.NET News Desk

Building Great AJAX Applications from Scratch Using ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Come see a no-slides, code-only presentation that starts with a blank directory and builds a data-driven, AJAX enabled, ASP.NET web application from scratch that implements common AJAX patterns with the rich set of AJAX Control Toolkit, accesses data with LINQ, and implements standards-based styling and layout using CSS and clean HTML. Learn the new features of ASP.NET 3.5 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and how they integrate together to provide the world's most productive web development experience. This session uses the 100% free .NET Framework and Visual Studio tools, and the resulting application will work with all browsers, Safari, Firefox and, of course, IE.

Building RIAs Using Microsoft Silverlight 2

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:15:00 EDT

Many of today's (and tomorrow’s) development projects lend themselves nicely to RIA application patterns. Silverlight offers a compelling RIA development experience that works on Linux, the Mac and windows as well as all major browsers. With HD video, vector based graphics and a rich set of controls including DataGrid, Silverlight offers a compelling development experience in nearly any programming language you’d like from C# and VB, to JavaScript and Python. Learn how to use Visual Studio to create applications, how to create UI using XAML markup and code, how to retrieve data from the web, and how to manipulate data with XML and LINQ. This talk uses the 100% free Silverlight runtime and Visual Studio tools.

AJAX World Conference $200 "Gold Pass Registration" Savings to Expire This Friday

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:15:00 EDT

Rich Internet Applications offer the potential to fundamentally change the user experience and in doing so, yield significant business benefits. The theme of this October's AJAX World Conference & Expo 2008 West is 'Beyond AJAX to the RIA Era' and the Call for Papers, which is still open, specifically encourages submissions from exceptional speakers with high-quality use cases of the fast-emerging RIA alternatives.

Microsoft To Unleash Windows Cloud

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:30:00 EDT

At the end of this month, at its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft intends to unveil something that CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday referred to as "Windows Cloud." Ballmer explained that "Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server."

GigaSpaces and GoGrid Launch Cloud Computing Solution

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:00:00 EDT

GigaSpaces Technologies and GoGrid have announced the availability of the GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) on GoGrid's enterprise-grade cloud computing service for Windows and Linux. The two companies’ joint offering enables enterprises to migrate existing and new Java, J2EE, .NET and C++ applications to a cloud computing infrastructure with an hourly pay-per-use pricing model.

The Evolution of Cloud Computing - Then and Now

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EDT

With all of the hype surrounding Cloud computing, Microsoft's upcoming Cloud OS and current efforts around Live Mesh, I thought I would take a trip on the WABAC machine to look at where it all started. Back when I was in junior high school, the best type of connectivity that I could hope for were dial-up Bulletin Boards. Yes, I used a 2400 baud modem. No, I am not older than dirt. We used these BBS' to play games, to post on discussion forums, and occasionally, if the BBS owner was wealthy enough, they'd have multiple nodes (for you young whipper snappers, that means multiple phone lines, multiple modems, and a single shared BBS) and we could chat between nodes. I started running my first BBS when I was 13. I had to run it from 7am until 5pm only because my mother wouldn't let me run it on our phone line when she was home ;)

ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit to Ship with Open Source jQuery

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Microsoft said, “Going forward we’ll use jQuery as one of the libraries used to implement higher-level controls in the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit, as well as to implement new AJAX server-side helper methods for ASP.NET MVC. New features we add to ASP.NET AJAX (like the new client template support) will be designed to integrate nicely with jQuery as well.”

"OK, Boys, Cloud Computing Is the Plan" - Steve Ballmer

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:00:00 EDT

With Microsoft mandarin Kevin Johnson bolting to Jupiter, leaving Microsoft to lick its wounds over Yahoo and reorganize, CEO Steve Ballmer sent out an all-hands e-mail to Microsoft folk encapsulating the message he delivered to financial analysts gathering in Redmond Thursday. Ballmer highlighted software-plus-service, associating it with a 'platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home' (Microsoft's Mesh widgetry) and promised 'more about our cloud platform initiatives and the next versions of our Live and Online technologies' at the company?s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) at the end of October.

Microsoft to Enable Cloud Computing Through Rosario

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Presumably still months before rollout – there’s no date yet – Microsoft started talking up the next version of its developer tools and platform, Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Monday describing them as enabling cloud computing and democratizing application lifecycle management (ALM). The “democratizing” Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010, code-named Rosario, is supposed to bring all the members of a development organization – from the core developers and testers to the wider team of project managers, designers and business analysts – into the application development lifecycle and remove many of the existing barriers to integration.

