VEToolkit: A must have for all Virtual Earth Developers!

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If you are building Virtual Earth solutions with the JavaScript control, then you absolutely have to download this toolkit.  Chris Pietschmann just announced the first official release.  Here’s how he describes the toolkit:

“The Virtual Earth Toolkit is a set of JavaScript-based Controls/Tools that Extend Virtual Earth with functionality that is commonly implemented, but hasn’t been implemented within the Virtual Earth JavaScript Map Control.
The Controls/Tools in the VEToolkit library are completely self contained, and don’t require the use of any other JavaScript library to use other than Virtual Earth 6.2 (current version). This allows you to use this toolkit along-side any other JavaScript library (jQuery, ASP.NET AJAX, etc.); plus you can make use of it with any server-side framework of you choice (ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, PHP, etc.).”

Details are at:

http://pietschsoft.com/post/2009/01/VEToolkit-Virtual-Earth-Toolkit-v620125091053-Released.aspx

DevDinnerOnDemand: Building Business-Focused Applications Using Silverlight 2 and Beyond

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Business-focused applications, sometimes referred to as Line Of Business (LOB) applications, are almost universally about working with data in some shape or form.  At it’s a heart, a business app needs:

  • A way to move data between tiers
  • A way to shape data (sort, filter, etc.)
  • A way to bind & display data
  • A way to soundly apply business logic

What you will learn:

In this session, we’ll start off by discussing approaches to building this kind of functionality TODAY using Silverlight 2.  Next, we will give you a peek into how a future version of Silverlight will make building these applications even easier.  You will learn about an exciting new technology that is all about making business applications for RIA (Rich Internet Applications) much easier to build.  You will hear how we’ve made n-tier application development as simple as traditional 2-tier, provided application level solutions to developers, and how we’re doing all of this with the same .NET platform and tools on both the client and server.

View Recording:

https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/keydet/US-Public-Sector-Developer-Dinner-for-Partners-Silverlight-Business-Applications/

Follow up resources (links, deck, code) from the dinner are available at:

http://tinyurl.com/silverlightbizappsdevdinner

Don’t miss the Designer Dinner next week

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Based on the success of our Developer Dinner series for US Public Sector Partners, James has been delivering Designer Dinners focusing on the design side of software development.  James is the User Experience Evangelist on our team.  He has a Designer Dinner scheduled for next week on Silverlight and WPF animation 101.  The event is next Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 from 6-8pm EST. 

James and I have been delivering the Developer and Designer Dinners independently so far, but we are working on having more synergy between the topics and schedules moving forward.  You will definitely want to check out his Designer Dinner if you attended the Developer Dinner.  James plans on using the application I built as a starting point. 

You can find details for the event at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jameschi/archive/2008/12/28/designer-dinner-animation-101.aspx

Not on the RSS bandwagon, but want to keep up with my blog?

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Since I am such a heavy reader of blogs through an RSS Reader, I sometimes forget that not everyone uses an RSS reader.  Some people still prefer to get email “announcements” sent to their inbox.  If you fall into that crowd, you can get my blog posts sent to you as an email by clicking the link below:

Subscribe to GoldCoast by Email

PING TEST

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This post will be deleted.  I’ve been having issues where my posts aren’t showing up through the FeedBurner RSS feed.  I just testing to make sure the automated ping to the FeedBurner servers is working.

FOLLOW UP: Developer Dinner on Silverlight Business Applications

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Thanks to everyone who attended!  I want to thank Pete Brown for co presenting with me.

There were quite a few comments about the facility we used not being conducive to hosting the dinner.  I appreciate your honest feedback.  I will definitely do my best to prevent the situation from happening again.  The good news is that we’ll be back at the Microsoft Reston office for February.

You can download the deck and code here:

http://cid-1f72da7294089597.skydrive.live.com/embedrow.aspx/Public/Silverlight%202/Business%20Apps

Don’t forget to check out the Silverlight Toolkit which gives you “a collection of Silverlight controls, components and utilities made available outside the normal Silverlight release cycle. It adds new functionality quickly for designers and developers, and provides the community an efficient way to help shape product development by contributing ideas and bug reports. It includes full source code, unit tests, samples and documentation for 12 new controls covering charting, styling, layout, and user input.”

Windows 7 can boot into a VHD

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I just learned of another feature about Windows 7.  I remember hearing this mentioned at the PDC keynote, but I hadn’t really heard or seen anything about it since.  I searched around and found this article

How-to: Getting started with .VHD files in Windows 7

My primary laptop has been running the 32-bit version of Windows 7 build 6801 since PDC.  So, instead of wiping my primary work laptop to install the beta, I decided to upgrade from build 6801 to 7000 (the beta).  I was a bit surprised to see that the upgrade worked (I tested out on another PC before trying it on my primary laptop).  I’ve been running with the upgrade since the beta was released and I’m happy to report it is running well! 

However, I decided I wanted to try out the 64-bit edition.  Before the “boot into VHD” feature, I probably would have just wiped the laptop.  Thankfully, I don’t have to.  I followed the instructions above.  I now have a dual boot configuration running both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.

I am not a big fan of virtualization for desktop OSs (ours or anyone else’s).  I am such a performance/resource snob that I don’t want to give up CPU cycles and memory across multiple OS instances.  Furthermore, running Vista or Windows 7 in a VPC is less than ideal because you don’t get graphics hardware acceleration or Aero.  The greatest part about this approach is that I get all the memory and CPU dedicated to the OS, graphics hardware acceleration, and Aero!

Windows 7 tips and tricks

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One of my new years resolutions was to minimize the amount of linking (“Hey, so and so just blogged this”) that I do on my blog.  Why?  Well, I personally find it annoying when I am going through my RSS reader and find myself spending an extended period of time going through a bunch of posts that just link to someone else’s blog that I am already subscribe to.  Since I find it annoying, I want to minimize the chance of annoying anyone who reads my blog.

However, sometimes something comes along that is just worth linking to.  Tim Sneath recently published the following:

The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

I’ve been using Windows 7 as my primary OS since build 6801 was released at the PDC.  After reading this post, I was surprised at how much I didn’t know.  If you are using (or plan on using) the Windows 7 beta, then this is a MUST READ.

Developer Dinner registration issues

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There are some issues with the registration system for this Thursday’s Developer Dinner on Building Business-Focused Applications Using Silverlight 2 and Beyond.  At first, I thought the issues were intermittent.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.  We are looking into the issues.  However, right now you cannot register.

Please DO NOT let the glitch in the registration system prevent you from attending.  You can just show up.  We will let you in:).

Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3

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I’m not much of a SharePoint dev.  I’ve taken a SharePoint development class, but that’s it.  I keep telling myself that I am going to dig in to SharePoint more. 

I know that many of the folks that attend the Developer Dinners are doing a fair amount of SharePoint development.  I just came across the announcement for a the CTP of the latest extensions to Visual Studio 2008 for SharePoint.  Based on my limited SharePoint dev experience, the new features in the extensions look like they will useful.  Details at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/01/12/announcing-community-technology-preview-of-visual-studio-2008-extensions-for-sharepoint-v1-3.aspx.