Dave Bost

On December 12th, the Microsoft Evangelist team on the West Coast is hosting a (virtual) Windows FireStarter event. This is a great chance for developers to learn “straight from the horses mouth” (so to speak) guidance, best practices and tips&tricks for building applications on top of the Windows platform.

They are holding this FireStarter event *LIVE!* in Redmond, but they are also streaming it live online to the rest of the world.

This would be a great opportunity to secure a conference room for the day, post the agenda around your office, and join us live on December 12th. I’ll see if we can also open up an IRC channel or something to carry the communication online during the sessions.

Be sure to register for online participation or if you can happen to be in Redmond on the 12th, you can participate in-person. Seats are limited!

Agenda: (all times are PST)

8:30 - 8:45, Kick off, Mithun Dhar

8:45 – 9:30, Keynote/Why Vista!, Chris Henley

9:30 – 10:45, The Case of the Unexplained, Mark Russinovich

11:00 – 12:15, Building Differentiated UI Applications Using Composite WPF, Glenn Block, Bob Brumfield & David Hill

1:00 – 2:00, Best Practices for Developing for Windows for Windows Standard User, Crispin Cowan

2:00 – 3:00, Windows Security and Bitlocker, Byron Hynes

3:15 – 4:00, (Windows 7 + Windows Server 2008 R2) Teaser Session, Byron Hynes

4:00 – 5:00, Windows for everyone!

Announcements

I just received word today that attendees of the Chicago stop of the MSDN Developers Conference (MDC) will be some of the first people to get their hands on Windows 7 Beta 1 DVDs! All MDC attendees will receive a copy of Windows 7 Beta 1, but Chicago looks to be the first. For the MDC events taking place before Jan. 13th, you will receive your DVD in the mail after Jan. 13th. Bob Familiar has more details on this.

What is the MSDN Developers Conference you might ask? Well, apparently you don’t read my blog as I’ve discussed this already. Don’t worry, I’ll let it pass *THIS TIME*.

Anyhow… MSDN DevCon is a “Best of PDC” show for developers that the Microsoft Evangelist team is bringing to 11 cities across the country.

The Chicago MDC will be taking place on January 13th, 2009 at the Chicago Hyatt Regency. Ron Jacobs will be kicking things off with the morning keynote followed by a number of sessions covering Microsoft’s Cloud Computing initatives, the latest in Client and Presentation development, as well as what’s new in Tooling, Languages and Framework. We’ll also be running a “Community Courtyard” series of sessions throughout the day as well.

Register now for the Chicago MSDN Developers Conference, or check for other MDC’s events happening in your area.

There is a $99 charge but that is peanuts compared to what PDC registration cost. :)

Announcements, Community, Illinois Events, Indiana Events, Wisconsin Events

I’d like to thank everyone who came out to the Chippewa Valley Code Camp. It was certainly a cold and blustery November day, and a perfect day to sit inside and get your geek on.

For those of you that attended my “A Lap Around Windows Azure” session, here are the resources I mentioned for you to get up and running with your first Azure service:

First, Download the SDK’s:

• Windows Azure SDK
• Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio

Those two SDK’s will get you up and running with Windows Azure. If you want to take advantage of some of the complex work we’ve already done and take your cloud development to the next level, grab the following .NET Services and SQL Data Services SDK:

• Microsoft .NET Services SDK
• Microsoft SQL Data Services SDK
• Live Framework Documentation and Resources

Next, Register for the Azure services to get your development token for the Azure service runtime environment, the .NET Services and SQL Data Services. My understanding is Live Services will be available shortly.

