PDC 2008 – A Night at Microsoft Reading

If you are like me the possibility of going to Reading, America for a developer conference is slim, I would actually say that I will never have the cash to go, not that I would turn down a free trip even if it involved travelling in a small box or suit case.

For those of you like myself the nice chaps down in Reading are running their own PDC event on Thursday 28th October from 4.30pm to 12 midnight, yes midnight.  They will be showing HD sessions from the Reading event as well as running some competitions (to win an Win Phone 7) and feeding you Pizza.

For me info go here

jQuery Fundamentals

If you are developing web sites at the moment then its almost certain that you are also seeking the use of jQuery to give it that zing that almost all new web sites have now.  However unlike learning .NET framework you are almost thrown in the deep end with jQuery and expected to swim.

I found learning jQuery hard and would have welcomed some free resources to help me get were I am today, thankfully help is at hand in the form of an online book called ‘jQuery Fundamentals’.  I have a had quick skim of the book and its very detailed, it takes you from learning the fundamentals of JavaScript for the noobs and then over to using jQuery in your sites. 

If you have been struggling to find a detailed resource on jQuery and JavaScript defiantly give this book a go.

See more @ http://jqfundamentals.com/book/book.html

Blend Bits From Mile Taulty

Want to get some tips on using Microsoft Blend from a developers point of view then go over to Mike Taulty’s blog and get some really useful information.  To-date he has created 13 blog entries covering a number of topics about blend, they range from transitions to how to understand the UI and as most things from Mike they are amazing resource presented in a concise manor.

Mike works for Microsoft and has attended The .NET Developer Network several times presenting on a large range of .NET developer topics.

http://mtaulty.com search ‘Blend Bits’

Why Windows Phone 7 Doesn’t Multitask

When I heard that Windows Phone 7 did not support multitasking I thought the same as most people, “here we go, Microsoft spent all this money on getting a new phone OS to market and they are already making the same mistakes as Apple”.  This view point was shared my many people however today I stared watching the Windows Phone 7 Jump Start and they also mentioned the lack of multitask support for non Windows Phone apps and this this why………

Put yourself in Microsoft's shoes, think of the money the fame and fortune…are you there?  Good.  Now think about spending millions of dollars on a crating a new OS for mobile devices then you force all phone manufactures to provide good hardware or go home, then you look at the competition who seem to be beating you hands down, but you see a strategy to beat them.  You also look at the people who hate you and are waiting to pull your OS and any device apart and expose you for the fraud they think you are.

When you take all that in you suddenly realise that making your phone succeed is going to be hard and you will do everything you can to stop it falling at the first hurdle, and in this case battery power is our hurdle.  If you let any old app on your device continue to run in the background, what is stopping it from buzzing away making network calls or just continually talking to the OS and every one of these calls requires a little bit of battery power.  The issue is, how do you protect the image of your new phone for crappy developers?

In the mobile world not only do we all want an amazing experience with everything popping out of the screen we also want to keep using our phone for longer than a day, and cutting multitasking for non-MS apps is Microsoft’s answer.  As we all know your average user won’t think “oh I had all these apps running that's why my phone only lasted an hour” they will just slate the phone and bang Windows Phone 7 dies.

IMHO I am sure like Apple multitasking apps will come in the future.

If you want to learn more about Windows Phone 7 check out these 12, 1 hour long presentations @ here

Free Microsoft Online UK Tech Days Training – 8th October

Everything you need know about the Windows Azure Platform ­– 9.30am to 3.30pm, 8 October 2010

You’ll have access to three virtual rooms full of the information you’ve been looking for on the Windows Azure Platform, SQL Azure and a lot of other great cloud insights.

· Cirrus Room - A high-level summary of the key technologies in the Windows Azure Platform such as App Fabric from Microsoft UK experts

· Altocumulus – Hear from companies who have already developed for Azure including myworldcup.com

· Stratocumulus – Get down to the low level clouds in our deeper technical sessions

Register now

For other resources and information on the latest introductory offers with 750 free hours, visit here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukmsdn/archive/2010/09/17/training-and-resources-to-help-you-do-more-with-windows-azure.aspx

DDD9

The DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper committee have released their times scales for the next DDD event at the Microsoft offices in Reading, as usual it will be a great event with a huge number of people attending and its all free.

