Dessert is finally here!
As we head to close the financial year at Microsoft, we are pleased to announce our best event yet – SharePoint Web 2.0 Fire Starter!
In typical FireStarter event style, we aim at delivering a first class experience to all attendees and make them experts on developing on SharePoint technologies before the end of the event. We have great speakers from the Microsoft rooster presenting some awesome topics that will help you build and customize websites with SharePoint and Web 2.0 technologies. You cannot miss this action packed day!
Here’s what the agenda looks like:
| AGENDA | | |
| 8:00 am – 8:30 am | Breakfast | |
| 8:30 am – 9:00 am | Introduction to day | Mithun Dhar |
| 9:00 am – 10:00 am | Whirlwind SharePoint on Visual Studio - VSeWSS | Paul Andrew |
| 10:00 am – 10:15 am | Break | |
| 10:15 am – 11:15 am | Silverlight on SharePoint | Steve Fox |
| 11:15 am – 12:15 pm | Web Parts on SharePoint | John Durant |
| 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm | Lunch | |
| 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | Web Services on SharePoint | Paul Stubbs |
| 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm | Workflow on SharePoint | Eilene Hao |
| 3:00 pm – 3:15 pm | Break | |
| 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm | Event Handlers on SharePoint | Chris Johnson |
| 4:15 pm – 5:00 pm | Page Branding on SharePoint | Paul Andrew |
| Post Event | Pizza and Networking | |
Where: Microsoft Conference Center (Building 33) – Kodiak Room
When: June 11th 2008 - Wednesday
Register NOW! <-- Click to Register
If you have any questions, please contact via comments on my blog or email: mithund@ms.com – be sure to expand MS.
Thanks,
-Mithun Dhar
WOW! This is really cool...I've not yet explored it completely but I think I'll be watching the universe from a whole different monitor later tonight! :) I miss being in Microsoft Research :(
Download and check it out...
-Mithun Dhar
PS:
While you are at it, check out the Search feature. It's c o o l...
Expression Studio launched today! Yay!
You can either Buy or Subscribe! Very cool!
-Mithun Dhar
At Microsoft we have the tradition of bringing in a lb of M&M's for every year we complete. This year, I brought 6 lb's of M&M's. This week, if you bee lined to Building # 36 which is the Microsoft Office Building you'd find 25 lbs of M&M's. Can you believe it's 25 years since Microsoft launched its first version of Word. I am so glad that Mr. Clippy is no longer alive. I think he was about 6 years when MS decided to put him to sleep with MS Office 2007...lol!
May 2, 1983 — Microsoft announces the latest addition to its Multi-Tool Family of productivity tools, Microsoft Word. Word provided many features previously available only on dedicated word processors costing up to $10,000, including undo, style sheets, and cut/paste between multiple document windows.
Also important was the ability to use the new Microsoft Mouse to "designate text (e.g., for underlining or deletion), scroll through text, select commands, select options within commands, and even execute the commands." Many early Word advertisements included prominent shots of the mouse, as in this week's featured image.
It's amazing to see how software's evolved. I'd love to see the next versions of word with Speech built in. It's already included but I think it can be much better. Arguably, it's one of my favorite programs.
-Mithun Dhar
Technorati tags:
Word,
25 years,
history
I love dancing! And this just made my day....damn! I am so gonna hit a club this weekend...
PS:
There is something about dancing...it just takes you to a whole 'nother world! Like you are in a trance state of mind ;)
The next VSTS User Group talk is coming up this Wednesday on the 30th of April; Ameya Bhatawdekar from the VSTS product team will talk about building Reports in TFS.
This topic should be interest to all stakeholders - Project Managers, Developers, QA, as well as Project sponsors.
Please join us for a great talk and pizza at 6:30 PM on April 30. (@ Microsoft Campus Building # 118 - Mt. Si)
Register Now!.
For more information about the User Group, please visit the UG web-site at: http://www.seattleteamsystem.org
General Event Information
Event Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Featured Products/Topics: Visual Studio Team System, Visual Studio 2008
Title: Building Team Foundation Server Reports
Where: Microsoft Campus in Redmond - Building 118 - Mt. Sai. Room
Speaker: Ameya Bhatawdekar(Microsoft VSTS Product team)
Overview:
Team Foundation Server had powerful Business Intelligence capabilities. It has an industrial strength SQL Server data warehouse and the reports and process enacted in Team Foundation Server can be completely customized to meet the specific process and methodology needs of your organization. Come join Ameya Bhatawdekar to learn more about the Team Foundation Server Warehouse and learn how to build great Team Foundation Server reports!
Ameya Bhatawdekar is a program manager in the Team Foundation Server team. He worked on the TFS reporting feature for a while; these days he is working on figuring out how Team Foundation Server and Project Server work together.
