Dr. Z's Blog : Microsoft Product Information

A Remondmag article on Silverlight 2.0 beta availability, MIX08 and ...

zxue — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:27:00 GMT

A recent article by Kathleen Richards, the senior editor at redmondmag.com, provides the latest on Silverlight 2.0 beta availability, MIX08, Silverlight vs. WFP, Visual Studio .NET and Expression Blend, and NBC’s plan to provide contents of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing via Silverlight streaming at NBCOlympics.com. Find more at http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=9549

DreamSpark -- a software giveaway campaign for college and high school students

zxue — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:36:00 GMT

Microsoft will launch a software giveaway campaign named "DreamSpark" that will provide developer tools to millions of college and high school students around the world. The program will initially start in 10 nations, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It will be expanded to more countries in six months. More info at http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8302312

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Launch Events

zxue — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:03:00 GMT

You can find event launch and updated registration information at www.heroeshappenhere.com

For information on products and technologies, visit links below.

Windows Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx

SQL Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/default.mspx

Visual Studio 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/vstudio

The 2008 Microsoft Office System Developer Conference is only a month away!

zxue — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Conference highlights:

Special keynote address by Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman

Kurt DelBene, CVP, Office Business Platform Group

Rajesh Jha, CVP, Office Live

Richard McAniff, CVP for Microsoft Office

Gurdeep Singh Pall, CVP, Unified Communications Group

· Executive Track for business leaders (by nomination only)

· Partner Expo (Additional details available here )

· “Unconference” sessions

· Expert speakers, including Ted Pattison, John Holliday, Scott Hillier, Michael Lehman, David Mann, Andrew Connell, and many others!

· Contests, awards, entertainment, and more!

Breakout session descriptions are now available on our event site at Sessions & Speakers.

Visit www.odc2008.com and check out the track owner blogs for more details.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to learn and network, as developers, architects, industry technical experts, Microsoft insiders, executives and partners come together in a public forum to redefine what it means to be focused on Microsoft Office system development. And your voice counts.

Join us this February in the heart of Silicon Valley at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California, and help craft the next generation of applications built on the Microsoft Office system. Visit www.odc2008.com for more information.

MIX08 will be held in Las Vegas, March 5-7,2008

zxue — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:09:00 GMT

Detail at http://visitmix.com/2008/default.aspx

MIX is an intimate conversation between developers, designers and business professionals to explore:

High-fidelity commerce, content, media, services and security
How new technologies can help find, retain and up-sell customers
The latest on Silverlight, Internet Explorer, ASP.NET, Expression, Windows Live and other key technologies. Keynotes, presentations, discussions, labs
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will share his thoughts as well
Maybe it’s because we’re huge “The Tao of Steve” fans, or we can’t help but return to one of the hottest nightclubs on the strip . . . the MIX bash this year will be at TAO in the Venetian

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

TECHNICAL STRATEGISTS
Developers can dive deep into the latest Microsoft Web technologies, including Silverlight, Internet Explorer 8, "Atlas"/AJAX, ASP.NET, Windows Cardspace, the Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Media and others. Want to learn how to code pages for IE8 that render properly in other popular browsers? Interested in building AJAX sites quickly and efficiently?

CREATIVES
Designers can learn how Microsoft's platform technologies will allow them to create rich experiences that incorporate video, advanced typography, vector graphics, and 3D graphics. Explore new ways to differentiate your sites from those of your competitors, learn how to streamline the designer-developer pipeline and discuss strategies for improving your site's usability.

DECISION MAKERS
Business Professionals will get a solid overview of how Windows Vista and the Internet Explorer roadmap can boost site revenues and unlock new business opportunities. Get the latest Vista and IE8 forecasts from Microsoft.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Launch Announced!

zxue — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:02:00 GMT

Today, over 7,000 organizations rely on BizTalk Server to integrate systems, automate processes and communicate across global supply chains. With the introduction of the fifth full version, BizTalk Server 2006 R2 builds upon the Business Process Management and SOA/ESB capabilities in prior releases to help organizations extend core process management technologies even further with new capabilities like native support for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), AS2 and RFID, and close alignment with the upcoming releases of 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista, including key .NET Framework technologies such as Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation.

Taipei, Taiwan - September 10, 2007

Keynoted by Don Ferguson, Microsoft Technical Fellow in the Office of the CTO and former IBM Chief Software Architect

Sydney, Australia - September 13, 2007

Keynoted by Don Ferguson, Microsoft Technical Fellow in the Office of the CTO and former IBM Chief Software Architect

Chicago, US – October 2, 2007

Keynoted by Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Corporation

More info at Steven Martin's blog or Microsoft BizTalk site.

Silverlight 1.0 has been officially released!

zxue — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:29:00 GMT

The final version of Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Refresh have just been released to the web. They are available for download at http://silverlight.net/GetStarted

It's worth noting that Microsoft has established a formal partnership with Novell to provide a Silverlight implementation for Linux in the next few months. Microsoft will be delivering Silverlight Media Codecs for Linux, and Novell will be building a 100% compatible Silverlight runtime implementation called "Moonlight". More detail at Scott's blog.

Photoblog @ MSN.COM

zxue — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:07:00 GMT

I have not spent much time at the photoblog site of msn.com until tonight. The old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is absolutely true to describe my initial impression. But this site offers much more. People have repeately used the word "WOW" in their comments. For me it is just an eye-opening, jaw dropping experience. Many pictures I viewed are so vivid and powerful that they stay with me after I close the browser. These pictures touch our lives and convey the truth in many ways. They are just incredible and priceless!

You will have to see it to believe.