• Agenda is announced 25 Dec 2010 00:00
• Registration opens 01 Jan 2011 00:00
• The event begins 29 Jan 2011 09:00

My only issue with these dates is that it seems the DDD committee is trying to reduce the usual attendee surge by opening registration on New Years day.  Obviously the DDD committee are not invited to any NYE parties ;-)

In between drinks at my NYE location I will still be finding time to register, good luck!

More info @ http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/ddd9/Default.aspx

Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework By Steven Sanderson

I know Steve so you may say that this review is bias however I think I can still be objective even when I say this is a brilliant book.

I have read many technical books which cover other frameworks and although this book contains alot of the content you would expect, it does give you alot of nice takeaways which makes this book special.

As you can guess from the book title it covers ASP.NET MVC version 1, as Steve walks you through creating your first MVC app you get the feeling of being guided by a great master.  By the time I finished the introductory section of the book I already felt I could get struck in, but Steve still has more, in the following section of the book he carefully takes the framework apart bit-by-bit to reveal the beating heart of MVC then gives you the knowledge to make your own extensions to the ASP.NET MVC as you see fit.

This book stands out because it not only gives you in-depth ASP.NET MVC knowledge but also shows you real world knowledge of how to do TDD, something which I have read very little of, this is expertly introduced in the introductory section.  So not only are you learning MVC you are also getting a taste of TDD.

Steve also has an amazingly dry wit which he conveys throughout the book.

I like techie books but I like them even more when I can learn and be entertained.

Steve recently released the 2nd edition of this book updated for MVC version 2, buy it @ Amazon

P.S. I am not sponsored by Steve or Amazon, I just like the book.

DDD South West 2 : Registration Opens TODAY

The registration to attend DDD South West 2 opens at 10am today, don’t be left out and go to www.dddsouthwest.com

DDD South West 2 : Registration

The comity which run the DDD South West meeting have been very busy lately, I should know I am one of them, and we have reviewed the many brilliant sessions available to us and finally come to a short list which should be released on the DDD site tomorrow (20th April 2010) www.dddsouthwest.com.

Tomorrow Tuesday 20th April 2010 is also the day on which you can register to attend, last year was our first event and it took a little time for all places to be filled however this year we have people beating our door down so do not wait to register, do it as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

DDD South West 2

Its has finally arrived, the long awaited dates for the next DDD South West event have arrived.  The day for this great event have been set for Saturday 5th June.

For those of you locked in a black hole for the last few years the DDD events are community run events for the .NET developer community.  At the day long event you will find many industry experts presenting presentations on all manor of .NET technologies and you get this for the cost of nothing, yes its completely FREE.

Below are the important dates which lead up to the 5th June;

Call For Speakers opens: Tuesday 2nd March 2010

Call For Speakers closes: Friday 22nd March 2010

Voting Opens: Monday 29th March 2010

Voting Closes: Friday 9th April 2010

Registration Opens: Tuesday 20th April 2010

To find out more please go to http://www.dddsouthwest.com/

CSS Sticky Footer in ASP.NET

One of the features that almost every web page in a RIA needs is a footer, this is not from a predefined RIA template but from observations of sites which already exist.

Trying to create a web page which pushes down content to form the footer at the bottom of the page without fail, regardless of content and browser window size can be tricky however there is one solution which sticks out, the CSSStickyFooter solution.  The CSSStickyFooter site contains the CSS which is used to apply the style and details on how you need to construct your HTML to take advantage of this.

I am overjoyed by the solution and I am really enjoying the ability to have a footer which sticks to the bottom of my page, however as an ASP.NET developer I was almost disappointed when I found that the CSS did not work for ASP.NET pages until I realised the solution.

Open your sticky footer CSS file and make the following changes;

Change

html, body, #wrap {height: 100%;}

To

html, body, form, #wrap {height: 100%;}

As you can see the form tag has now been added to the list of elements which gain a 100% sizing, all ASP.NET pages are wrapped in a form element.

Finally change;

body > #wrap {height: auto; min-height: 100%;}

To

form > #wrap {height: auto; min-height: 100%;}

As the form element wraps our content we need to specifically select the #wrap element, child of form (not body) and apply the styling to make the sticky footer work.

I hope this has help fix the small issues in getting this to work in ASP.NET pages.

