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

Zune going global – Microsoft shows some love to Australia!!

Brian Madsen — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:14 GMT

What can i say – i’ve been harping on about this “outage” ever since I got my hands on my first Zune!

And now Microsoft is showing some Love for us down under – because the Zune is coming to Australia.

In total, 18 countries will see the Zune hit the markets – and this also means the addition of the highly valued subscription service from Zune Marketplace.

http://www.techau.tv/blog/zune-coming-to-australia-17-other-countries/

Naturally, i’m a big fan of the Zune Player, as well as my Zune device.

To date, i have 65,000+ plays in the Zune Player and as i’m an avid music lover (all types of music) i’ll be on the Zune Marketplace as soon as it’s available for me.

The latest version of the Zune Player (software?) had a ton of new additional features, including the Zune Mini Player…

and the QuickPlay feature as well – where you can set up “DJs” for easy music list creation.

Now, again i’m waiting – we don’t have a timeframe for this…but…would it be too much to hope for something this Christmas?

don’t know – nobody’s spilling the beans (obviously) but i now know what i have to pester my highly beloved and cherished goddess of a wife for this Christmas!

Visual Studio 2010 got a new logo – you like?

Brian Madsen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:38:01 GMT

Not so long ago we saw a new logo revealed for the Microsoft .Net framework – the “Wave” logo was widely received as being a huge improvement and many loved it.

Just around the corner comes a new version of Visual Studio – 2010 which promises to be the next best thing after sliced bread (that’s my personal opinion btw).

One of the small (and in all honesty, insignificant really) news is that there’s a new logo.

“Infinitely” nicer than the old one, yet still carrying the basic shape with it that we saw in previous Visual Studio versions.

Old Visual Studio Logo	New Visual Studio Logo

As i mentioned, it still has the same basic shape – very similar to the “Inifinite” sign – word play/picture play anyone?

It has the same flowy design and colours we saw in the Microsoft .Net logo, yet the colour is a bit different.

Question now is (and yes i know, it’s not that important), do you like the modern look?

Yay or Nay?

Download IE8 and MSFT will donate $1.15 to Feeding America (charity)

Brian Madsen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:23:00 GMT

It doesn’t matter what flavour you prefer when you browse the big interweb today, you can still contribute to helping out.

Microsoft is donating $1.15 for each download of IE8 from here – if you’re upgrading from IE6 they’ll double the donation.

The donation is given to Feeding America.

So, contribute in your own way – and it costs you nothing – by clicking here to download IE8.

Thrive - Microsoft launches career coach

Brian Madsen — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:03:00 GMT

Microsoft has just launched a new site for handling your career - besides the content i'd like to add as a sidenote that it's great to see Silverlight used in public web sites launched by MSFT.

Including fact sheets and certification information there's also technical introduction videos available - currently there aren't that many but i'm hoping to see a lot more in the coming months.

The site is geared towards YOUR career - certification, career changes etc and i actually like it. It's a much better "entry" into the certification program while also having great industry relevant content available.

In the career change section there's a lot of excellent content, how to job search in 2009, resume/cv guidelines, interview questions and even how to present yourself at an interview together with body language.

Microsoft TechDays 2009 wants YOU!!

Brian Madsen — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:38:00 GMT

you don't want to miss this!!!

It's obvious, virtual events are becoming more and more popular - both because of the cost factor (definitely costs less) but also because of the availability of the events worldwide!

this means of course that regardless of where you are in the world, you can attend!

So, Microsoft TechDays 2009 is just around the corner (April 1, 2009) and they're looking for YOU!

They're looking for content, so if you're up to it and want to participate in this awesome event, head on over and submit your content:

Call for Content

Are you interested in sharing your knowledge with your peers around the world?

We are looking for passionate speakers to submit topics that developers would be interested in learning about.

This is an open call for sessions so please feel free to refer other industry experts to this site.

Please note that if you submit a session for consideration, this does not guarantee that your session will be accepted for this event

Click here to submit content: http://www.msfttechdays.com/modules/cft/default.aspx

Australia gets new lead for the platform and developer evangelism group in Australia

Brian Madsen — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:02:00 GMT

I've switched back to FeedDemon as my preferred RSS reader as i kept missing "important" announcements from some of my most favorite bloggers.

