I just uploaded a lot of new events to my events site, including several new MSDN and TechNet events as well as a special event in Nashville happening next week. This special event features a special guest, non other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The event also features highlights from the PDC, and is called MSDN Events Presents: A Lap Around PDC featuring Steve Ballmer. Here's a little bit about this big event. A Lap Around PDC featuring Steve Ballmer
Join us as we bring the “highlights” from the PDC09 conference to you! At this special event we will cover the latest Microsoft technologies and exciting announcements from PDC09 and deliver 16 sessions presented by Microsoft evangelists as well as several local partners, MVPs and Community Leaders. The keynote will be delivered by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and will cover Microsoft’s three screens and the cloud strategy.
Microsoft is releasing more than 25 products and frameworks over the next six months, more than at any other time. Our goal is to get you up to speed on what is coming, and how it can help you do more with what you have. The sessions will cover multiple technologies such as Microsoft® Windows® Azure™, Visual Studio® 2010, .NET 4, Silverlight™ 4, SharePoint Server® 2010, SQL Server® 2008 R2, Windows® 7, and Windows Server® 2008 R2.
During the event, we encourage you to network with your peers and chat one-on-one with the speakers at the “Ask the Experts” area to get all of your questions answered. You can also visit the Customer Showcase area to see how customers are using the latest technologies in real world applications, and the amazing results they are seeing. We will also showcase the latest Windows powered gadgets and mobile devices in the Customer Showcase area.
If seeing isn’t enough, we will also have a fully staffed Hands-On-Lab area packed with PCs, labs you can practice with, and expert staff to help you learn the new tools.
We will be hosting the event at Vanderbilt University Student Life Center in Nashville, TN. Specific information about event parking and shuttle service will be posted on the registration site and emailed to you prior to the event as well. Every attendee will receive a Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 DVD, a T-shirt and have a chance to win a prize at the end of the day. I'll be sharing more details on the rest of the events coming soon. We hope to see you at our events when they visit a city near you!
Next up in the architect webcast series is Michele Leroux Bustamante speaking on Securing REST-Based Services with Access Control Service. Securing REST-Based Services with Access Control Service
The Access Control Service (ACS), part of Windows Azure platform AppFabric, makes it easy to secure REST-based services using a simple set of standard protocols. In addition to enabling secure calls to REST-based services from any client, the ACS uniquely makes it possible to secure calls from client-side script, and enables federation scenarios with REST-based services. This webcast will provide a tour of ACS features and demonstrate scenarios where the ACS can be employed to secure REST-based WCF services and other web resources. You’ll learn how to configure ACS, learn how to request a token from the ACS, and learn how applications and services can authorize access based on the ACS token. Event Details
December 22, 2009 at 11:00am – 12:30pm PST
Event ID 1032435379
Register Here About Michele Leroux Bustamante
Michele Leroux Bustamante brings a well-rounded skill set to the IDesign, including expertise not just in architecture and technology but also in interoperability, management, and operations. Michele is not only an IDesign Chief Architect, she is also Microsoft Regional Director for San Diego, Microsoft MVP for Connected Systems and a BEA Technical Director. In addition, Michele is a member of the board of directors for the International Association of Software Architects (IASA). With over 15 years of experience designing enterprise systems, prior to IDesign Michele has held senior executive positions at several corporations. She has assembled and organized software development teams from the ground up, implemented processes for all aspects of the software development lifecycle, and facilitated many successful large-scale enterprise application deployments, including capital fund raising, sales, and business development efforts. Michele specializes in training, mentoring and high-end architecture consulting services focusing on Web services, scalable and secure architecture design for .NET, federated security scenarios, web services, interoperability and globalization architecture. She participates in Software Design Reviews for products in the Microsoft roadmap, including WCF and CardSpace. During the Beta 1 phase Michele participated in prototyping elements of the CardSpace technology for the product team. Michele has been advisor to University of California, San Diego Extension since 1994, establishing several successful certificate programs. Michele is a member of the International .NET Speakers Association (INETA); a frequent conference presenter at major technology conferences such as Tech Ed, PDC, SD and Dev Connections. Michele is the conference chair for SD’s Web Services/SOA and Web Development tracks; and she regularly publishes in several technology journals. Michele’s latest book is Learning WCF (O’Reilly, 2007). Visit her book blog at www.thatindigogirl.com or her main blog at www.dasblonde.net.
Registration has opened today for MIX10! The venue is different (Mandalay Bay), but the city (Las Vegas) and the conversation (72 hours of conversation exploring the art and technology that helps designers and developers craft compelling user experiences) remain the same. The event will be March 15-17, 2010, with pre-con workshops on March 14. (Is it really almost 2010???) Some quick details – registration opens today and the early-bird discount runs through January 15, 2010. (I still can't believe 2010 is just around the corner...) The discount this year is $600 off the conference registration fee _plus_ a free night at the Mandalay Bay. That means if you register before the early bird deadline, you can attend MIX10 for $795. After 1/15...? The rate jumps to $1,395. I had the pleasure to attend MIX08, and I can vouch that it was a great experience. Check out the MIX10 site and see if you can make out out.
 My colleagues in the Chicagoland area are hosting a series of events on the testing tools that are now a part of Visual Studio featuring Ram Cherla, a Principal Program Manager in the Visual Studio Test Tools Business, a growing part of the Developer Division at Microsoft. Ram is very passionate about building a well-integrated set of tools and technologies that enable developers build, test and ship quality software.
Ram will be visiting Chicago and Milwaukee to provide a deeper dive into the innovative new capabilities being introduced in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Visual Studio Test Elements and Test and Lab Management products. The events he will be headlining will feature presentations appropriate for developers, architects, and quality assurance analysts. People who attend the events will have the opportunity to see the upcoming testing products included in Visual Studio 2010 as well as interact directly with the Redmond team responsible for designing, building and delivering the new testing products. The sessions will cover a broad range of topics, including Software Quality Assurance (SQA), historical debugging, the new manual test runner, test impact analysis and test lab management.  The events feature a full day of sessions, starting at 8:30am local time and wrapping up around 4:30pm local (or Zulu for you military-types). The agenda will cover an overall walkthrough of the new features, a brief discussion on the product transition (I'm working on a blog post for that), as well as a deep dive into the new QA features – Coded UI Testing, Manual Test Runner, Lab Management and more – followed by a discussion on migration and integration options for other QA tools on the market. The team will close with a raffle for books and a new Zune HD.
There are three events in this short series.
If you live in the Chicagoland area or in Milwaukee, and you are responsible for producing quality software (yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Developer Guy; this isn't just for the guys and gals in QA, you know!), you should check out one of these events.
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
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