RIA Conference Keynotes: Adobe & Microsoft

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Join Scott Guthrie as he discusses Microsoft’s commitment to web standards development, Rich Internet Applications and how Microsoft is contributing to help move the web forward. Join Adobe’s Kevin Lynch as he demonstrates how Flash and HTML come together to make the most engaging, effective user experiences across operating systems and browsers.

Microsoft’s in the Market for European Search Engineers

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:00:00 EDT

As should come as no surprise, Microsoft is going to build an enterprise search R&D center in Norway around its Fast Search & Transfer acquisition. It says it will add 50 R&D workers to Fast’s 300 employees. It will be Microsoft’s third R&D center in Europe and part of Microsoft’s post-Yahoo strategy. It’s also planning to open a new European Search Technology Center (STC) with arms in Paris, London and Munich under Jordi Ribas, who until a minute ago was general manager of its Conncted TV business group.

Choosing the Right Mobile SDK and Platform for Your Application

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EDT

I am currently of the mindset that Android should be considered a wait and see technology. The iPhone SDK sports the best mobile application deployment and purchasing channel on the market, but can be problematic for enterprises and apps requiring high levels of security. Also, there is some risk in building an app that might be rejected. The .NET Compact Framework is a tried and true, proven mobile development framework that provides a relatively easy way to build apps for Windows Mobile devices. It takes some effort to make your Windows Mobile apps look decent, but you get the benefits of a huge community, re-use of your C#/.NET skills, great tools and more.

Microsoft in the Line of Fire: Ballmer

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EDT

As the financial crisis deepened, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who last week said hardware and software sales would be hurt without following that statement to its logical conclusion, raised the decibel level and told Reuters that Microsoft would get hurt – some parts more than others.

Yahoo's Zimbra Reaches Out to Microsoft

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EDT

Zimbra, Yahoo's open source messaging and collaboration software company whose fate was unclear if Microsoft had bought Yahoo, says it's got a new open extension framework for its Collaboration Suite (ZCS) that will enable two-way interoperability with Microsoft Exchange. It expects the move to encourage large enterprises and academic institutions to explore Zimbra more.

AJAX World RIA Expo - Microsoft Adopts jQuery

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:45:00 EDT

Scott Guthrie, who will be keynoting next month's AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo, announced Sunday that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward. "We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch," Guthrie blogged. "The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license.," he added. Microsoft will also distribute intellisense-annotated versions that provide great Visual Studio intellisense and help-integration at design-time.

IBM's Got Its Head in the Clouds

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Reminding people of how its backing was the making of Linux, IBM, to no one's surprise, has thrown its support behind cloud computing, that delicious nexus of every chi-chi buzzword technology currently in vogue: Web 2.0, rich Internet applications, software-as-a-service, SOA, grid computing, Web Services, virtualization and utility computing. IBM calls its initiative Blue Cloud - like it could have another name - and claims it's a 'game-changing model for Internet-scale computing,' providing customer with just the right size computer power while at one and the same time being 'green' as well as 'self-healing and self-managing' based on open standards and Linux. Lordy, if this thing was a cute guy with money, it would be every mother's dream.

Microsoft To Pass Out Windows 7 Alphas

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:00:00 EDT

It seems like this was already clear but just in case it wasn’t Microsoft has now officially announced on one of its blogs that it’s going to be handing out pre-beta builds of Windows 7, its post-Vista operating system, at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in a month. It’s promising “advances” in the kernel, networking, hardware and devices and the user interface and to discuss the widgetry in-depth. There are also new APIs.

AccuRev Selected by Avid

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:00:00 EDT

AccuRev announced that Avid Technology has standardized on AccuRev for software development process management. Avid selected AccuRev after an evaluation of providers to support multiple cross-platform development teams spread across several geographically distributed locations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

AccuRev Adds Personalized Process Visualization Capabilities

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:33:00 EDT

AccuRev announced AccuRev 4.7 for process-centric software change and configuration management (SCCM), with major new scalability and personalized process visualization capabilities. These new capabilities enable enterprises to easily scale as development teams grow beyond thousands of users managing hundreds of thousands of assets. AccuRev improves a development organization’s ability to fully understand the dynamic relationships between projects, and drives maximum software code reuse.

