Two of the folks on my team, Jeff Brand and Mike Benkovich, are planning a small series of events in our North Central geography (see the Glossary of Terms). The event will be called "Building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight and WCF RIA Services". What?
These events will run from 8:30am until 12:30pm, a solid half day where they will walk developers through the creation of business-focused applications leveraging the power of Silverlight and WCF RIA Services. Using both Visual Studio and Expression Blend, Jeff and Mike will show attendees how applications can be quickly built that are cross-platform and cross-browser. Some of the topics they will cover include rich UI design, creating open web services, client and server validation, rapid prototyping, data binding, and more. Where and When?
The first event is in Omaha, NE (two events in three months; YES!) on Thursday, January 29, 2010 (can you believe it is 2010 already???) starting at 8:30am. Sogeti USA
14301 FNB Parkway, Suite 206
Omaha, NE 68154
Register Here The second event is in Minneapolis, MN on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 (yup, still 2010) also starting at 8:30am. Microsoft Corporation
8300 Norman Center Drive, Suite 950
Bloomington, MN 55437
Register Here Why?
Because it's new tech and Jeff and Mike are excellent presenters.
Deep Fried Bytes is a podcast hosted by a couple of colleagues of mine – Keith Elder and Chris Woodruff. They recently recorded an episode focused on Internet Explorer 8 with my friend and coworker, Jon Box. Jon covers several of the new developer-oriented features introduced in IE8 designed to help teams produce better user experiences on the web. Jon discusses how you can use use Accelerators, Web Slices and Search Providers in IE8 to keep users informed and updated. Go grab Episode 41 and give it a listen today.
Well look at this… The Silverlight Team has launched their own podcast. The first episode of the podcast is on IIS7 Media Services 3.0 featuring Silverlight Senior Product Manager David Sayed and IIS Senior Program Manager Chris Knowlton. This is the tech that powers Smooth Streaming for those that didn't know (like me). They offer two formats: enhanced (with pictures and stuff) and MP3 (just for audio players). They don't have a feed for just the podcast that I have found as of yet. Technorati Tags: Silverlight
The Channel 9 team is broadcasting live at PDC09 from LA this week. They will be covering over 20 hours of keynotes and sessions live throughout PDC this week. They have a solid lineup of guests including Mark Russinovich, Patrick Dussud, Steve Marx, Bob Muglia, Ray Ozzie, Erik Meijer, Scott Guthrie, Don Box, Chris Anderson, the .NET Rocks crew and more. So if you were like me and weren’t able to attend PDC – I sent members of my team and stayed home to hold down the fort while they attended the festivities in person – please tune your favorite browser in at http://www.microsoftpdc.com or follow the Ch. 9 team on Twitter at @ch9live to see what they have in store.
Did you miss the Windows 7 New Efficiency launch event in your city? Or did the launch events not visit your city? As I mentioned in an earlier post, our team is brining several events to cities around the central US. We call this TechNet & MSDN Events Present: Highlights from “The New Efficiency” Launch. 
The Lineup
Join us as we explore how Windows® 7, Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Exchange Server® 2010 deliver on the new efficiency where cost savings, productivity and innovations come together. At this free event we’ll cover the best of the sessions and deliver highlights from “The New Efficiency” Launch events that have been taking place nationwide over the past several weeks. Attend one of our best of events and learn more about these new products: - Windows 7 simplifies everyday tasks, improves productivity and works the way you want.
- Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs.
- Exchange Server 2010 achieves new levels of reliability, reduces cost and drives productivity.
The Cities
We're coming to a city near you. More importantly, we're coming to some cities we haven't traditionally been able to visit, like Tulsa, Omaha, Des Moines and Louisville. The Prizes!
To tantalize you some more, we're offering some pretty amazing prizes this tour. Rather that dip into our usual bag of giveaways (books and mice), or should I say in addition to our usual bag, we're bringing some big prizes to the table to celebrate the release of Windows 7! - Dell Mini 10 netbook (your very own netbook, complete with Windows 7 Ultimate)
- Zune HD 32GB (I have one, and this thing is just gorgeous)
- Halo 3 ODST for Xbox 360
- Windows 7 Inside Out (for the TechNet events)
- Introducing Windows 7 for Developers (for the MSDN events)
Please join us!