ASP.NET Core Tips

There is so much to .NET it hard to know what to keep it in your brain and to know what to let go, its sometimes such an issue for me I end up replacing everyday memories with those of .NET. As soon as I can remember how to walk instead of creating generic types I will move away from this computer!

A good way of keep your brain free is to use reference cards, and even though these tend to be on the simple side we can all do with a little pointer now-and-again.  The guys over at RefCardz have seen this need and produced a free core ASP.NET reference card to download now.

The only downside is you have to print it, but never mind.

More info @ http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/core-aspnet

DDD South West Agenda

For all of you who are attending DDD South West on 23rd May 2009, the agenda has just been released and its a fine piece of work.

You will find topics on Silverlight, XNA, AZURE, MVC and many more so go to www.dddsouthwest.com and have a look at the agenda and start planning your day.

What is DDD South West?

DDD South West is a free one day technical event for developers. It is a day of learning, discussing, contributing and being part of the community in the South West. Our goal is to provide free technical education, the opportunity to mix with peers and to make and develop relationships in the .NET industry.

By The Community, For The Community

http://www.dddsouthwest.com

IE8 Competition

The IE8 team are running a little competition, and in Mike Ormond’s own words “Fame and Fortune await for those who play with IE8”.

You can find the official terms and conditions here, but a brief synopsis on what’s required....

All you have to do is create an original accelerator, web slice or visual search provider for Internet Explorer 8. They’re incredibly easy to write and within no time at all you could have produced a winning entry. There are lots of resources available to help you on your way:

• Accelerators – Article / Video
• Web slices – Article / Video
• Visual Search – Article / Video

The criteria on which entries will be judged (eg innovative use of technology) are included in the terms and conditions.

The prize is for a brand spanking new Xbox360 elite no less!

For further details on how to enter, please visit Mike Ormond’s blog where you can find a whole lot more information

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikeormond/archive/2009/04/28/fame-and-fortune-await-for-those-who-play-with-ie8.aspx

The competition is open to all. The closing date is the Friday 29^th May 2009.

DDD South West – Vote for your favourite session

The sessions for DDD South West have already been selected but we need your votes to help us to select the best rooms for the sessions to try to ensure that the most popular sessions can be seen by all.

To vote for your favourites click here.

Remember DDD South West is happening Saturday 23rd May, if you have not registered yet there are still some spaces left but do not leave it too long to avoid disappointment.  Remember there can be only one first time.

Hope to see you there.

DDD South West Registration Is Open!

Go! Quickly! Stop reading this and register now! Registration for DDD South West is now open. Be able to tell your grandchildren that you were there at the very beginning. Remember, there can be only one first time.

DDD South West is a free one day technical event on Saturday 23rd May 2009 at Queens College, Taunton with 13 top speakers providing 19 technical presentations.

Code Contract For .NET

Developing a framework can be hard as there is alot to think about, like a user interface you need to think of the different ways it may be used and only expose those methods which make sense to be called and because most people will never read you documentation (and why should they) you make sure that each public method is named correctly. 

As we all know those framework methods form a contracts between you and the consumer as to how the framework will be used, the consumer is obliged to supply certain details and the framework is required to return certain details.

I find creating frameworks interesting, this is mainly because I have never been a great interface designer, and I also find it easier as there are a finite set of rules for how to create them, all around me in .NET I can just emulate the same structure (I see how Microsoft have done it and I copy it).

Even though the creation of frameworks removes the need to understand how to lay text boxed on a web page or form you still need to do almost as much validation, you need to make sure that the values supplied to the methods are correct, when the are not you need to throw exceptions which can be caught or the alternative is you do not worry what is supplied, but surly no one does that! 

This is how we currently validate the input and sometimes the output of our framework methods and we just hope that the code calling us also validates our data.

Like all issues us developers have come across and found a way to deal with a small team in Microsoft have said ‘we can do better’ and when it comes to the issue of method contracts (validation of data in and out) they have done exactly that with the creation of the ‘Code Contracts for .NET’.

The code contracts framework is implemented through static classes which can define pre and post conditions for any method call, you own, and once implemented the compiler will come into play to warn you of code which breaks these conditions and at runtime the exception handling processes do the same.

For me to repeat the exact details of how this work and how to implement it would be foolish so to read a better explanation by Soma (Corporate VP of Microsoft''s Developer Division) go to his blog.