Register - http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=127978
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
-Mithun Dhar

Today Microsoft unveiled RoboChamps (www.robochamps.com), a simulated robotics league that is open to academics, hobbyists and developers from around the world, that demonstrates the power of the Microsoft platform to enable a broad range of developers to explore new ways to use .NET for robotics programming.
RoboChamps is built on top of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio(MSRDS) 2008 CTP, and uses that product’s robust, physics enabled simulation environment to remove the barriers of entry that exist for many today. This simulated league provides individuals with immersive 3-d environments, simulated versions of robots, and compelling scenario-specific challenges where they can win real robots. This is for everyone, including, professional, hobbyist, and academic developers.
The focus of the contest is robotics and Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 (and its underlying technologies of CCR/DSS), but I also want to point out that the infrastructure uses a fair amount of Microsoft technologies – Silverlight 2.0, ASP.NET 3.5, WCF (REST and MTOM services), Linq, LiveID, Silverlight Streaming, .NET Framework 3.5, VS 2008, Expression Blend, IIS and Expression Encoder. The site also generates its own API keys so developers can compete and have their code tie into the site’s services, provides community with ‘robocards- rich SL cards that are exposed to be readily consumable on blogs, websites or third-party networks like Facebook. Advertising also plays a big role with sponsorship, ‘in world’ ads with Massive! So in essence, this is for everyone! This is very cool...you could easily get started as most of them are familiar technologies!
More information:
Website – www.RoboChamps.com
Channel 9 video – http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=399952
.NET Rocks Podcast – http://perseus.franklins.net/dotnetrocks_0336_marc_mercuri.wma
On10.net video – http://www.on10.net/blogs/tina/Robo-Champs-My-robot-is-bigger-then-your-robot/

US ISV Team, SecureIT Alliance and Platform Marketing are hosting a 2 day security workshop on Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. Information Security team (ACE) will create and deliver this high value application focused security content. As a valued ISV partner we would like you to invite to this workshop. The seats are limited and we will register on first come first serve basis, please register as soon as possible.
Event: Security Workshop
Date & Time: May 6th /7th 2008, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm
Location: Building: REDW-E Emerald Auditorium - 5600 148th Avenue N.E.REDMOND, WA 98052
Registration: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374745&culture=en-US
Agenda
| Time | Day 1 (May 6th) | Day 2 (May 7th) |
| 8:30 am - 9:00 am | Registration / Breakfast | Threat Modeling Talk about the benefits realized through a Threat Modeling in the early design phases. |
| 9:00 am -10:00 am | Key note Security landscape and trends. Talk about general security/privacy trends in the software industry. |
| 10:00 am - 10:15 am | Break | Break |
| 10:15 am - 11:45 am | Writing secure code with Microsoft Vista Overview of the security enhancements programmers should understand for Vista. Special attention to UAC and new crypto. | Programming with ADFS Review the basic tenants of implementing federated identity into a program. Discussion about the new Geneva CTP |
| 11:45 am - 12:30 pm | Lunch | Lunch |
| 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm | Integrating CardSpace into an application Explain what CardSpace is, what traditional attacks it mitigates, and how it follows the ‘laws of identity’. If possible, talk about our work with and integration with the OpenID Initiative. | MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) Security How to secure your MOSS infrastructure and implement best practices to write secure applications on top of MOSS. |
| 2:00 pm - 2:15 pm | Break | Break |
| 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm | WPF and SilverLight Security Talk about the way SilverLight security works. Discussion on WPF and Silverlight2.0 Security. | SQL 2008 Security Enhancements High level overview of SQL 2008 security changes, with emphasis on column level encryption and key protection hierarchy. |
| 3:45 pm - 4:00 pm | Break | Break |
| 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm | Secure your Web Apps Application Services Explore various providers, including Active Directory, How to write your own log in control in ASP.NET AJAX How to integrate a custom log in control with Silverlight 2 | WCF Security Basic tenants and foundations of WCF security, the different security bindings, and examples on their use (assumed basic knowledge of WCF) |
We look forward to seeing you at the Security Workshop.
-Mithun Dhar
Are you wondering what this whole 'mesh' is about? Well, as Amit very elegantly put it: It's the "magic of software and Internet services to connect and bring devices together into your own personal “mesh” enabling them to work in concert with one another." Yes, it's really that simple.
Microsoft has announced Live Mesh, a data storage and Web software system that blends Windows-based software with an elaborate array of services, which can be delivered to a variety of electronic devices.
Imagine a world with:
- "Unified Device Management" - enabling your devices to report into a common service, for status, for health, or to report their location.
- "Unified Data Management"- or the transparent synchronization of files, folders, documents & media, the bi-directional synchronization of arbitrary feeds, of all kinds, across your devices and the web.
