Latest Microsoft Blogs : Misfit Geek [Silverlight]

10 skills developers will need in the next five years

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:22:23 GMT

According to TechRepublic ...... 1: One of the “Big Three” (.NET, Java, PHP) 2: Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) 3: Web developmentWeb 4: Web services (REST, SOAP, JSON, XML) 5: Soft skills 6: One dynamic and/or functional programming language 7: Agile methodologies 8: Domain knowledge 9: Development “hygiene” 10: Mobile development You can read the whole article [ HERE ] Read More......(read more)

The Windows Web App Gallery

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:25:49 GMT

We launched the Windows Web Application Gallery at MIX on 3/18 with 10 open source and community applications, including DotNetNuke, DasBlog, Umbraco and Subtext. We are now experiencing thousands of application downloads per week! Are you working on a community/open source application ? Why don't you join the Web App Gallery? To get started: 1. Review the Web App Gallery Principles to get a sense of how we keep a common baseline for user experience. 2. Create manifest files to add to your ZIP package at using the Application Packaging Guide . 3. Submit your application. (You’ll have to log in with a LiveID first.) We’ll then check out your submission to see if it follows the Web App Gallery Principles . Once it does, your application will...(read more)

LINQ-TO-Twitter ?

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:23:00 GMT

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......(read more)

.NET Rocks Interview on the Application Architecture Guide 2.0

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:46:02 GMT

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......(read more)

SQL Data Services - SQL Server in the Cloud !

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:00:28 GMT

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......(read more)

The Microsoft Expression Gallery

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:43:30 GMT

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......(read more)

Infragistics Gives Us Quince - The User Experience Patterns Explorer

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:13:41 GMT

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......(read more)

Patterns & Practices: Application Architecture Guide 2.0 Knowledge Base

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:35:35 GMT

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......(read more)

Introducing Azure Issue Tracker Sample Application

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:01:47 GMT

The Azure Services Evangelism team is pleased to announce the release of the Azure Issue Tracker sample application. The Azure Issue Tracker demonstrates a real-world ISV scenario where you want to create and host a SaaS application for your consumers. This sample is being released in two versions: Standard and Enterprise. The Standard version allows ad-hoc users to use Windows LiveID federation with the .NET Access Control Service and authorize other Windows LiveID users. This allows small groups of users to quickly provision projects and issue tracking capabilities while using the rich claims-based authorization model and flexible entity storage. The Cloud is the NEW SOA :) http://www.codeplex.com/azureissuetracker Read More......(read more)

Release Candidate of IIS PowerShell Snap-in

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:33:45 GMT

Now available for download: Release Candidate of IIS PowerShell Snap-in The Release Candidate of the IIS PowerShell Snap-in now available. A lot of work was done between Tech Preview 2 and now. The team focused mainly on augmenting the PowerShell Provider with almost 70 task-oriented cmdlets useful for day-to-day administrative tasks. Here is a quick categorization of the task-oriented cmdlets: Mangement of Sites/Apps/Vdirs/AppPools (create/start/stop/remove/convert/recycle) Management of site bindings (add/change/remove) Management of Handlers and Modules/Managed Modules (add/change/remove) Enablement of Request Tracing Backup and Restore of IIS configuration Locking/unlocking of sections/elements/attributes Getting file system path for config...(read more)

BOOK: Murach's SQL Server 2008 for Developers

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:39:33 GMT

I consistently meet good developers who are not database "experts". Many of us had a good deal of formal education on Data Structures, Algorithms, Patterns, Syntax, Methodologies, but learn about developing with Databases and the associated tools a little bit as a time as our work took us through the process. Murach's has just updated their great book on SQL Server for Developers for all the 2008 versions from Microsoft. Not only does it provide detailed enlightenment on all the "tools" like the SQL 2008 Management Studio, but it's full of practical "How-DO-I" stuff. For example, we all know that binary or other "un-typed" data can be stored in a Table Column of type "BLOB". But how do...(read more)

ComponentOne Silverlight WebParts for SharePoint

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:12:29 GMT

ComponentOne announced the initial CTP release of our “ComponentOne WebParts for SharePoint” product, available for discovery and download at http://labs.componentone.com/WebParts/ . It's ht be interesting to see their direction on melding Silverlight and SharePoint From their web site..... ComponentOne WebParts leverage the power of Microsoft's Silverlight technology for superior performance, styling, animation, and interactivity. Version 1 of ComponentOne WebParts for SharePoint includes three feature-packed web parts: ComponentOne DataGrid™ for SharePoint ComponentOne Chart™ for SharePoint ComponentOne Maps™ for SharePoint These web parts access both SharePoint lists and SQL Server data. They are easily configurable by administrators...(read more)

Microsoft Silverlight Wins TOP RIA Tool Award.

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:00:31 GMT

From InfoWorld...... Picking the top RIA toolkit of 2008 was no easy task. Our prize goes to Silverlight because it beats Flash in runtime performance; it has a modest download size; the design tools are good; it boasts wonderful .Net language support and a best-of-breed development environment in Visual Studio 2008; and although Silverlight's capabilities as a desktop RIA are weak compared with those of Adobe AIR, developers can write Silverlight RIAs that can be recompiled as excellent WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) desktop applications Read the full article [ HERE ] Read More......(read more)

HTTP Debugging Proxy

MisfitGeek.com - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:46:33 GMT

I've long been a Fiddler fan. It's been a super valuable tool for debugging SOAP and REST based code. http://www.fiddlertool.com/ It rocks, but I often need to debug on the Mac, especially now when doing network programming in Silverlight. So I recently found WireShark. It's free, runs on Windows and Mac, is Open Source, and there are 3rd party builds for other operating systems. http://www.wireshark.org/ Read More......(read more)

Free C# and VB Coding Standards Reference Documents

Microsoft's Opinionated Misfit Geek - Misfit Geek [Syndicated] — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:22:10 GMT

Clint Edmonson has gifted us for the holidays with free coding standards documents for C# and VB. [ GET THEM HERE ] Read More......(read more)