On behalf of MS Learning and the WPF team, I am happy to announce the availability of .NET Framework 3.0 eLearning clinics. This collection includes a 2 hour premium WPF eClinic as well! For WPF, we also used Captivate to demo WPF runtime apps, which result in a much richer experience than what you would expect in traditional eClinic demos. Check them out, and spread the word.
Availability: Immediate
Pricing: FREE till launch of .NET FX. US $9.99 after that.
Spread the word: Please spread the word with your customers on community portal and Newsletters. Bloggers: Please blog about this, especially the fact that these are FREE till launch. This will also help create awareness prior to launch.
More Context: Collection 5134: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005
This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.0. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.
Topics covered within the collection include:
- Windows Presentation Foundation
- Windows Workflow Foundation
- Windows Communication Foundation
Link: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=109340
Hammad Rajjoub,
MVP (Windows Server System - Connected Systems),
User Group Leader - Dot Net Wizards (http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com),
Chariman UG Relations Committee (http://inetapakistan.org),
Member Speakers Bureau (http://mea.ineta.org)
Like last years Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006’s community launch initiatives, Microsoft along with communities like INETA and Culminis are coming up with bigger and better community launch event for Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007. This is said to be the biggest joint launch ever.
Just like last year, I am part of this community launch initiative both as a UG leader as well as a Virtual Trainer. Virtual training program does not only focus on technology related content, it also focuses on presentation skills. So Virtual Training program is divided into two phases. Phase 1 targets presentation skills and has presentations delivered by expert speakers on topics like “10 tips to preparing a presentation”. Phase 2 will have technical presentation related to products that are being launched i.e. Office 2007, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007.
Today, I did my first presentation on “10 tips for preparing a presentation”. This event was scheduled to take place at 11 AM (GMT + 4). I initially had few problems in setting things up with conference call and importing slide deck into Live Communication Client. But with the help from Justine Davies of
Microsoft’s Community Launch Team, we were able to set up things appropriately ahead of time.
Event started a bit late but once it was started I believe it went well. I couldn’t sleep the night before because of work at office and then for the preparation slide decks. But the very fact that I had one participant who logged in from PERU @ 3 AM local time was good enough to get me all charged for the presentation.
Following are a few tag lines from the presentation:
Cogito ergo sum! | “I think, therefore, I am!”
It’s all about U!
If you don’t know which way to go. Any road will do!
KISS (Keep it simple stupid) principal
A picture is worth a System.Int64.Max words!
MOI (motivation, organization and innovation) model!
Download: 10 tips for preparing a presentation.zip
Hammad Rajjoub
http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com
http://msmvps.com/blogs/hammadrajjoub/
I got an invitation from Hotmail to try Hotmail Beta Live and without wasting a single moment I jumped into the site, accepted the invitation and sign in to see the new Hotmail. First it took a while to load all the scripts to provide client side processing functionality. Hotmail live will give you feeling that you are working inside Outlook. Resize columns, Spell check, move between folders and download mails without refreshing the page all the time. According to them, Hotmail Live will take over current Homail within few weeks, and hopefully everyone will be repeaing the benefits from the new exciting services. The sad part is, it does not provide all AJAX functionalities with browsers other then IE. However, Hotmail team will provide all the features for all browsers before the final release. This is how Homail Live looks like:
You can sign in for an invitation here.
Zeeshan Muhammad.
Infrastructure - INETA MEA / Pakistan
Speaker - INETA Pakistan
We had really nice sessions today at our Seminar by Microsoft at NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi. The event started with a Qiraat by our user group member followed by the first presentation by Mr. Vaqar Khamisani who is a Developer Evangelist (DE) and Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Manager for Microsoft Pakistan. He talked about various activities by Microsoft in Pakistan. Some of the upcoming event are ISV Community days and MSDN Week. He also gave the audience a brief review on the past activities especially Pakistan Developers Conference (PDC). After his presentation Mr. Ali Pasha started his talk on Designing for Deployment. Mr. Pasha has been working for Microsoft as a Program Manager in the Visual Studio division on the modeling tools (codenamed Whitehorse) scheduled to be released as a part of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System – Architect Edition. Audience get to know about the Visual Studio Team System, how it works and what benefits it can give to the developers. In the end he showed an excellent demo which is also available to download on MSDN TV. We will post the link after sometime on our site so stay tuned.