Also, check out the following learning resources, starting with the following sessions from the Microsoft PDC conference:

• Day 1 Keynote with Ray Ozzie
• ES16: A Lap Around Windows Azure, Manuvir Das
• BB01: A Lap Around the Windows Azure Services Platform, John Shewchuk, Dennis Pilarinos
• ES01: Developing and Deploying Your First Windows Azure Service, Steve Marx
• ES03: Windows Azure: Cloud Service Development Best Practices, Sriram Krishnan
• ES17: Windows Azure: Programming the Cloud, Daniel Wang, Stefan Schackow

As well as Steve Marx’s short vignettes to get you up and developing on Windows Azure:

• Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio
• Windows Azure Table Storage
• Windows Azure Hello Cloud
• Windows Azure Blog Storage

Finally, download and install the Azure Services Training Kit which contains a number of samples, demos and hands-on labs.

I hope this provides the necessary resources for you to learn about Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform, but more importantly provides you the necessary training to get you developing for the cloud. Good luck!

Azure, Talks

The DreamSpark program has grown up and spawned a new sibling - BizSpark.

Today we announced the BizSpark program. BizSpark is an offer to early-stage software startups to leverage the Microsoft platform in delivering their software applications and services to the masses. As a software startup, joining the BizSpark program will give you access to…

• Software:  fast and easy access to Microsoft’s current full-featured development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions with no upfront costs and minimal requirements
• Support:  professional technical support from Microsoft (MSDN) and community support from BizSpark “Network Partners” around the world who provide a wide range of support resources for software startups (e.g., entrepreneur incubators, associations, & investors)
• Visibility:  global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients, and partners.  Startups will have the opportunity to complete a profile in the online Startup directory (BizSparkDB) which highlights promising companies, including the “BizSpark Startup of the Day”

This is a huge investment on Microsoft’s part and a great opportunity for your success. As such, there are some general criteria you should fall under to be included in this opportunity. They include:

• A private company building a software-based product or service (not intended for consultants/SIs or customers/enterprises)
• In business for less than 3 years
• Less than $1M in revenue
• Nominated by a Network Partner (referrals are also facilitated by the BizSpark portal)

As we’re talking Startups here, let me point out a great resource for all startups and investors out there that serves as guide to working with Microsoft, the Startup Zone. The Startup Zone includes a number of blogs from members of the Microsoft Startup team, articles and resources addressing the startup’s needs as well as an event calendar where you, as a startup, can meet members of the team at upcoming events.

Microsoft believes in the innovation that startups bring to the industry. Without them, there would be no future. BizSpark is a step to help that future come to reality.

Announcements

It’s unfortunate, but true. Not everyone can attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). That’s why the Microsoft Evangelist team across the U.S. is bringing the PDC to you. We’ve taken some of the best content from last week, packaged it up, wrapped it up in a pretty bow and will bring it to you through a series of events across the U.S. We’re calling it the MSDN Developers Conference (MDC).

In the grand tradition of DevDays events of the past, we will be conducting a 1-day conference covering some of the best sessions from PDC including announcements and developments around Visual Studio, the .NET Languages including F#, WPF, Silverlight, “Oslo”, Team System, ASP.NET, Parallel Programming and of course the Windows Azure Services Platform and Windows 7. We’ll also have a third track available for an Open Spaces area.

(As a side note, for those of you outside the U.S., poke your local Microsoft Evangelist team and ask them to bring MSDN DevCon to you!)

To register for the event in the city closest to you, simply click on the city link. This will take you to the landing page for that particular event where you will get more details about locations and the great speakers lined up for your city.

Locations
Date	City
12/09/2008	Houston, TX
12/11/2008	Orlando, FL
12/16/2008	Atlanta, GA
1/13/2009	Chicago, IL
1/13/2009	Minneapolis, MN
1/16/2009	Washington, DC
1/20/2009	New York, NY
1/22/2009	Boston, MA
1/22/2009	Detroit, MI
1/26/2009	Dallas, TX
2/19/2009	San Francisco, CA

If you missed the opportunity to attend PDC in-person, don’t miss your chance to hang with your developer community peeps at the MSDN Developers Conference.

You can also follow all the MSDN DevCon shenanigans on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Twemes and MSDN Social.

Announcements, Illinois Events, PDC08