- "Unified Application Management" - for centralized web-based deployment of apps across the devices you own.
- "Centralized Management" - where you could configure and personalize your devices and remote control into them from just about anywhere.
That would make our digital, hardware driven lives so much more simpler! You can read more about this HERE! Be sure to stop by the Live Mesh tech preview
You can also see a live video on Channel 10. But, bobody tells it better than Ray Ozzie!
It's better together!
-Mithun Dhar
Windows Mobile Fire Starter Event
Did you know that 5 of the 10 top selling ‘Smart Phones’ run on Windows Mobile?
And, If You always wondered who wrote ‘Bubble breaker’ on the Windows Mobile phone and wanted to write similar applications that get used by Millions of people around the world then this Mobility Fire Starter Event is for you!
The Mobility Fire Starter event is a 1-day seminar with in-depth coverage of building applications on the Windows Mobile platform. Come join us for an action packed schedule where we introduce you to the nitty gritty of writing applications on the Windows Mobile platform. All you need some basic level of understanding of the .NET platform. We use familiar tools such as Visual Studio, the .NET Compact Framework, SQL Server Compact Edition and more. In a typical Fire Starter event fashion, we will begin the day with something really simple and build on more complex applications by the end of the day. We have a VERY LIMITED number of seats so do REGISTER as soon as possible.
Speaker/Trainer: Dan Fergus
Dan Fergus is the principal technologist at Forest Software Group, which provides consulting and contracting services to companies throughout the U.S. He is a Device Application Development MVP, a trainer, and the co-author of "The Definitive Guide to the .NET Compact Framework." Fergus has also written many articles, is a frequent speaker at conferences and user groups, and is a contributing editor for Visual Studio Magazine.
The following seven areas will be discussed in detail:
· All About Windows Mobile
· Windows Mobile for Line of Business
· The Tools
· Managed Development
· Data Management Strategies
· Performance and Optimization
· A Whole New Level
We look forward to seeing you at the event.
Where: Microsoft Building # 37 - Redmond
When: May 13th – Tuesday (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM)
Who: If you have any questions or problems with the registration contact ‘MithunD’ @ you know where!

See you there!
-Mithun Dhar
Firstly, check out the new, upgraded, Live Maps! It's awesome. I really like the 3D Birds eye view and Tailored 3D views. So much better than conventional mapping technologies. There are lots more cool features like Walking Directions, Reverse Geocoding, Localized Directions, etc, etc! Heck, we even added extra support for Safari.
And for all you Developers, we launched a new version of the Virtual Earth API. The Interactive SDK was also updated (as well as, the SDK on MSDN).
Click below to install Virtual Earth
Go Explore the world from your desktop!
-Mithun Dhar
This is so disturbing!
I was just going through BBC for some 'quality' news in pictures and then 'bam' I get this horrifying picture. I was eating, white fluffy, soft serve yogurt from Red Mango and I almost threw up when I saw this picture. What's wrong with people...

A so-called "mash van" in the UK shows off its new "mash cone" with sausage, mashed potato, gravy and peas in an ice cream cone. Here's the link
-Mithun Dhar
So last night I was browsing through the 'Microsoft daily'...and I came across this 'This week in History' section! This ad shows that we've always been about interop, we've always been about changing lives for the better ;),
I am so fascinated by how much we evolve and by God, what an exponential world we live in!
Here's a Ctrl+V of the article...
In the world:
April 4, 1968 — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old.
March 30, 1867 — U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7 million. Detractors in Congress deem this "Seward's Folly" despite the bargain price of around $.02 per acre. Gold would be discovered in the territory as early as 1898 and oil in 1968, a few years after statehood.
At Microsoft:
April 2, 1980 — Microsoft introduces the Z-80 SoftCard, a circuit board that plugs into the Apple II computer and allows Apple II users to run CP/M applications with only minor modifications, opening up a new array of business-oriented applications for the home user. (Here's another link - http://apple2history.org/museum/peripheralcards_nonapple/softcard.html)
Shown here is an advertisement for the SoftCard, which sold over 100,000 units.
But the wow part was the Alaska Deal, @ $0.02 per acre??? That's a steal!
-Mithun Dhar
I am excited to geek Speak with Steven Borg tomorrow between Noon and 1:00 PM PST.
Steven, is an active community member and he recently presented at VS Live and also at the Launch event. Come talk with us and learn a lot about Visual Studio Team System tomorrow. Here's the Registration link!
Technorati tags:
geekspeak,
VSTS -Mithun Dhar
So hopefully you had a chance to attend the Launch events (Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL 2008) if not definitely go and register for an event near you - www.heroeshappenhere.com
But if you did, here's where you can find all the Lab Manuals for the HOL's at the event.
HTH!
-Mithun Dhar