After this Mr. Saad Syed started his speech on Windows XP Embedded. Mr. Syed is a Development Lead in the Windows Deployment Team and joined Microsoft Corporation in October 2000 as a Software Test Engineer. He gave a very interesting talk about various Embedded devices and their use in our daily life. He showed a small video on different Embedded devices which are utilizing Microsoft Embedded features and making our lives easier.
In the end we distributed some gifts brought by Microsoft to the audiences by a lucky draw. Congratulations to all the winners. I want to thank all the speakers for doing excellent sessions today, NED.net volunteers for working so hard in making a successful event, faculty of CIS department and the all the audiences for their overwhelming participation. The whole event is covered by our volunteer in the form of a video and will soon be available on CDs or DVDs.
Zeeshan Muhammad.
User Group Leader - NED.net
http://nednet.blogspot.com
All XBOX fans must checkout this official website by Microsoft for XBOX 360. All the underground pictures that were rumoured around websites are now confirmed as this little site shows the upcoming cosole in 360 degree view. What are you waiting for, go check it out its awesome.
Click here to visit the site.
Zeeshan Muhammad
User Group Leader - NED.net
INETA Pakistan EXCOMM
INETA MEA Infrastructure
To celebrate the launch of our new next-generation Xbox channel we've decided to put together an Xbox 360 FAQ containing all available information on the console. As we approach the unveiling of the system on MTV and at E3, more details are very likely to become available and this article will be updated accordingly. Note that this FAQ is entirely speculative. As next-to-nothing about the system has been officially announced, it's impossible to say that most any of the information herein is 100% fact. Everything is very likely to be true, but imagine that each answer begins with, "To the best of our knowledge…"
General
Is Xbox 360 the official name?
While Microsoft refuses to comment on the official name of the console, everyone from developers to magazines to news sources like CNN Money have been referring to the system as Xbox 360. Given all the information that's out there now, Xbox 360 is our best guess as to the "official" name of Microsoft's next-gen system, but as we said, it is still as-of-yet unconfirmed by the big MS itself. Maybe this is part of an elaborate ploy to make us all look silly when the "real" name is announced in May, but this is unlikely. Where do the pictures in this FAQ come from? Much of the speculation in this FAQ is based on images circulated by ourcolony.net. This site is part of a viral marketing campaign sponsored by Microsoft. It was developed by the advertising company 4orty2wo Entertainment. These viral campaigns are a form of an alternate reality game (ARG) that create in-depth "narratives" that ultimately draw the players of the game towards a reward wrapped in an advertisement. The game ends on May 12th when the Xbox 360 is officially unveiled on MTV. A similar game that started at ilovebees.com was used to promote the Halo 2 release.
When will the system be fully unveiled?
A special will air May 12th on MTV that will officially unveil its name, the look of the system, the controller and a few quick snippets of gameplay footage. The full unveiling, including things like full system specs, the launch lineup and more, will be unveiled during Microsoft's E3 press conference on May 16th. When is the system launching? All signs point towards a November 2005 launch window. This is a prime month for Microsoft to position Xbox 360 as the must-have holiday item.
How much will Xbox 360 cost?
The sweet spot for the cost of a new console at launch is $299. This is a good estimate of what a core package will cost for Xbox 360. There is a possibility of a second bundle that includes a hard drive and some pre-loaded game content. It is likely that this would bump the price up to $399 smackers for the HDD system. The bundle has become an incredibly popular sales technique, so don't be surprised to see more comprehensive bundles that include controllers and peripherals for around $500. What's all this talk about the HD Era? At this year's GDC Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and "Chief XNA architect" J Allard rammed the idea of the HD Era into the crowd's head. He stated that the last generation of systems were part of the 3D era, and the new wave of technology would provide a more cinematic high definition experience. At a base level, he is referring to the fact that Xbox 360 games will all run in at least 720p with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio.
