Latest Microsoft Blogs

Mehfuz Hossain (a Microsoft MVP) has been working on [ Creating Custom LINQ Providers ] and has built a [ LINQ-to-Twitter ] provider. Man our MVP's are the BEST !! Read More...

If you read my blog by now you know I'm a big fan of the Microsoft Patterns and Practices Team !! Well, my buddy Carl Franklin just did a .NET Rocks episode on the new Application Guide 2.0 Check out .NET Rocks show #426, Rob Boucher on Application Architecture Guidance . It's an in-depth interview with Rob Boucher from our Microsoft patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0 project . It's a behind the scenes look at the making of the guide and you get to know Rob along the way. There's a lot of insight about the structure of the guide, as well as the approach we used in the guide. There's also a lot of inside information on the design intentions and usage scenarios. It ROCKS ! Read More...

I've been playing with yet another goodie bundle from the P&P folks. Did you know about this ??? The Web Service Software Factory: Modeling Edition (also known as the Service Factory) is an integrated collection of resources designed to help you quickly and consistently build Web services that adhere to well-known architecture and design patterns. These resources consist of patterns and architecture topics in the form of written guidance and models with code generation in the form of tools integrated with Visual Studio 2008. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb931187.aspx Read More...

REALLY distributed architectures are playing a bigger and bigger role in application development these days and Azure is an exciting bit of "Cloud" based technology. Check out ..... SQL Data Services Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS) offers highly scalable and Internet-facing distributed database services in the cloud for storing and processing relational queries. SDS can help you develop and provision new applications quickly with REST and SOAP based web protocols. The services are built on robust SQL Server database and Windows Server technologies, providing high availability and security. Get Started Visit the Dev Center Try the SDS Public CTP Read More...

You know the Expression Suite ! Tools for building the UI "experience". Well know there is a gallery of designs created by YOU ! Check them out here..... http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/ Read More...

As the line between " Web Application " and " Windows Client Application " continues to blur those clever rascals at Microsoft Research have been prototyping a new " Social Desktop " From Microsoft Research ..... The Social Desktop blends the Web and PC by embedding Web oriented sharing inside your desktop, allowing every document to have the ability to have a backing social URL for sharing without having to upload or copy or move it from it's natural location. This url provides access not just to the file, but to a built in social experience which includes a rich preview of each item, comments, related items, tags, etc. Whenever friends comment with this social link via the web browser, the conversation is...

I recently got this from an ASP.NET Developer ! Hey Joe: I am working through your Ajax SlideShow video and just wanted to let you know these videos are great! Thanks for making them! I try to learn from books and tutorials as much as possible, and I find a lot of books frustrating because they show "snippets" as opposed to building an example step-by-step. Your videos are excellent at that! Not only did this make my week, (It's great when you get to HEAR that your work is helpful and has value) but it highlighted for me what I've been thinking for years. People prefer learn different things in ways. Now that Simon is back from his amazing sabbatical, and I;ve hadled back the day-to-day operation of the ASP.NET and WindowsClient...

Kazi Manzur Rashid has recently launched a new Community Site for .NET developers http://dotnetshoutout.com It's a categorized, hand picked index of .NET info, which is cool enough, but there is a really interesting aspect. 1.) It's an ASP.NET MVC application 2.) It's based on an Open Source CodePlex.com project KiGG ( http://codplex.com/KiGG ). KiGG was the first starter kit for ASP.NET MVC. Check it out! Read More...

Infragistics has made the Quince UX patterns explorer available for free to the development community. Quince is an online repository of the world's most useful and usable UX patterns focused on creating superior user experiences where you can go to enhance your own UX designs. Free and open, anybody can contribute to Quince and grow the UX pattern body of knowledge. It is all about giving you the UX pattern resource you need to create great UX designs for your end users. http://www.infragistics.com/hot/quince.aspx http://quince.infragistics.com Read More...

J.D. and the very smart folks over in the Patterns and Practices group have been at it again and have published another GREAT development resource. Patterns & Practices Application Architecture Knowledge Base Authored by .... - J.D. Meier , Alex Homer, David Hill, Jason Taylor , Prashant Bansode , Lonnie Wall, Rob Boucher Jr, Akshay Bogawat . It's downloadable as a PDF file and is a simply incredible Application Architecture Guide. Now if I could just get it for my Kindle ! http://www.codeplex.com/AppArch/ Read More...