Brian H. Madsen - .Net Powered by Caffeine : .Net Training

Bill Ryan is ready to consult!

Brian Madsen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:53:31 GMT

Bill Ryan [MVP], an overall great guy, professional and adept in all manner of technologies are taking the step into consulting.

Bill's been reaping the rewards and gaining some valuable experiences, while working at Magenic as a principal consultant. And he's now taking that a step further by going solo.

I wish Bill all the best of luck in his new endeavour.

Good luck Bill!

Stacks and Stacks of free training

Brian Madsen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:12:47 GMT

This here Stacks and Stacks of free training is beyond a doubt the best news i've had today.

I took a look at the list of free e-learning material available and here's some of those that really jumped out at me:

Clinic 7045: What's New in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=78337
Title: Clinic 7045: What's New in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008
Course Type: Self-paced Course
Available Offline: Yes
Estimated Time of Completion: 2 Hours
Language: English
Description:
In this clinic, you will learn about the new and enhanced features included in SQL Server 2008. You will explore the new data types and the data management features. Additionally, you will learn about the enhanced Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services included in SQL Server 2008. This online clinic is composed of a rich multimedia experience.
To get the most out of this clinic, it is recommended that you have:

Knowledge of general SQL database concepts that are largely independent of a specific version of SQL Server.
Knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 features.
Knowledge of deploying and upgrading database solutions.
Knowledge of how to solve performance issues related to SQL Server hardware.
Performed the job role of a SQL Server 2005 database administrator or database developer.
Product or technology experience in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005.

Collection 5134: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=127367
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

Requirements:

Experience (2 years) as a full time developer using Visual Studio 2005 / Visual Studo 2003
Experience developing one or more of the following:

Web Applications
Windows Forms Applications
Server Components
XML Web Services

This offer includes the following:
E-Learning
· Clinic 5135: Introduction to Developing with Windows® Presentation Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005
· Clinic 5136: Introduction to Developing with Windows® Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005
· Clinic 5137: Introduction to Developing with Windows® Communication Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005

Clinic 5045: Inside Look at Developing with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0

Summary: In this 2-hour premium clinic you will learn about the rich capabilities that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 offers to developers. The clinic will focus on Architecture and List Management, Building and Extending Windows SharePoint Sites, and Packaging and Deploying Windows SharePoint services solutions.
Audience: Developer
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 5046: Inside Look at Building and Developing Solutions with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007
Summary: In this 2-hour premium clinic you will learn about the rich capabilities that Office SharePoint Server 2007 offers to developers. The clinic will focus on Fundamentals of Building Solutions with Office SharePoint Server 2007, Building Business Solutions with Office SharePoint Server 2007 and how to Incorporate Office SharePoint Services into Business solutions.
Audience: Developer
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Almost makes up for the Microsoft CRM 4.0 Negligence we're experiencing here in Pert - Starving is putting it mildly!

InnerWorkings steps up and offers free Silverlight training for CSharpZealot.com members

Brian Madsen — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:30:39 GMT

CSharpZealot.com - a C#.Net centric community received good news today - namely, InnerWorkings are offering all of its members FREE Silverlight training.

The story about how this came about is quite funny. But, i've been on the Beta test for me.dium for a while and as it's just been released it was also published on Facebook and here one of the guys on the me.dium team, Tobias Peggs, introduced me to Brian Finnerty, who's involved with InnerWorkings. He noticed that I ran the CSharpZealot.com community and wanted to offer our members something special.

Not only have they provided 1hr free Silverlight trianing, but they've also extended a discount code which entitles the members to a 20% discount on all training packages/drills in their catalogue. Guys, this is a limited time only offer so better head over, register at CSharpZealot.com, and check out the promotion they've created, just for us!!!

Click here for more information.

- Take .NET training that's 100% practice-based

- Gain skills by solving problems using key .NET techniques

- Work at your own pace in a realistic learning environment

- Get feedback as you learn from our code-checking engine

- Enjoy smart, engaging, and effective .NET learning

When companies come out of the woodwork and support the community, you know they are passionate about what they do. Especially in a geek-driven industry as us developers are in.

I want to thank Brian Finnerty and Claudio Perrone for taking this step forward and for making a brilliant training experience available to our members!

InnerWorkings - .Net training very much hands-on

Brian Madsen — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:58:30 GMT

I got an email from Brian Finnerty yesterday who runs www.innerworkings.com - a .Net training site with a twist.

I've been through quite a few of them over the years..from instructional DVDs, to remote training and onto class-room training and thought at first this was yet another of the same.

But i was rather surprised when i took the trial..

First off, you download an application which contains your "courses" and you can do them at your leisure.

The first thing you get faced with a "Developer Interface":

The "Developer Interface" also syncs your results with their server, so you can keep tap on your progress through the labs you take.

When selecting the "Drill" from the list (i have one, a sample - circled with red) it'll take you to the main interface which you'll be dealing with.

Each "Drill" has a set of tasks to perform:

Once you've selected a task, you'll be forwarded to the scenario which explains what the outcome of the task is:

At the top of the Developer Interface you have three tabs:

And after you've read through the scenario you move onto the challenge which explains what the goal is, the individual steps you have to make in order to complete the task.

The problem statement sums up the issues that this task has in detail.

After reading through that there is just to open up the code/project and you're on your way.

It is extremely simple to navigate this Developer Interface and to get started. All is taken care of as it will launch Visual Studio 2005 for you, load the solution and off you go. Each task is commented in each class enough so that it's not too "easy" to engage with. Methods and Classes are comment clearly where you are expected to edit and you are to leave alone.

Once you're done you simply go back to the Developer Interface and click on "Judge Project Code" and it'll scan your solution and find out if you have successfully accomplished the task, or alternatively what you have missed or done inaccurately.

When Visual Studio loads it not only loads the solution, but it also configures your environment, tabs etc so that everything is at hand - including a "userful links" window which will take you to MSDN. Absolutely Brilliant!!!

I can highly recommend taking a look at this - www.innerworkings.com ..simply brilliant! i'm hooked that's for sure. the Drills aren't just a "copy/paste", but leaves you with enough clues and help to "figure" things out yourself.