Read complete FAQ here on IGN XBox 360.
Zeeshan Muhammad User Group Leader - NED.net
INETA Pakistan EXCOMM
INETA MEA Infrastructure
I came across this very interesting guide by Microsoft on Integrating with InfoCard v1.0 posted at MSDN webservice section. As you all know by now that WCF is a part of the upcoming Windows API named WINFX and will be playing a center part as providing the foundation for communication needs of our next generation of applications. Those who have already downloaded the Beta 2 version of WinFX will be able to play with this new piece of technology. Basically InfoCard will provide users to manage their identity from various identity providers, who are at this point unknows, atleast to me. No matter wheter they will be third part identity providers or Microsoft itself, I think it is a great move to provide security for the end application to communicate with trusted applications only.
The foundation of this model (InfoCard) is based on WS-Trust, WS-Security Policy and WS-Metadata Exchange web service specifications. We will be able to see a root-of-trust policy between applications before they start communicating with each other, eliminating all posiblity of sending crucial data to wrong hands or I should perhaps say, applications.
The guide also contains a very interesting example of utilizing this service and how this model can be used to provide security for the end users. WCF is going to serve as a very strong foundation in providing the communicaton standards, but I hope they dont put up heavy charges of utilizing such services.
Read the complete guide here.
Zeeshan Muhammad.
User Group Leader - NED.net
INETA Pakistan - EXCOMM
INTEA MEA - Infrastucture Members
Introduction:
I thought getting used to C# 2.0 (as a programming language), ASP.NET 2.0(as web development platform) and SQL Server 2005 would be good enough of a thing as far as - understanding next release of .net framework (i.e. ver 2.0) was concerned. You bet! I was wrong. I felt like knowing INDIGO would be good enough for sure and I'd be able to use it whenever the time would come. I had read introductions about Avalon, Win FS etc and thought good GOD this .NET 2.0 is becoming massive as far technological advancements were concerned and not to forget so many code names (Indigo, Avalon, Longhorn, Yukon, Whidbey etc).
And then came PDC 2005 and brought along with it new technologies, new names and even new code names J. I was completely lost when I read about new names like Windows Vista, Windows Workflow Foundation , Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Presentation Foundation etc. Since I have only heard and read about Longhorn, Avalon, Indigo, Whidbey etc, I felt like I was left behind in this technology race. And specially back then I was just completely occupied with the project that I was working on and I dint have any time or energy left in me to start exploring these new horizons. But then slowly and gradually I got to read about these new names I thought I should write some sort of summary that would help MS developer community by highlighting what's coming up and how to get ready for it. So this is a small write-up pursuing the same task.
Windows Vista Technologies:
Event before I start introducing these new code names to you. Lets understand that the umbrella technology that was previously named "Longhorn" is now called "Vista", yes Windows Vista is an old wine in new bottle - not really old though. Now if you are wondering from where did Windows got its new name "Vista" then you will have to look at this image below:
Jan Tielen an SPS guru mentioned it in his blog that Vista is a name of place of Los Angeles Hollywood.
WinFX:
Win FX can be thought of as a container that contains and provides access to other exciting technologies. WinFX is an umbrella platform built on top of .NET framework 2.0 and it contains products and initiatives like Windows Communication Foundation (INDIGO), Windows Presentation Foundation (AVALON), Windows Workflow Foundation, InfoCard, WinFS and Microsoft Expression etc.
Windows Communication Foundation (previously named as INDIGO):
WCF, Windows Communication Foundation (previously known as INDIGO), encapsulates all the available distributed technologies that are available with Microsoft.Net platform including ASMX Web Services, MSMQ, COM+ (Enterprise Services) and .NET Remoting. WCF not only encapsulates all these available distributed technologies but also provides a consistent programming model. This consistent programming model is something that was really needed, since; an asmx web service required a different programming approach as compared to that of COM+ (Enterprise Services) or .NET Remoting for that matter. Although there is nothing wrong in principle with offering different programming models but it makes adaptability of different technologies a bit difficult for a .NET developer.