Anyways, a little late (but better late than never), it's been announced that the DPE team here in Australia is getting a new leader - Gianpaulo Carraro will be taking the seat as the new director.

Normally us peons and pawns dont see much from people in this position but i suspect that's about to change as GP is an avid blogger and he promises to blog even more (hoping that the warm air will get his creative juices flowing).

Welcome to Australia GP!! The DPE team down here is a bunch of awesome guys and i'm sure you'll have a great impact!

Microsoft Certification Offers – Australia only

Brian Madsen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:09:50 GMT

Microsoft has just launched their Microsoft Certification Hero Campaign which enables MVPs to forward some nice benefits for those wishing to take any MCTS, MCITP or MCPD exams before May 31st, 2009.

Here’s a link to the specific certifications:

www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/default.mspx
www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcitp/default.mspx
www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcpd/default.mspx

Now, the benefits include:

10% discount + a free exam should you not pass.

So how do you get these benefits, simple:

1) Go to www.learnandcertify.com and enter the MVP Certification Promotion Code by March, 31st, 2009
2) An exam offer voucher will be sent to you (via email)
3) Decide which exam to take by going to www.learnandcertify.com or visit the above three links for details
4) Schedule an exam at a Prometric (www.prometric.com/microsoft) and use the exam voucher code sent to you

This offer is only available, via me, to residents in Australia (as I’m awarded in Australia) and unfortunately not in the rest of the world (other MVPs may be eligible, but I’m not).

The MVP Certification Promotion Code to be used at www.learnandcertify.com is: AUF17D9E

This is an excellent opportunity to get a certification under the belt with the added bonus of being able to resit the exam if it doesn’t go well the first time.

Note: there may be other MVPs who offer this as well – so keep an eye out for MVPs in your country (as we can only use the code above for the country we’re living in).

Visual Studio Developer Promotions!!

Brian Madsen — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:32:05 GMT

Developers, Developers, Developers!!

Joerg Lindner sent me this link and i figured i’d share it with the rest of you!

Microsoft just released their Visual Studio 2008 Developer Promotions website, which has some seriously good deals if you’re considering getting yourself an MSDN Professional or Premium subscription this year (or next year, seeing as we’re close to the end of ‘08)

Savings of around $900 just can’t be beaten.

Or what about 30% savings on Visual Studio 2008 Team System?

Again, i’d consider linking up with that site to see what savings you can net yourself.

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/offers/developers/default.aspx

David Lemphers officially joins the Windows Azure team

Brian Madsen — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:39:00 GMT

I was actually starting to wonder when Dave would make the transition over to the Azure team - he seemed very passionate about the Cloud and all it could offer.

So lo and behold, the announcement came out (from the horses mouth no less!!! yes this is not a fabricated story!!).

http://blogs.msdn.com/davidlem/archive/2008/12/06/i-ve-changed-teams-and-jobs.aspx

Well done Dave - glad to have you join this team to ensure it's success!

Australia gets shiny new Developer Tools Product Manager – Joerg Lindner, welcome!

Brian Madsen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:15:33 GMT

Australia has “lost” a whole bunch of DPE members over the last 1-2 years and it was looking more and more like everybody was abandoning us.

But, as it stands, that’s not the case. Australia just got it’s very own Product Manager for Developer Tools (think VSTS, Expression etc..cool geeky stuff).

Joerg Lindner is his name – don’t quite know if he blogs yet but as soon as he does i’ll be certain to throw up a link to him.

Anyways, a big warm welcome goes to Joerg!

Technorati Tags: Joerg Lindner

Australia lost two more MS guys to Redmond…

Brian Madsen — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:09:34 GMT

Sometimes good things come out of “bad” events..Here’s two, which saddened me a lot (i should have blogged it earlier, but i was still choked up about it…sniff sniff).

David Lemphers and Michael Kleef left Australia’s MS offices to move to MS HQ in Redmond. As with many of the earlier “losses” it’s bound to leave an impact as these two guys are seriously motivated and on the top of their fields.