Or watch the Chanel 9 video here

The .NET Developer Network – March 2009

When: Monday 9th March 2009, doors open 6:00pm, meeting starts 6:30pm

Where: UWE (University of the West of England), Frenchay, Bristol (see FAQ for directions and a map) - Room 2q49 (in Q block)

What: Windows Azure And SQL Data Services (SDS)

Who: Eric Nelson, Microsoft Developer Evangelist.

Why: Because Eric is Captain Database. It's what he does and he's very good at it. Also because SQL Data Services offers a world of potential that may be a life saver to your applications. Also also because Eric is very easy to listen to and he lives up to the very high bar set by all Microsoft UK Developer Evangelists.

How do I sign up for this meeting: Send an email to meetings at dotnetdevnet.com and quote your user name and the March meeting.

Abstract:
The Azure™ Services Platform is an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. The Azure Services Platform provides a range of functionality to build applications that span from consumer web to enterprise scenarios and includes a cloud operating system (Windows Azure) and a set of developer services, including SQL Data Services (SDS).  Both Windows Azure and SQL Data Services provide data storage capabilities, the latter offering highly scalable and Internet-facing distributed database services in the cloud for storing and processing relational queries built on robust SQL Server technologies. This session will introduce the Azure Service Platform, discuss how to take advantage of it in your own applications and drill into the two storage options.

Bio:

After many years of developing on UNIX/RDBMS (and being able to get mortgages) Eric joined Microsoft in 1996 as a Technical Evangelist (and stopped being able to get mortgages due to his new 'unusual job title' in the words of his bank manager). He has spent most of his time working with ISVs to help them architect solutions which make use of the latest Microsoft technologies - from the beta of ASP 1.0 through to ASP.NET, from MTS to WCF/WF and from the beta of SQL Server 6.5 through to SQL Server 2008. Along the way he has met lots of smart and fun developers - and been completely stumped by many of their questions! In July 2008 he switched role from an Application Architect to a Developer Evangelist in the Developer and Platform Group. Currently Eric’s interests include digging into LINQ to Entities, ADO.NET Data Services and switching from C# to Visual Basic development. At home, he battles rat infestations, comes second to the family dog and uses any spare moments he has after 10pm to team up and play online with and against friends - keep an eye out for 'erknel' and say 'hi'.

Bespin From Mozilla Labs

At the moment everything is moving into the cloud and I am still having a hard time seeing how this will all work or why I would do such a thing especially since I have spent so many years keeping everything firmly on the ground. 

Recently I came across a project called Bespin developed by the Moxilla guys, the same group of people who gave birth to FireFox, the aim of the project is to take application development into the cloud at first I was sceptical thinking of all those nasty HTML editors you get on some web sites but once I looked at their interface it was quickly apparent that this was the kind of IDE I would expect from a desktop application;

The aim of the project is not only to allow you to develop applications in the cloud but to also use the openness of the web to increase collaboration through an amazing process of collaborative desktops in the web browser!!

I have not had chance to use this new web application but have a look at their video on the home page and I think you will agree that these guys are doing some very interesting things with you web browser.

To see the detailed information go to http://labs.mozilla.com/2009/02/introducing-bespin/

DDD South West – Saturday 23rd May 2009

Are you a .NET Developer in the South West of the UK?

Do you want to attend a FREE one day event, covering all that is new and great in .NET?

The DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper (DDD) South West meeting is where you need to be, this event is held on a Saturday so you do not need to worry about taking time from your busy work schedule to attend.  For those of you who know the DDD events, which happen in Reading yearly, this event will follow the same high standards for speakers and topics covered. 

As we are aware that the South West has lacked this kind of event for a very long time we will be holding the event in Taunton at the Queens College.

The exact agenda for the day is still being finalised but rest assured as soon as it is you will know well in advance, to show you how we have organised ourselves our timeline for the run up to the meeting is as follows;

• Tuesday 27^th January - Website goes public, Call For New Speakers opens
• Tuesday 3^rd March - Registration goes live
• Tuesday 31^st March - Call For New Speakers closes
• Tuesday 7^th April - Vote for favourite sessions opens
• Thursday 30^th April - Vote for favourite sessions closes
• Saturday 23^rd May – DDD South West

To stay in touch with the latest news about the event or find more information about the venue and the team running it please visit the official website @ http://www.dddsouthwest.com