Well, I'm a bit behind on writing the post on this, but I did successfully scrub and install Windows 7 Ultimate RTM on my home PC as well. One More Testimonial
The core OS install took only ~30 minutes, faster than the laptops. That's to be expected, though. My home PC is a Dell XPS 430 (yes, I am a Dell fan). It's a bit more powerful than the laptops, since I use it for more than just email and surfing the internet. So that makes three full Windows 7 installs in perhaps 2 hours over 2 days. Granted that was just the core OS (which is all the kid's laptop needed); installing Office 2007 from disc plus the SP1 and SP2 downloads over Windows Update did take a bit longer. But the core OS on all three machines was up and running and fully functional in short order. Impressive Moments
Here's what really impressed me about the Windows 7 experience on my home PC. Every device driver with the exception of one worked out of the box from the base install. The one missing device Driver was a newer-model wireless adapter. I popped in the disc, then everything was back on track. Once wireless was configured and running, Windows Update did some amazing things. It recognized that I had more than just a basic mouse and keyboard, for example, and pulled down the latest IntelliPoint and IntelliType drivers. It also updated my ATI graphics card and pulled down some other hardware updates in addition to the usual slate of security updates. It also allowed me to optionally download Silverlight v3.0 as well as Windows Live Essentials. These downloads took about 30 minutes to stream down over my DSL line and install, but I went from bare metal to ready-to-go in about an hour. The Next Steps Take the Longest
So the next steps were to install that HP printer again (worked just the same as last time), install Office 2007 and updates (that took about 90 minutes total, between the fast base install and downloading perhaps 1GB of updates – which included two service packs), install Nero 9, Norton Internet Security, Quicken 2010, Zune, and a handful of other applications, utilities, and games. All of this took another 3 or so hours total, stuffing discs through the drive and installing downloaded EXE packages. So I went from Windows 7 RC to completely ready to go on Windows 7 RTM in about four hours. Not Quite Done
To be completely honest, I am not 100% done. I still need to install some utilities, but life got in the way (Halloween vacation trip to Memphis to see family and a Geocaching tour of Tennessee and Arkansas on the drive home). I anticipate getting those knocked out this week and I speculate they will take less than an hour to polish off. Unless life gets in the way again (meaning Dragon Age: Origins, which released yesterday). Technorati Tags: Windows 7
Our new advertising campaign rolled out last week. And I'm not just saying this as an employee or a fan boy, but I really like the extension of the "I'm a PC" campaign. You see, with Windows 7 we worked with customers, partners, and software vendors through the development, Beta, and RC phases of development, incorporating feedback and fine-tuning the OS. This is an OS built for you. It's fast and responsive, it has sleek lines, and it's ergonomic and easy to use. It's kind of like a sports car. This ad captures the spirit of what I'm saying better than I could ever do: This ad highlights feedback from customers and consumers from several walks of life – and some Microsoft engineers committing to implement the requests. And implement them they did. It's a great OS, better than Vista _and_ XP. Windows 7 is faster than both, most applications just work, and it's more secure. There are something like one billion PC users out there, and, as the ad says, 1 billion = 7. Your feedback crafted this finely tuned performance vehicle. You don't believe me? Well... On A More Personal Note... Three Windows 7 Testimonials
Story #1 – I recently got a new printer. It's a fancy Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet CM2320fxi MFP. When I set it up I had my primary system running Windows 7 RC and another system running Windows Vista. The HP software required administrator rights. Easy with Windows 7: right-click the install executable and select run as Administrator. The install ran through perfectly and the printer just worked – duplex printing, remote scan over a wireless network, and remote fax. All-in-all a great experience. Although I got most of it (but not remote scan) working on the Vista system (now replaced by Windows 7; see story #3 below), it took a few more hoops: compatibility mode, administrator mode, and a few other tweaks. It worked, but it was more of a hassle. Windows 7? Just worked. Story #2 – At work, I upgraded to the RTM bits only a few weeks ago, in September after finishing up our internal employee review cycle. I didn't want to disrupt my productivity so I held off. As it turns out, I didn't need to wait. I used Remote Installation Services (RIS; a component of Windows Server 2003+ that allows IT administrators to create install images). Our IT Windows 7 64bit image laid down Windows 7, Windows Live, Office 2007, and several corporate tools in about an hour. In another hour I had all my utilities installed *and* configured. Another hour after that I downloaded and installed a couple of other, not as essential applications. In literally three hours – though I was actually done in two – installation via RIS (with the help of Live Mesh) I was up and running again. Not to dog on Vista (which it kind of sounds like I'm doing), but the last time I did that with Vista it took the better part of a full day. Story #3 – Back at home – just last night, in fact – I upgraded my wife's and kid's computers to the final bits, Windows 7 Ultimate purchased from the company store and delivered via UPS yesterday. Using the 64bit disc, I went from FDISK on the primary partition to running on both systems (both flavors of the Dell Inspiron laptop) in less than a half an hour. Every single hardware device was found and configured during install. Both came in with a 3.4 Windows Experience Rating, a slight increase over the RC (up from 3.2 and 3.3 between the pair) and a nice increase from Windows Vista (both around 3.0 out-of-the-box). In all transparency I did the installs in parallel, but still – two systems up and running in ~30 minutes is impressive. My third copy of Windows 7 Ultimate arrived today, and I'll be upgrading my XPS desktop. I expect another speedy install. What Are You Waiting For?