As i said, it’s a good thing..We get some highly skilled LOCAL talent into the MS pool of gurus and since their LOCAL they’ll most likely not forget about us small people left behind in Australia.

So, David and Michael joins Scott and Frank in Redmon…

Good luck guys..sad to see you go but wish you all the best in the future!

Technorati Tags: Michael Kleef,David Lemphers,Frank Arrigo,Scott Barnes

Nigel Watson - compassionate geek

Brian Madsen — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:59:02 GMT

I was surfing around this early morning as my virtual image was taking yonks to boot up and i came across this post over at Nigel Watson's Blog.

What I liked about this post is that it shows an almost uncommon compassionate behavior. Nigel was out driving (from point A to B) and came across a roo lying in the bend of a road. Deciding that having it there, at a point on the road where the speed limit was 100kph, could prove disastrous to other drivers, he turns around and proceeds with moving it off the road.

He then notices that "Mom" still has a little Joey in her pouch (Joey is what baby kangaroos are called). They then pick the Joey out and wrap it nicely in a blanket and calls http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/ as soon as they arrive at their destination.

What a very, very nice gesture and it almost makes me ashamed to say that I honestly haven't done something like this, even when I've passed a roo lying on the road.

Food for thought - I'm vowing now to always check if i should happen to come across a roo. More people should honestly think like this, me amongst those for sure.

Well done Nigel - showing that us geeks can be compassionate as well even when it doesn't include the latest gadget!

Here's some pics I "borrowed" from Nigel's blog.

Technorati Tags: Nigel Watson,Microsoft

Miss Bonita joins MCS - way to go girl!

Brian Madsen — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:00:56 GMT

A colleague of mine, Anita "Bonita" R. is about to embark to the other side of the country. She's joining Microsoft Consulting Services as a consultant with primary focus on SharePoint.

Bonita is a very well rounded SharePoint consultant who's done some phenomenal work with some of our biggest clients (Rio Tinto etc).

I'm sad to see Bonita go as she's always a smile away, cheerful and positive. On top of that she's brilliant with SharePoint.

So, fare well Bonita, I wish you all the best of luck in your new position at Microsoft.

[MS] Scott Barnes - New Product Manager for Rich Client Platform team

Brian Madsen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:17:01 GMT

Here's the news that Scott was referring to re: his career taking a turn.

If anybody could give this team a boost then it's Scott. He's been advocating the RIA solutions for a while now and having him on the team that produces Silverlight, WPF etc hopefully means we'll see some new innovative stuff coming out in that arena.

Read all about his move, and why he's chosen this path on his blog:

The MossyBlog Times. : I am now a Product Manager.

Congratulations Scott!!!!!!

[MS]Scott Barnes : My career is about to take a turn..

Brian Madsen — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:48:06 GMT

If you work with the interweb and the latest technologies you have better subscribe to Scott Barnes' blog.

Something is going to be revealed there pretty soon, that'll put not only australia on the interweb map but also have a worldwide impact.

I wonder what Scott is up to now?

Read all about it here: The MossyBlog Times. : My career is about to take a turn..

For those that doesn't know, Scott Barnes is the first RIA Evangelist from Microsoft - and rightfully so. Taking that in mind, what could it be that he's about to announce?

Heroes Happen attendance pack to contain FULL version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

Brian Madsen — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:38:40 GMT

Wow - before Michael clarified this one, i was actually under the impression that this would be a "trial" or "NFR" license and not a full blown, production environment version of Windows Server 2008.

Am I glad that i'm going now? yes!! for a measly $199, that the registration costs, i'm all set with this massive OS!

Thanks for the clarification Michael..unexpected and delightful news!

Michael Kleef ::: MSFT : Windows Server 2008 FPP available at Australian launch

Microsoft is releasing the .Net framework source code

Brian Madsen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:57:59 GMT

It's a milestone in development - finally, the source code for the .Net framework is being released.

At 9am local Redmond time, Scott Guthrie made the announcement via his blog.

