Microsoft released training material on how to create high performing application in Silverlight for their upcoming Phone 7. Check it out.

Grz, Kris.

I subscribed today to attend Remix10 on September 28th. Last editions were always very interesting and when I take a look at the overview of what’s already known about the agenda, still some dev sessions need to be confirmed, it’s going to be great again this year as well.

I hope to see you there.

Grz, Kris.

In Belgium you can never be sure of the weather. It might be great, it might be too hot, it might be too rainy, … You get the picture. Most of the time you simply sit with your beloved laptop surfing on the internet reading news, playing games or learning something new. Learn something new? Cool but where you might ask yourself. Well, Microsoft has released several lessons for the people who want to keep up to date.
There are 3 available options depending on the time you want to spend: half an hour, a half day or a full day (I recommend that when it’s another drash national).

Make your language choice and enjoy the ride. At the moment there’s information about Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4. In August there will be 2 other tracks as well: Windows Phone and Windows Azure.

Grz, Kris.

Today Microsoft released a new version of their MVC project. Still in preview but it looks promising, especially because the new view engine Razor got in it. Razor you say? That sounds familiar. And it should because it’s also a part which shipped with the WebMatrix stack. This’ll make it easier for people starting with WebMatrix to get on track with MVC 3 as well.

Be sure to read the following articles/announcements:

• Scott Guthrie: Introducing ASP.NET MVC 3 (Preview 1)
• Phil Haack: ASP.NET MVC 3 Preview 1 Released
• Brad Wilson: ASP.NET MVC3
• Scott Hanselman: Hanselminutes on 9 - ASP.NET MVC 3 and NEW ASP.NET Futures with Phil Haack and Morgan the Intern

If you want the goods then download it here.

Grz, Kris.

Sometimes you just stumble upon something new that looks interesting. After a short vacation, too short, I was surfing the web, following twitter, … and ended up at a new page at MSDN: scriptjunkie{} Serious web development.

It’s a new place for people working with HTML, CSS and Script. I like it that Microsoft shows the love for these 3 quite essential parts of technology as most people became so dependent on them during the last years. In addition to that, after a reorganization on the ASP.NET forums there’s one dedicated to these 3 too: HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Grz, Kris.

Scott Guthrie has been blogging several days since last week about new cool things coming out soon: IIS Express, SQL Server Compact Edition & Razor. That means in that order: a follow up for Cassini, an equivalent for SQL Lite and a new cool viewengine which can be used in ASP.NET MVC.

But today there was something new which got it all together to make websites: WebMatrix.

Taken from the announcement at the ASP.NET forums:

WebMatrix includes a complete Web development stack that integrates a Web server (IIS Developer Express), database (Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0), programming model (ASP.NET Web pages with Razor syntax), and a tool (WebMatrix Beta) into a seamless experience.  You can use WebMatrix to streamline the way you create an ASP.NET Web site from templates, or by starting a new Web site by using the world’s most popular free and open source (ASP.NET or PHP) apps like DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress, or Joomla!. With WebMatrix you can code your Web sites, customize them, optimize them for good search engine ranking, test them, and deploy them to an Internet hosting company, all through the tool.

Learn more about WebMatrix through:

• What is WebMatrix ? 
• Investigate the top 10 features of WebMatrix.
• Download WebMatrix Beta .
• More about IIS Developer Express .
• More about Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 .

For additional resources, visit:

• Learn more about WebMatrix Beta. More resources, links to forums and feedback channels.
• Visit the forums on the IIS Web site or the ASP.NET Web site .
• File a bug or suggestion on WebMatrix Beta.
• Learn to program the Web using ASP.NET Web pages with Razor syntax .
• Download applications with WebMatrix and the Web Application Gallery.
• Review the FAQs for Open Source and Free Web applications.

I like the stapled blocks which form the logo of this new free tool:

And here’s an introduction video about it:

If you want to play with it I say go! Razor’s pretty cool to play around with it and if you have question then there are 2 dedicated forums already available:

Over at forums.asp.net: http://forums.asp.net/1224.aspx.
Over at http://forums.iis.net/1166.aspx

Also be sure to read on Scott Guthries blog the announcement of WebMatrix.

The big question you might want to ask yourself now is, is this for me? And the answer would yes, it is. According to the Microsoft site:

WebMatrix is for developers, students, or just about anyone who just wants a small and simple way to build Web sites. Start coding, testing, and deploying your own Web sites without having to worry about configuring your own Web server, managing databases, or learning a lot of concepts. WebMatrix makes Web site development easy.

I would say: welcome to the (Web)Matrix! Be sure to take the right pill.

Grz, Kris.

Just noticed on the US version of the MSDN site that it had a great new look and feel:

Microsoft apparently made it more focused on 4 major directions:

• desktop
• web
• cloud
• phone

I like it.

Grz, Kris.

8 years ago I started to program in .NET professionally. Also on that day I started out as a newcomer on the ASP.NET forums. During those years I was first moderated like all newcomers, then unmoderated and after a couple of years I was suddenly asked to become a moderator myself. I’m still doing that because I believe the community invested in me when I was in need of help and now I’m trying to invest my free time myself back into that same community. I hope to be able to keep up the good work there for years to come.

Grz, Kris.

When I arrived early this morning there were cookies made by Subway. For my non Belgian friends: Subway only started in Belgium last year. The sessions I intended to follow were mostly good to great. The catering were special delivered sandwiches from Subway again. I got to know several new people, even got in face to face contact with someone I knew from the ASP.NET forums but never met in real life before. During the sessions one of the sponsors gave away coupons for books during a per session prize draw (mostly with some quiz from by the presenter). And at the end of the day I won a Bongo bon for a one night stay with breakfast for 2 in one of the 40 hotels you can choose from. Cool! I’m looking forward on going again next year and hopefully be on the speakersboard too.

Grz, Kris.

Tomorrow’s Community day in Belgium. Meaning: a day full of great content provided by all Belgian user groups. I plan on following these courses:

• Keynote
• Visual Studio 2010 Lab Manager
• What’s new in .NET 4.0
• Taking care of a cloud environment
• Linq for supermodels
• Building an enterprise application with Silverlight and NHibernate
• Developing Windows Phone applications with Silverlight

Grz, Kris.

And another year, a great year, has passed. I’ve been reawarded as MVP, went to the US where I was able to drive around for a week and see the Grand canyon, Monument valley, Bryce canyon, Death valley, Las Vegas. A month later I visited the Middle East (Lebanon) where during my vacation I also gave a presentation about ASP.NET MVC 2. I got to know a lot of new and great people and learnt new things. All in all a great year.

Grz, Kris.