If you haven't taken a look at Windows 7, you should. I'm a PC. You should be one, too. After all... It was built for you. Technorati Tags: Windows 7
The fine folks at php|Architect are hosting a contest. A contest with a great prize. All you need to do is build a PHP application on the Windows platform, submit your application, and you will have a chance to win a complete 52" HDTV home entertainment system and have the opportunity to present your creation to the crowd at php|tek 2010 in Chicago with an all-expenses paid trip. What? A free HDTV rig? What do I need to do?
It's pretty simple. All you need to do is create a PHP application optimized to run on Windows and the IIS platform from scratch – or leverage existing open-source libraries and applications – to create something new, unique, and useful. It can be anything from a new or enhanced blogs engine, forum, or photo gallery application to other platforms or componentizable parts. All you need to do is register for the contest and submit your application between by February 28th, 2010. The best application, as selected jointly by a panel of experts and by the readers of php|Architect, will win a grand prize: a 52" Digital HD home entertainment system, as well as that all-expenses paid trip to php|tek 2010 next Spring. Runner-up prizes include Xbox 360s and subscriptions to php|architect. What's the catch?
Good question, and there is a key catch. This contest is open to residents of the United States only. Read the full rules for the full spectrum of guidelines and legalese. The key one is this is only open to US residents. Yeah, but how do I win???
Starting March 1, 2010, judges and readers of php|Architect will be asked to judge your entry based on the following criteria (yes, I copied this from the site): | Criterium | Maximum Points | Notes | | Originality | 40 | Is the entry unique? How does it differentiate from other applications of the same kind? | | Functionality | 40 | How well does the application work? Does it follow industry-standard best practices? Is it secure? How well does it take advantage of Windows? | | Aesthetic and Presentation | 20 | How visually appealing is the application? How well designed is the user interface/experience? | | Total Regular Points | 100 | | | Storage Bonus | 10 | Does the application use SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 Express, Azure Blog Storage or Azure SQL Storage and, if so, how well? | | Client Technology Bonus | 10 | Does the application use Silverlight, IE8 WebSlices, Accelerators and/or Search Providers and, if so, how well? | | Maximum Points | 120 | | So, that should help you steer your efforts. Maximize the points in each of the criterium – and snag some bonus points for clever use of storage or client technologies – and you will set yourself up to win. The contest offers free hosting (thank you, Applied Innovations). What are you waiting for? Go give it a try.
Next Monday, October 26th, my colleagues on the West Coast will be hosting the San Diego New Efficiency Launch. We know that not everyone has been able to attend the launch events in person – either they weren't held in your city (which we're working on here in good old Central US) or you weren't available on the day they were held. Fortunately the fine folks out West are also hosting their San Diego event online! So, if you missed the launch, you can view and download 18 IT Professional and Developer focused sessions live from the San Diego launch event starting at 9am PDT October 26th. Focusing on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010, you can listen to Microsoft experts, download valuable resources and explore the live launch event "virtually". Mark your calendars now, and enjoy what my West Coast friends have to say.
 Following the release of the .NET Framework v4 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 earlier this week, the latest CTP (community technology preview) of both IronPython and IronRuby are available on CodePlex. This is the third build of IronRuby and IronPython running on the Dynamic Language Runtime that is built directly into .NET 4.0; these releases are built to run on the .NET Framework v4 Beta 2.
 As before, this release allows you to use IronPython and IronRuby objects and types as .NET 4.0 dynamic objects from within C# and Visual Basic code.
These releases are roughly equivalent to the functionality found in IronRuby 0.9 and IronPython 2.6.
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