Link to Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries - ScottGu's Blog

This is to say that this release is NOT to mean that the .Net framework has suddenly become open source - but it is yet another way Microsoft is going to support it's developerbase.

Excellent - now we just have to wait for Visual Studio 2008s release!! awesome!

Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk

Brian Madsen — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:50:11 GMT

I don't know how often i've had to delay playing with a new piece of released technology, just because I was in the middle of another set of tests and simply didn't have the time to create my own virtual server environment again to accommodate the platform i want to test.

Here's a bit of good news - Microsoft VHD (www.microsoft.com/vhd) is a set of virtual hard disks available for download which already has the necessary bits installed.

Currently there's a range of virtuals available:

Biztalk Server 2006	System Center Essentials 2007
Exchange Server 2007	System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2	Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
ISA Server 2006	Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional	Windows Server 2008 Beta 3
Office Sharepoint Server 2007	Windows Server 2003 R3
SQL Server 2005	Windows Vista
SQL Server 2005/Exchange 2007

Just download either Virtual PC or Virtual Server 2005 (which is free btw), and you're ready to go!

Best way to get Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 - Microsoft Secure Content Downloader 2007 CTP

Brian Madsen — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:51:27 GMT

I thought i'd bring this to peoples attention after having had some seriously slow speeds when downloading Betas from MSFT. Even via the MSDN subscriptions it can sometimes be extremely slow..and then if it fails you have to locate the download again...and possibly again.

so what more convenient could it be if you just opened up an application and select the download you wanted from a dropdownlist?

Microsoft Secure Content Downloader 2007 CTP has been released, and luckily the applications on the list at the moment is the Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 releases.

Overview

The Microsoft Secure Content Downloader (MSCD) is a peer-assisted download manager capable of securely downloading specific files. MSCD is intended for consumers who are downloading from a home PC, or business users whose computers are not behind a corporate firewall. If you use MSCD from behind a corporate firewall, you may be unable to download content, and may adversely affect other clients' ability to download content.
Main features of the MSCD are:

Secure content description
- Each file available for download has a secure description, ensuring the content you download is exactly what the publisher published.
Scalable performance
- MCSD is a peer-assisted technology. Each client downloads content by exchanging parts of the file they’re interested in with other clients, in addition to downloading parts from the server.
  - No matter how great the internet’s demand for the file, you will always be able to make progress downloading.
  - MSCD lets you download content quicker than is possible without peer assistance.

Some MSCD clients may be connected to each other via peer connections, forming a ‘cloud’ of clients. Pieces of the file you are downloading are sent through these peer connections between clients, as well as through connections with the file server. As a member of the cloud, your computer both serves as a client and server to other members of the cloud. Data destined for the cloud may be routed through your computer and sent to other cloud members. The other cloud members connected to you will be able to access only pieces of the file you are downloading via MSCD – they have no access to any other data on your computer.
You are only connected to other clients while you are downloading a file via MSCD. When the file has finished downloading – or when you pause or cancel the download, or exit the application – you disconnect from the cloud. Once you disconnect from the cloud, you will no longer have any connections to any other members in the cloud and no data will be routed through your computer.

This version of MSCD is a Community Technology Preview, and will only allow you to obtain current Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. Since it is a Community Technology Preview, additional information related to MSCD’s performance and network transactions -- including your machine name and IP addresses -- may be logged to help evaluate and improve MSCD performance.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT VISUAL STUDIO 2008 BETA 2

If you download and install Beta 2, run this script to ensure that the installation of .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 will not affect the development of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 applications.

Click here to download the Microsoft Secure Content Downloader 2007 CTP

Ozzie Rules Blogging : Release Candidate of Windows Presentation Foundation labs now available!!

Brian Madsen — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:03:31 GMT

Charles "Chuck" Stirling has just released a nice 3 part series of labs for WPF.

After having a good read through them, i'm surprised in how much effort he must have put into these "manuals".

If you haven't already had a read, i suggest you skip on over to Chuck's blog and go through the material:

Ozzie Rules Blogging : Release Candidate of Windows Presentation Foundation labs now available!!

Great work Mr. Chuck and Mrs. Chuck!

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