WCF, provides consistent and service oriented means of developing distributed and enterprise scale applications and developers find themselves at home while using different technologies from within .NET environment.
For more details on Windows Communication Foundation I would like to recommend you all an excellent article by Clemens Vaster available here at MSDN.
Windows Workflow Foundation:
On September 15, 2005 Microsoft announced release of one of the most fascinating technologies to be shipped with .NET 2.0, called "Windows Workflow Foundations - WWF". WWF offers a programming model, tools and engine for building workflow applications on Windows (both client and server) platforms. According to MSDN workflow can be defined as:
"A workflow is a set of activities stored as a model that describe a real world process."
Workflow Applications have been in high demand for past couple of years and a lot of custom development has been done (and is still being done) in this regard. Usually workflow applications that have been written cater to one of the workflow-scenarios like document centric workflows, user interface (page) flow workflows, business-rule driven workflows etc. And then there are high-end servers that offer variety of workflow services like Microsoft BizTalk Server. WWF is very powerful in-terms of its offerings and it provides programmable experience with used to programming languages like VB.NET and C# (once installed, WWF SDK provides Workflow project templates in Visual Studio 2005 that can be used to develop workflow applications). Although workflows can be defined in code but they are much better of while given a graphical presentation. WWF offers a GUI based workflow designer that provides means of designing of Workflows. Following is a snapshot of a sequential workflow designed in a Workflow designer:
Those of us who have worked with BizTalk Orchestration/Human Workflow designer would find them selves at ease with WWF Workflow Designer.
So in short WWF is a wonderful platform that makes brings to workflow development to mainstream .NET developers.
In the next episode I will be talking about:
- WinFS
- Windows Presentation Foundation (previously named as AVALON)
- Microsoft Expression
- InfoCard
- .NET Server Family (SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006)
Hammad Rajjoub,
MVP (Windows Server System - XML Web Services),
User Group Leader - Dot Net Wizards (http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com),
Chariman UG Relations Committee (http://inetapakistan.org),
Member Speakers Bureau (http://mea.ineta.org)
These days I am conducting trainings as a part of "Microsoft Touchdown " for VS 2005 (Whidbey) and SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) Launch program. These trainings are being conducted by Microsoft Pakistan at a training fascility provided by Kalsoft's KalAcademy. Participants have been invited from Microsoft ISV partners. I am conducting these sessions on the behalf of Kalsoft which happens to be employer and Microsoft's Gold Certified Partner.
Yesterday I conducted two sessions. One on SQL Server 2005's Web Service Support and second one on SQL Server 2005's Service Broker Architecture.
As this is a month of Ramadhan, it was very difficult to speak for whole day while fasting and that on as sunny and hot day as it was yesterday. I believe sessions went well as I gave hands on demo on web service development and client accessibility and i believe audience liked it pretty much. The best part was that amongst participants/attendees were a couple of my friends, a relative and an old time trusted comrade and MVP Adnan Farooq. I have got more sessions comming up for next week.
This all buildup is going to help me and INETA a lot in prepapring for VS/SQL Server 2005 Launch.
Hammad Rajjoub,
MVP (Windows Server System - XML Web Services),
User Group Leader - Dot Net Wizards (http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com),
Chariman UG Relations Committee (http://inetapakistan.org),
Member Speakers Bureau (http://mea.ineta.org)
I just receieved an email from Mr Vaqar Khamisani announcing launch of Imagine Cup 2006 ! (final round to be held in New Delhi, India)
Last year INETA Pakistan played a very important role in evangelising Imagine Cup and as a result we got more than 100 entries from all over the Pakistan and a couple of semi finalists. So it was a success! but this time around we have to make it even bigger and ensure multiple entries to the final round! Lets join hands together to evangelise Imagine Cup 2006 and let the world know how good we are in IT!