Building Great AJAX Applications from Scratch Using ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Come see a no-slides, code-only presentation that starts with a blank directory and builds a data-driven, AJAX enabled, ASP.NET web application from scratch that implements common AJAX patterns with the rich set of AJAX Control Toolkit, accesses data with LINQ, and implements standards-based styling and layout using CSS and clean HTML. Learn the new features of ASP.NET 3.5 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and how they integrate together to provide the world's most productive web development experience. This talk uses the 100% free .NET Framework and Visual Studio tools, and the resulting application will work with all browsers, Safari, Firefox and, of course, IE.

How to Use PowerBuilder .NET Applications on Linux

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:19:00 EDT

With PowerBuilder 11 Sybase gave developers what we have long hoped for – the possibility of taking an application created in a client/server architecture and turning it into a Web application, almost without having to move the code; and it's better if you don't use a server application. Once the Web Form application is ready, it looks like I have a "multi-platform" application and any operating system can use it.

Upstart Seeks To Overthrow OpenOffice

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:30:00 EDT

Softmaker Software GmbH, a German Office wannabe, has taken out after open source darling OpenOffice, saying it’s not good enough to score against Microsoft and proposing its own widgetry as a substitute. The company has just put out a public beta of its Software Office 2008 for Linux, which includes what it calls a Word-compatible word processor, TextMaker, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet, PlanMaker, and a new PowerPoint alternative, Presentations.

Applying Code Access Security in PowerBuilder .NET Applications

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:48:00 EDT

Like any standard .NET application, the PowerBuilder .NET application follows the common language runtime rules regarding the permissions needed to do the operation the application aims to do. The code access security (CAS) provided by the .NET Framework is a security mechanism that a real application follows to evaluate whether the operation or code can be trusted or rejected according to where the code originates, who signs the code, and what the code intends to do.

Timing the Market with Distributed Genetics - Part 2

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:48:00 EDT

At the end of my previous article (DNDJ, Vol. 6, issue 4), I explained the theory behind the two major technologies to be used in timing the market. On the one hand, we are dealing with distributed computing – a process whereby large computationally intensive tasks can be broken up and shared among multiple computers in order to be processed in a shorter amount of time.

Building Rich Internet Applications Using Microsoft Silverlight 2

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:15:00 EDT

Deploying PowerBuilder Applications as ASP.NET WebForm Applications

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EDT

PowerBuilder 11.0 supports deploying existing PowerBuilder client/server business applications as an ASP.NET WebForm application. This greatly improves developer productivity without having to learn a new development language and preserves PowerBuilder development skills. Although the deployed WebForm application retains all the functionality of its original client/server application, due to the technological shift in the running environment from a two-tier client/server environment to a three-tier Web paradigm, some features of PowerScript will not be supported in a Web environment.

From Enterprise to Cloud, Virtualization Today on SYS-CON.TV

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:00:00 EDT

Virtualization has become a critical part of Enterprise IT strategy. Why and how has it become one of the most important change agents in our industry? To answer these questions I had the good fortune recently to be able to speak to a select group of top IT industry executives who joined me in the 4th Floor Reuters TV Studio overlooking Times Square in New York City for a special SYS-CON.TV "Virtualization Power Panel."

Red Hat Pits Itself Against VMware

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:00:00 EDT

Watching VMware stock and its market cap spike since it IPO'd must have had Red Hat positively pea green with envyWatching VMware stock and its market cap spike since it IPO'd must have had Red Hat positively pea green with envy - so green in fact that it's gonna try taking VMware on by pushing the Xen virtualization integrated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Red Hat's new goal is to underpin 50% of the world's servers by 2015. And since virtualization is projected to take over the world by then that's a lot of Xen virtualization - and there's no extra cost in it like there is with VMware since it's bundled with RHEL. (Red Hat's telling people they'll save $20,000-$30,000 a server.) Red Hat claims it's got its first 18,000 virtualized servers - although it's a little fuzzy about whether those 18,000 are actually in production - anyway, it's confident they'll get there eventually after all the testing and evaluating is done.

AJAX RIA Tutorial - Accessing the ASP.NET Authentication, Profile and Role Service in Silverlight

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EDT

In ASP.NET 2.0, we introduced a very powerful set of application services in ASP.NET (Membership, Roles and profile). In 3.5 we created a client library for accessing them from Ajax and .NET Clients and exposed them via WCF web services. For more information on the base level ASP.NET appservices that this walk through is based on, please see Stefan Schackow's excellent book Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Security, Membership, and Role Management.

