US Census Data for SQL Server 2008

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I’m presenting at Gov 2.0 Expo on May 25th:

http://www.gov2expo.com/gov2expo2010/public/schedule/detail/14877

Since SQL Azure will support the Geospatial types soon, I’m planning on showing a demo that shows what will be possible once it does.  For details on the announcement of the upcoming SQL Azure features, see:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlazure/archive/2010/03/19/9981936.aspx

As part of my demo preparation, I was looking for some data to use and found this little gem:

http://uscdsql.codeplex.com

“This is a repository for US Census Data for SQL Server 2008 with spatial information. Some of the data that is and will be included will be for states, counties, cities, and zip codes. The project will be updated as the data is available in SQL Server 2008 format.”

I plan on using this project in my demos.  I’d love to see you at my workshop at the Gov 2.0 conference!

http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js

Windows Phone 7 in 7 Series

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“Get to know Windows Phone 7, 7 minutes at a time! In this series of short, code-focused videos you’ll learn how to build applications for Microsoft’s revolutionary new mobile platform, Windows Phone 7. Each video is under seven minutes long, so you can learn something new over your next coffee break!”

http://tinyurl.com/WP7in7

I think these are worth checking out.  I’ve only watched the last one on XNA.  I thought it was well done.

FREE TRAINING: What’s New in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Developers

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“This two-hour clinic describes various new features and enhancements that Microsoft SharePoint 2010 provides developers. It describes how you can create and deploy SharePoint 2010 solutions using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. It also describes how you can develop remote clients for SharePoint 2010 and develop SharePoint 2010 solutions that incorporate data from external line-of-business applications.”

https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=160329&tab=overview

Tanagram Partners: Making multi-touch easier with touch.codeplex.com

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Our Ch.9 Interview with Tanagram Partners on http://touch.codeplex.com was published.  Check it out!

http://bit.ly/Ch9TanagramTouch

“The APIs in WPF4 plus the Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch make building common touch scenarios easy. However, implementing many of the same touch scenarios using WPF3.5SP1 or Silverlight 3/4 involves writing a fair bit more code. Furthermore, the touch APIs across WPF4, WPF3.5SP1, and Silverlight are different.

The goal of this project is to simplify building common touch scenarios when using WPF 3.5 SP1 or Silverlight 3/4 by using Expression Blend Behaviors to provide a consistent way to implement these scenarios across WPF & Silverlight. Expression Blend Behaviors can be used within Visual Studio without a dependency on Expression Blend by downloading the Expression Blend 3 SDK. You can also find more Expression Blend Behaviors at http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/ and http://tinyurl.com/ExpressionGalleryBehaviors.

Go to http://touch.codeplex.com/ to learn more about this project.  Go to http://tanagrampartners.com/ to learn more about Tanagram Partners.”

Entity Framework N-Tier

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This is a topic I have customer conversations about quite often.  I just found my latest “watch this, then let’s talk about it” reference.  Tony Sneed just published a webinar about the topic.  Definitely worth watching if you are interested in this scenario.

http://blog.tonysneed.com/2010/04/21/webinar-n-tier-entity-framework-with-dtos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DevelopmentorInstructors+(Developmentor+Instructor’s+Aggregated+Feed)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Don’t miss the Windows Phone 7 developer dinner tonight!

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I was originally planning on presenting, but you’re in for a treat!  Pete Brown will be presenting.  This is sure to be a fun one.  Details here:

 http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2010/04/01/microsoft-developer-dinner-series-for-partners-overview-of-the-windows-phone-7-series-application-platform.aspx

MUST READ: A Guide to Claims–based Identity and Access Control

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Joel just blogged about this on my team blog with a curious title of “If you are a government developer please read this”:

http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2010/04/20/if-you-are-a-government-developer-please-read-this.aspx

Any “enterprise” customer really should read this guide and start thinking about moving towards a clams-based approach.  Furthermore, if you want to move your apps to the cloud, then a claims-based approach is a no brainer.  In most cases, it is a must!

Bing Maps Offline

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Due to my focus on US Government customers, I get asked quite a bit about using Bing Maps in environments without internet access.  My response is always to point them to the Microsoft Bing Maps Server:

http://www.vexcel.com/geospatial/bingmapsserver/index.asp

Recently, a 3 part webcast series was delivered diving fairly deep into the Bing Maps Server.  Details here:

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/02/22/go-offline-with-the-bing-maps-server-web-cast.aspx

Windows Azure Dynamic Scaling Sample

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http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurescale

Just came across this one.  I haven’t checked it out myself, but it sounds promising.

“…  A question that is commonly asked is how to automate the scaling of a Windows Azure application. That is, how can developers build systems that are able to adjust scale based on factors such as the time of day or the load that the application is receiving? …”

NOW AVAILABLE: Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch

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Check out the video:

https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LarryLarsen/Surface-Toolkit-for-Windows-Touch/

Download the SDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=801907a7-b2dd-4e63-9ff3-8a2e63932a74

For those of you who don’t read the readme…

One of the samples uses XNA.  The toolkit installer will not install XNA.  You will need to do that yourself.  Either install the tools or just the redist.  Your call:

Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.1

Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.1