Folowing are the details:
-----------------------------------------------------------
With pleasure and excitement, Microsoft Pakistan Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) Group is formally announcing the participation in Microsoft World Wide Student Competition: Imagine Cup 2006!
Imagine Cup 2005 was a great success. We had more than 100 students from about 12 Universities participating in the competition with a team reaching the semi finals of this prestigious global competition.
IC2006 Theme: “Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives.”
IC2006 Categories:
Software Design
Algorithm
IT
Short Film
Visual Gaming: Project Hoshimi (Programming Battle )
Interface Designer
Make sure you promote this in your university and ensure registrations starting from November 1st using theSpoke site: http://www.theSpoke.net
Key Dates:
November 1, 2005 – Registration Opens for all categories
November 1, 2005 – Competitions starts for Visual Gaming
All other categories will begin competition on February 6, 2006.
All other competitions follow very similar deadlines and round schedules;
May 5, 2006 – All competitions will be over and the process of choosing the WW Finalist will be underway
May 22, 2006 – All WW finalists will be announced.
WW Finals - Mid to late July (Exact Date To Be Confirmed!)
Hammad Rajjoub,
MVP (Windows Server System - XML Web Services),
User Group Leader - Dot Net Wizards (http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com),
Chariman UG Relations Committee (http://inetapakistan.org),
Member Speakers Bureau (http://mea.ineta.org)
Recently I recieved an e-mail asking about "How to become an MVP?" on one of the technical groups that I am subscribed on. I felt obliged to respond to these questions and following is my response. (Feel free to comment!)
You are not the first one to ask these question and definately not the last one either. I believe its natural ask these questions and i will be really happy if my answers can help you understand things better.
So here goes my response to your queries .. but ...one be one!
1) First of all can any one tell me that what and who is a MVP,what type of people are awarded MVPs by Microsoft I mean to say that what profesisonal qualities and skills does these people have.
Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) is an individual whom Microsoft recognizes for his community participation and willingness to help others. MVP is an individual who provide invaluable online and offline expertise to the technical community in a specific or a group of Microsoft Technology areas.
So as for the best of my understandings MVP program is all about identifying people in technical community who are active participants and are always willing to share their experiences and knowledge, pertaining to particular technology area (like C# , ASP.NET or XML Web Services etc), with other developers in the community.
2)2) My second question is that how to become a MVP, do we have to pass some kind of Test or some certification like MCSD.net/MCP/MCAD.net etc , I think that we have to prove our skills in any one of the Microsoft Technologies fo eg C#,SQL Server etc but what is the crieteria of Microsoft for which it accepts that some person is really expert in one of the technologies I mean to say that how does Microsoft judges the skills of a person for some technology,do we have to develop some world class Software or any other product but again what is the Microsoft's defination for a world class Software .
My answer is No!. You don’t require any certifications or such credentials, you need not to have worked on any world class software etc. But the point is you need to have expert level skills in some Microsoft technology area. Believe me that area could be any thing from MS Word to BizTalk Server, i.e. any thing. But remember doing certifications, working on development of great software can always help you become a guru!
Now the second part of your question was how does Microsoft judge some one's skills? Now there are multiple channels where Microsoft can get to know about such individuals (aspiring/would be MVPs), one place where Microsoft is carefully observing techies is msdn newsgroups (http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/) another very important platform where Microsoft looks for such individuals is INETA User Groups (http://www.ineta.org), and then there are other places like blogs, mailing lists etc.
3) The third and last question is that what benefits one gets by becoming an MVP,does he gets some kind of financial benefits or ny other such benefits and if not than whats the use of becoming a MVP?
Well, MVP is an award its not a designation so there aren’t any financial or such benefits associated with it. Being an MVP within itself is a great achievement and I am sure not a single MVP looks for financial aspects or such gains while becoming MVP.
Becoming an MVP is the biggest benefit within itself i.e. if you understand.
However there are certain other benefits associated with MVP program as well. Following is a brief introduction to them:
A) Technical Resources·
MVP Source Licensing Program enables eligible MVPs to gain access to Microsoft source code.
