finalists present and demonstrate their unique solution to a panel of influential industry judges live and decide for yourself who should take out the title of Imagine Cup 2009 NZ. Register your place at the finals now and get the chance to win awesome prizes including one of three XBOX 360 consoles at the finals. Everyone is welcome!

What: Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 National Finals
Where: The University of Auckland Business School
When: Wednesday 29^th April 2009, Kicking off at 6:30P.M.

PDC Unplugged Tour Video Posted

2009-04-07T03:24:56Z

The online version of our recent Unplugged tour has been posted. This was the tour we did at the end of 2008, early 2009 that focussed on the announcements at Microsoft PDC in October 2008.

Virtual Tech.Days 2009 - 24 Hours of round the world learning

2009-03-02T07:09:27Z

Hey all you developers out there! How is your personal development plan coming along? Time to learn some new technology skills? Brush up on some existing ones?

On April 1st, 2009, be part of history and join developers from all around the world for the first ever 24 hour day of technology learning. Tech.Days 2009 is a virtual event that will feature 95 live sessions across 5 tracks on current and emerging technologies in developer tools, mobility, Windows, Office/SharePoint, and web development. Connect with Microsoft industry experts and your peers from around the world.

For more information, and to register, go here.

And if you really can’t make it to the live event, sessions will also be recorded and available on demand post-event.

South Island Unplugged Tour Starts Next Week

2009-02-13T02:11:19Z

Just a reminder that Mark Carroll and I are on the South Island leg of our Unplugged tour next week. We are visiting Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch and Nelson:

MSDN UNPLUGGED Developer Event – South Island: Take your Applications to the Cloud and Beyond – PDC, Visual Studio, Azure, Office 14 and Windows 7

MSDN UNPLUGGED continues in February 09 with South Island locations. We will be sharing principles, practices, patterns and tools announced at PDC in October. Come and join us to start your applications journey to the cloud and beyond. Presented by Microsoft Developer Advisor Mike Zeff and Microsoft Architect Mark Carroll. Click here for more information. We will be giving away PDC 2008 Top Session DVDs to attendees too.

Sessions from 4pm – 5.30pm

Registration is free. Location and dates below.

Invercargill 17 Feb: Register
Dunedin 18 Feb: Register
Christchurch 19 Feb: Register
Nelson 20 Feb: Register

Note: This is a 300 Level event for Developers

December Unplugged Events

2008-11-20T07:38:23Z

We are currently working on the December Unplugged events which are going to be all about some of the announcements made at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles recently. A lot of the announcements were around Microsoft’s cloud strategy so naturally we’ll be talking a lot about that. Here is the abstract and registration links:

MSDN UNPLUGGED Developer Event: Take your Applications to the Cloud and Beyond – PDC, Visual Studio, Azure, Office 14 and Windows 7

Today we will be sharing principles, practices, patterns and tools announced at PDC in October. Come and join us to start your applications journey to the cloud and beyond.
Using computers in the cloud can make a great deal of sense. Instead of provisioning part or all of your infrastructure you can instead exploit Internet-accessible servers and let others worry about keeping systems up to scratch. But why just stop at the cloud? Some applications may have their code and data both operating in the cloud, others may run inside an organisation storing data in the cloud or relying on other cloud infrastructure services. Applications that run on desktops and mobile devices can use services in the cloud to synchronise information across many systems or in other ways. Whatever approach makes sense exploiting and extending the cloud’s capabilities can open up new choices for applications hosting, storage and interoperability.

Presented by Microsoft Developer Advisor Mike Zeff and Microsoft Architect Mark Carroll. Click here for more information. We will be giving away PDC 2008 Top Session DVDs to attendees too.

Registration is free. Location and dates below.

Auckland 8 Dec: Register
Hamilton 8 Dec: Register
Tauranga 9 Dec: Register
Hawkes Bay 10 Dec: Register
Palmerston North 11 Dec: Register
Wellington 12 Dec: Register

Note: This is a 300 Level event for Developers

As you can see, Mark Carroll and I will be presenting this event and we are really looking forward to talking about the new cloud services and tools. The December events will be North Island and we will be doing South Island venues early in the New Year. We will announce venues and dates shortly.

I will also be available to talk about our recently launched BizSpark programme for software start-ups which has been extremely popular in the two weeks sinced we launched in New Zealand.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and Team Foundation Server SP1

2008-08-13T01:19:29Z

Yesterday we released Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (bootstrapper or ISO) and Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 (self-extractor). There is also a download available for just the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (bootstrapper and self-extracting package). These are also available from the Subscriber Downloads area of MSDN for MSDN subscribers.

If you want to see what’s new in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 have a look at this article on MSDN.

These are the main features of Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1:

Support for Windows Server 2008.
Support for SQL Server 2008.
The Add to Source Control dialogs have been improved to be easier to use and more scalable.
Drag & Drop from Windows Explorer to add to Source Control.
Support for Version control operations on files not in bound solutions.
Right-click access to set Working Folder/Cloak of folders from within Source Control Explorer.
Check in date/time column in Source Control Explorer.
Editable path field for the Source Control Explorer.
Email work items and queries to someone.
A new API to download files to a stream.
Links to Team System Web Access pages from notifications.
Improvements to the number of projects per server.
Performance and scale improvements.
Improvements to the VSS converter to make it much more robust.
Support for creating Team Projects from the command line.

I decided to install Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 from scratch on one of my servers, so I could install it on Windows Server 2008 and the RTM version of SQL Server 2008. Patching an existing server is just a matter of running the TFS 2008 SP1 package, after backing up your database first just in case, but starting from scratch requires a few extra steps. You can find the exact process in the updated Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 Installation document here (note the instructions on the download page about how to open downloaded CHM files for display). In a nutshell, you need to create an installation source of TFS 2008 that has SP1 merged. The installation document explains how. Once you have created the merged installation source, everything else proceeds as before.

Also note that if you are installing TFS 2008 on a server that already has Visual Studio 2008 installed, you need to apply Visual Studio 2008 SP1 first.

Update: Oh, and if you’re working with Silverlight 2 Beta 2, it has been updated so the tools now work with the RTM version of VS 2008 SP1. Download the updated version here.