Crackpot CBS Blogger Attacks SYS-CON Media and Its Founder Fuat Kircaali

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:30:00 EDT

This man who writes for CBS / CNet / ZDNet sounds like he is out of his mind. Not a single person among SYS-CON's management team has ever heard of his name, had any business relationship with him, or knows who this person is. He was never asked to write for SYS-CON, he was never considered to write for SYS-CON, and he will never write for SYS-CON. Because SYS-CON does not think he is fit to write for the world's leading tech media company, he wants to boycott the company's advertisers? SYS-CON's advertisers are listed and updated on the company's website, which pretty much includes every significant technology player in every segment of today's software technology branches. So Mr. Blankenhorn wants to boycott the entire software industry because SYS-CON offended him? No one at SYS-CON has any idea who he is.

Microsoft Out to Bloody VMware & Leave Scars

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:40:00 EDT

It will take months for this week's fusillade, the results of Microsoft's Virtualization Deployment Summit in Redmond, to clear enough to see if any of the mortars scored a direct hit because Microsoft's repeatedly delayed retort to VMware, the free, catch-up, first-generation Widows Server 2008 hypervisor widgetry called Hyper-V still won't be out until at least August, according to Microsoft, six months after the also delayed Windows Server 2008 is finally released in February.

VMware’s Hypervisor Gets Microsoft Stamp

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EDT

VMware’s ESX hypervisor has become the first third-party hypervisor accredited under Microsoft’s months-old Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). The validation applies to VMware ESX 3.5 update 2 (ESX 3.5u2) and means VMware customers who run Windows Server and Microsoft applications such as Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint can get support from both Microsoft and VMware.

Microsoft's Cloud Platform Vision is Coming Together

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:00:00 EDT

We are seeing more being written about Cloud computing and cloud platforms today, and there is strong validation that the future of computing will include significant innovation and value in web/cloud platforms. Microsoft’s Cloud strategy is materializing, and as part of our overall Software plus Services strategy, our Cloud Platform vision is coming together.

Cloud Computing Expo - DoJ May Sue Google

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Like it did when it took Microsoft to court, the Justice Department has hired a top litigator from the outside for a possible antitrust suit against Google, according to the Wall Street Journal. If it does decide to move, the paper says it is unclear whether the DOJ would simply try to derail the revenue-sharing Google-Yahoo deal or whether it has other issues with Google’s ever-increasing power in online advertising.

Microsoft Claims a Million Workspace Registrations

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Microsoft claims that a million people have signed up for the beta of the Office Live Workspace in the six months it’s been available. Since Microsoft’s branding is so utterly God awful, we’ll remind you that that’s the free, web-based, Google-defying “extension” of Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.

OpTier Unveils CoreFirst 3.0

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:52:00 EDT

OpTier has announced the immediate availability of CoreFirst 3.0. Deployed in complex IT environments, CoreFirst links business and IT so that transactions flow smoothly through the IT infrastructure, ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and business goals are met. OpTier also announced that CoreFirst 3.0 now supports the Microsoft Application Framework (.NET).

Virtualization Expo - Microsoft Matches VMware's Zero Price Tag

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:15:00 EDT

When released sometime in the next 30 days, Hyper-V Server 2008 will be free for the download and can be used to consolidate both Windows and Linux workloads onto a single physical server. Application Virtualization 4.5 will be part of Microsoft’s Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 R2, due sometime in the next few weeks. Microsoft says server OEMs report nearly 100% of Windows Server 2008 orders include Hyper-V. Oh, yes, and Amazon.com is testing Hyper-V

Nth Penguin Releases WebWidgetry Data Services

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Nth Penguin has released WW.DataServices to the public and is available for immediate download at: www.nthpenguin.com. WW.DataServices, the first system of the WebWidgetry engine, removes all the work from accessing your data. You simply point it to a database location, push a button, and it generates everything for you.

Gizmox Brings Microsoft Silverlight to Enterprises

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:05:00 EDT

Gizmox announced the release of a fully functional beta version of its Visual WebGui (VWG) with support for Microsoft Silverlight. For the first time, VWG enables Silverlight for enterprise applications by providing a RAD like Windows Forms development experience with drag & drop design that cuts development cycles by as much as 90%.

Google Chrome - Browser War III

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Google will come out from behind the Firefox browser that it’s been pumping money into – and profiting royally from – and take direct aim at Microsoft with a browser of its very own. The widgetry is called Google Chrome and Google Chrome, like all of Google’s non-search widgetry, will be a beta.