·
MVP Academy virtual learning center delivers timely instructor-led online courses that help Microsoft MVPs realize their full potential.
·
Downloads host key documents and files on the MVP Member’s Web site so Microsoft can securely distribute information to MVPs on the MVP Members (Web) Site.
·
Microsoft Learning Opportunities offers resources, skills assessments, books, online reference materials, course, workshops and certification programs.
·
Knowledge Base Resources give MVPs opportunities to get articles published, view articles on pre-release products and issues, and rights to republish KB articles to the web.
·
MVP Private Newsgroups provide forums for MVPs from around the world to share ideas on Microsoft products and technologies with Microsoft employees.
·
MVP Product Feedback allows MVPs a direct channel to submit comments, suggestions, and reports of abnormal behavior or potential viruses related to Microsoft products and technologies through the MVP Member’s Web site.
·
Technical Support includes 3 free technical support incidents per MVP for use during their award year.
·
MVP Webcast offers eligible MVPs the opportunity to deliver web-based sessions on relevant topics for the Microsoft community.
·
MSDN or TechNet subscriptions provide MVPs with one-year online priority access to products and expert advice.
B)- Relationship services:
Microsoft assigns an MVP Lead as a relationship owner between Microsoft and MVP community. Like here in Pakistan we have Mr Vaqar Khamisani. MVP Lead is a person who acts as a bridge between MVP community and Microsoft, he is the one who advocates and keeps MVP community updated with latest happenings, initiatives and other opportunities. Through MVP Lead, MVPs get to know about conferences and events where MVPs can participate. A good example of such an event would be "Global MVP Summit", every year Microsoft invites MVPs from all over the world to acknowledge their services and to maintain a close relationship with them. Like this year Adnan Farooq went to attend it and got a special mention from Steve Ballmer.
So thats it from my side and I hope I have been able to answer your queries.
ps: I would also like to refer you to Robert Mc Laws blog entry on "How to become an MVP?".
Hammad Rajjoub,
MVP (Windows Server System - XML Web Services),
User Group Leader - Dot Net Wizards (http://dotnetwizards.blogspot.com),
Chariman UG Relations Committee (http://inetapakistan.org),
Member Speakers Bureau (http://mea.ineta.org)
Microsoft Learning has partnered with the Visual Studio team to provide developers with additional incentive for registering Beta 2. Developers who register their copy of Beta 2 will have access to a free developer title from Microsoft Press. After downloading the Beta they receive an email telling them about the benefit, and encouraging them to register their Beta. When a user completes the registration process they will receive an email with a link to the online books, and an access code. Each user will have access to one book per code. Developers who register multiple SKUs of the Beta will receive additional access codes, giving them access to more books. The offer is available worldwide, books are English-only.
Detailed breakdown of free online books available for each VS Beta SKU:
VWD Express and VB Express
- Introducing ASP.NET 2.0, English
- Introducing Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2005, English
- Writing Secure Code, 2nd Edition, English
J# Express, C# Express, C++ Express and SQL Express
- Writing Secure Code, 2nd Edition, English
Visual Studio Standard, Visual Studio Professional, Visual Studio Team Suite and VS Premier Partner Edition
- Introducing ASP.NET 2.0, English
- Introducing Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2005, English
- Writing Secure Code, 2nd Edition, English
Download Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 from here. If you are in EMEA region then you have to wait till April 2005 when Beta 2 will be available with WeFly247.NET DVD.
Zeeshan Muhammad.
NED.net User Group Leader
Today there is a greater focus than ever on reusing existing components and wiring together disparate components to form a cohesive architecture. But this wiring can quickly become a daunting task because as application size and complexity increase, so do dependencies. One way to mitigate the proliferation of dependencies is by using Dependency Injection (DI), which allows you to inject objects into a class, rather than relying on the class to create the object itself.
Read the rest of this article and download the source code from here.
Zeeshan MuhammadUser Group Leader - NED.net
INETA Pakistan Speaker